Interesting, if bizarre, justification. Is it not always the case that before any income there is always the stage of “prospect of income.”

A local convenience store buys a carton of candy bars and displays them on a shelf. They have the prospect of income only realized when someone takes one, comes to the register, and pays for it. If a shoplifter slips one in his pocket and exits the store without paying they have only lost the prospect of income, right?

Too material an example for you?

When I was still in the environmental engineering business I write a feasibility study for clean-up of a hazardous waste site. There is the prospect of income for me from my effort, but only if the site owner pays me for the report.

To take it to books. An author writes a book and sends it to a publisher. The author has the prospect of income from sales of the book once published. If the publisher prints the book but then does not pay anything to the author for books sold they have only deprived him of the prospect of income. The same would be the case if the publisher converts the book to electronic format and places it on a web site for free download.