Yes, intellectual theft does happen.  The following is an example that is personal to your instructor.

We have a business web site that sells frog-themed products.  We get our photos for the products either from the manufacturer legally, or we take the photos ourselves.  We also write our own ad copy.

We have a competitor who has stolen our photos and ad copy for multiple products.  They are in another state, and we're currently considering our legal options.

An excerpt from our original page:

From our competitor's page:

Note that the link is removed for the 'Pewter Base'.  In the copied ad, if they had not removed the link, it would have lead their customers to our store!  We're not sure if they sell the base at all.