how about all the paris and pamela videos that can be found everywhere? every celebrity forum and club site? i mean there are really unlimited boatloads of sites. its probably 90% of everything on the net. or you can have a picture site where if they use your service, they sign over the agreement that the photos now become the property of the site.
I use www.istockphoto.com who charge $1 per image for website reproduction. They have thousands of professionally taken images on file for any topic you could name. Why worry about getting fined stealing images when you can get a reproduction license for one dollar an image?
Sorry to bring up a dead topic. Yes I asked for a reason. dont flame me for the 'i never see anyone get caught' line because I DIDNT EVER SEE ANYONE GET CAUGHT. This is why i asked! Im most interested in the 'If you didn't create it yourself, it doesn't belong to you - whether text or image. If it doesn't belong to you, you need permission to use it.' part of what you said. Alot of avatars on this website that people use were most likely taken without permission. Does this mean Digital point is at risk? Or just the users. Technicly, its in Digital Points database, or is there something in the TOS that holds us responcible. Just asking...
Then you're pretending you're not stealing ... If you don't have express permission from the owner, you can't use it. Very simple concept. A source link does not mean you have permission from the owner. You have to actually contact the owner and ask permission (and RECEIVE permission) before you can use someone else's images/text. Just because bajillions of people are doing it, does not make it legal or right. Like your mama probably said when you were a kid - If everyone else is jumping off a cliff, are you going to jump too? The person who took the photo/video or wrote the content owns it until s/he expressly gives the rights to someone else. Yes, lots of people copy photos, videos, avatars etc that they do not have permission to use. They are wrong. But they get away with it all the time because it takes time, money and effort to pursue copyright infringement.
Interesting example: I downloaded an interesting photo from Stock Exchange -www.sxc.hu - and dutifully read the info from the photo owner, as well as the site policies. The user placed no restrictions on usage, including did not request a link or even mention of the photographer. Stock Exchange said it is OK to use photos for commercial use (based on the restrictions of the individual photographers). Only after I incorporated the photo into a business logo did I return to their posted policy and read it again, discovering what I had missed - they do not allow use of posted photos or images for logos. Dang! So now I do need to contact the photographer and request permission for use, and purchase rights to use that photo. Or redesign the logo. Always read the small print