"No, it's not even a copyright violation. That only comes in if you DO something with the image. " Not at all. Where did you get this idea from? Downloading an image for personal pleasure doesn't even give you a "fair use" defense. It's like saying that stealing 1,000 is OK as long as you don't spend it. "...not if they upload it to a public gallery like this " Completely Wrong. The location of the image has nothing to do with it. "...if it were, wed all be in violation of their copyright since every single one of our computers downloads the image to the hdd (via caching) when we view it." Wrong. Default transmission over the net is exempt, a clause included to prevent ISPs from being sued for copyright. Another thing. Permission = Written permission. There is no such thing as someone saying to themselves, "It's OK for people to download my images." That's not permission. At the very least, it would be something beneath the image stating explicity that downloading for personal use was OK.