I too make my living on copyrighted material. I paint. And I expect to get paid for copies of my paintings whether they are reproduced as: prints, t-shirts, or on phone cases, tote bags or whatever. And copying them for private use is not an exception to the copyright laws.
But I do regularly authorize other to use my images for free on their websites provided that they attribute the work to me and link it to website where my images are for sale. That's good advertizing. Just plain copying the image on the web doesn't do anything for sales, because it doesn't tell people where to buy.
When it comes to blatant piracy of images on the web, I find churches are some of the worst offenders. Most people and companies will either attribute or take down when asked. Churches very often think they are just entitled. I end up filing a DMCA complant with their service provider to get it down.
But I do regularly authorize other to use my images for free on their websites provided that they attribute the work to me and link it to website where my images are for sale. That's good advertizing. Just plain copying the image on the web doesn't do anything for sales, because it doesn't tell people where to buy.
When it comes to blatant piracy of images on the web, I find churches are some of the worst offenders. Most people and companies will either attribute or take down when asked. Churches very often think they are just entitled. I end up filing a DMCA complant with their service provider to get it down.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.



