Before you download an image from the web...

[handrawn]

as I understand it, under english [not scottish] common law you cannot steal something if you can prove you intended to give it back unharmed and had a legitimate 'need' to make use of it.... there are exceptions of course eg cash

[covoxer]

Another exception is Intellectual Property.
However, there was no obvious copyright infringement in the accident in question (unless copyright owner disagree). The problem is actually more about not following netiquette. Which is not prohibited, just rude.
So no firing squad or any legal action can follow.

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Covoxer,

Re: "So no firing squad or any legal action can follow."

You don't know U.S. lawyers! Legal action can follow anything. Absurdity does not prevent it.

Buy hot coffee... spill it in your lap through your own negligence and then try to sue the person that had the nerve to give you hot coffee. Sounds like a normal day in the U.S. legal system.

Peace

James

[gwpriester]

What I don't think is quite right is to compare this to stealing someone's cell phone or their car, etc. If someone steals your cell phone or your car, then you no longer have any usage of them, you are deprived. As far as I know, when someone cross-posted the other person's graphic here, it didn't suddenly disappear out of the original post. The original poster was not deprived of the usage of his graphic by the other person's sharing.

I found your conclusion correct, but your analogy flawed, that's all.

Hyperbole. OK.

But you get the point. I frequently Google "stereograms" and find many of my stereograms, with my copyright line on the images, posted on other people's websites and stereogram galleries.

My rule of thumb is this is OK as long as the person is not making a profit from my images (via click through ads) or has not posted every images I ever created. Or as long as the person posting the images does not imply (and this has happened) that they were the creator of the images.

I do ask the person posting the images to please add an HTML copyright line to the image and a link to my website. Plus the words, image used by permission of the author.

[covoxer]

ODdOnLifeItself, I think I know what you mean. Weird Al put it nicely here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeXQBHLIPcw