Attached Link: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

I recently became aware that some employees of a well-known computer company distribute some of my images among themselves to use as desktop backgrounds at work. I know two of these folks, and have no problem with this useage. It came as a big surprise to hear about this, but I took it as humbling flattery, and now sometimes send images directly to them at work. Not the nudes, LOL. On the other hand, just last week, I posted an image here and to the Poser newsgroup that was intended in a serious and heartfelt context. Someone from another binaries group took the image and reposted it to their group along with their own alteration of it. By the time I'd learned of this, someone else had posted yet another alteration. This was the first time this had happened to me. I was hurt and offended, mostly because of the serious context of the original image. In my protest response, I mentioned copyright, and was met with the common (and wrong) justification that because I'd failed to make a copyright symbol obvious, I'd sacrificed any legal claim to the image. Permission really is the key, isn't it? For just about any other image, I probably would have said "go ahead!" if I'd been asked in advance. Anyway, we worked out our differences and I do trust these folks not to do it again in lieu of permission. I'd love to show you guys the "before and after" versions but doing that would violate the point I was trying to make about reposting images without permission. (In spite of my offense they did a really good job.) Suffice to say that someone superimposed a giant cockroach on my image of an angel, and while the modifier intended humor, their intent backfired. Good thing I'm not the hotheaded litigious type. :-) The attached link was originally provided by cooler in another thread. It's worth a look. Hey Lunaseas, I love your idea! That was cool of you to offer. I'm no post-render expert but will give it a go. :-)