Sticky Fingers Takes the Net
One original thought is worth a thousand copied quotes. I can guarantee that. One original piece of art is worth a thousand printed copies - maybe not to everyone else, but ask the artist.
People put a lot of time and creative energy into their works. Writers play with words. Photographers play with lighting. Artists play with their medium of choice. Blood. Sweat. Tears. They throw their hands up in frustration. They walk away. They come back. They achieve their own personal greatness. Then, someone else copies it and runs off with it as if it's their own.
If you stole from a store you would be handcuffed and arrested. If you robbed someone on the street you would be escorted to jail by the police. With the internet, no police officer knocks on your door if you “right click” and save an image. No court system will really waste time to try you if you “copy and paste” someone else's work to pass it off as your own essay for school. That doesn't make the situations any different. All are forms of theft.
But of course, you wouldn't steal in “real life.” It would be wrong. THEN WHY DO IT ON THE WEB? Copyright laws don't change. They apply to the internet.
Age or inadequate knowledge of copyright law is no excuse either. A kindergartener knows not to take the picture his friend drew and give it to the teacher as his own. You can not excuse yourself by hiding behind the old “I didn't know and therefore I couldn't be held wrong.” Life doesn't really work like that. Ignorance is not an excuse for any thing. By the time you are old enough to surf the internet without guidance, you should be old enough to know that you don't take something that belongs to someone else and give others the impression that it's your own. This applies to everything off the internet. What makes you think it doesn't apply to those on it? It applies to every CREATION.
A creation is anything that takes active thought, persistence, and work to achieve. It can be formatted as art, writing, audio, or video. Pictures of celebrities fall into this category. Just because you buy the magazine doesn't mean you bought the rights to use the pictures. Just because you bought the art book of an artist doesn't give you the right to redistribute their art work on the web. Buying a book of poems doesn't give you the right to quote them without credit. All creations are copy right to the people who created them. All creations BELONG to the people who created them.
Placing works on the internet for public viewing does not imply that the public can do as it pleases with it. Go move a public statue or rearrange a politician's campaign sign. You can't do it legally. Go “modify” that public statue and you will be arrested for destruction of PROPERTY.
Don't go thinking you can hide behind anonymity either. I have personally found two different people using my written works without permission. I contacted both to take them down. One complied and removed it immediately with a note stating the author requested its removal and a link to its location on my own website - which prompted my decision to grant her permission to use it WITH a crediting link. The other told me: It's posted on the internet and so it's free to use. I forwarded the e-mails to her hosting company. Copy right violations are a breach in the terms of service of ALL hosting companies. If someone can prove that you've broken copy right law, you will be hearing from your hosting company or your hosting company could be hearing from an attorney. This could cost you your hosting services as it did to the second offender.
What you do when you think you won't get caught or can't get in trouble says a lot about who you are as a person - a thought to keep in mind.