As you may be aware, I allow anyone to link to the images on my site. They don’t have to ask permission, they don’t have to pay. All I ask is that people let me know so that I can keep a track of who’s using them (most people don’t, but can always check my server logs to get those sites).
However many people are in a different position to me, where others’ use of their images becomes unreasonable and starts to cost a lot of money in bandwidth charges. Add to this the fact that some website owners run businesses based on those images, and you can easily see why totally unrestricted use of web content can be a very negative thing.
Now, I’m all for free. I use free software, I subscribe to free blogs, I even offer free software myself, so it’s not like I’m against the relaxing of the corporate shark-pool mentality regarding copyright. However, Dave at Cartoon Church relies on his images for his business, so people shouldn’t steal them.
Or maybe I just don’t “get it”.