Ethicals in Digital vs. Physical

We routinly take physical items, scan them or take digital photos and use them on line. Most will feel it is fair use as long as it isn't for financial gain. Is the reverse ethical? If someone creates a digital image and someone else downloads it and produces a t-shirt, etc. and gives it away or at no profit is that ethical? As we become more and more a digital society and value digital over physical will the ethics involve change?

To use a real world example. Baseball cards can be scanned and displayed on different sites that catalog issues or are a reference source for collectors. Cards are scanned and put on the sites without any ethical debate. If the card exists only digitally could a card manufacturer produce the card? Again at no profit to keep the analogy.