Image thieves are a very common thing on the Internet these days. It seems like most pages wouldn't be able to function without stolen images. In fact, I'm surprised whenever I do see an original picture on a site.

It can take a site owner a long time to scan an image, touch up the colors, adjust the blurring, resize, crop... And it's quite annoying to find it on someone else's page.

What can we do about it?

Nothing.

There's really nothing we can do to stop people from stealing our images. There are people out there who don't care how long you spent on that picture of Usagi, they want it for their site. They might be so rude as to directly link to it. Maybe they don't have their own scanner or video capturing device. Maybe they don't have any material they could scan. Or maybe they just don't want to waste the time with it.

Still, there's nothing we can do to stop it.

When we make our webpages, we need to understand that someone could take the images we spent time on. We need to accept that. We shouldn't decide "well, someone's just going to take this, I might as well not bother." There's plenty of people who won't take your images that will appreciate seeing them on your site.

As for those of you making websites, here's some things to consider:

• Never, ever claim to have created an image yourself unless you really created it. Don't say you "created" it if you scanned or captured it; if you created it, you drew it yourself.
• If the website owner says "please don't take my images," don't take them.
• If the website owner says "I don't mind people using my images," go ahead and use them, but save them to your harddrive and upload them to your site. Do not directly link!
• If the website owner doesn't say whether or not to use their images, well... Go ahead, just follow the advice above. If they later say they don't want people using their images, it would be polite to change them, or ask if you may continue to use them. It's nice to give credit and a link to the source in all cases.
• If you own a scanner and have any of the manga, art volumes, movie albums, etc., why not scan some pictures of your own rather than use other people's?
• If you have a video capturing device, why not make captures from your better-quality videos, or from laserdiscs?
• Don't be afraid to touch up an image. You want a good-looking site, don't you?
• If you have to, put some sort of watermark on the image that would be hard to edit out. That way, people know it's your image. I bet most people stealing won't put forth the effort of editting it out.
• Y'know, sites can look quite nice with minimal images if you use a good amount of color (but make sure it's tasteful, not garish). Try it out if you're afraid of stealing.

If people are stealing from your site, don't throw a hissy-fit! Don't take down your website because of them! I've seen too many good pages go down because the authors didn't want to put up with people stealing. Try renaming pictures, if you must. It'll take more time, but that way, if people are directly linking, their page is screwed. Don't give up.

I'm going to mention other forms of stealing since Cooan did, and she... was quite riled up, shall we say?

For any type of file: Never, ever directly link, unless the author says you may, which I doubt they will...

For sound files: Try recording your own rather than using someone else's. If you use someone else's, ask first. If you are worried about people stealing them, well, sounds aren't as important as images, so you could do without them, if you must.

For video files: Linking directly to these is really low since these are so huge, especially when they are .avi's. You don't need these to have a good site, so don't ever take them without permission. If you are making them, try to keep people from taking them, but if they do and it chews up your bandwidth, e-mail them. If they don't remove them, consider renaming.

For music files: RealAudio is a pain in the butt to make. Thank goodness the author can include their name on the file, however. The people stealing these usually don't know how to make them, so they can't try to stick their name on it. If you use a RealAudio file, credit the creator anyways, even though it is on the file. As for midis, these take a long time to create, so don't take them from the composer. If it is found on someone's site and they aren't the one who composed it, this is a slightly different case... but remember, they could have stolen it from someone who didn't want it taken. MP2s, I don't know much about... And as for MP3s... These are technically illegal. I know some webproviders won't let you have these on your site because of this. I wouldn't recommend creating one for your site... but the fans will definitely appreciate it. Don't take these; despite the fact that it's rude, do you really want to take something that's illegal for your site?

For fanart: Do not use this without permission. Even if the artist doesn't specifically say "don't use this," it's a sure bet they don't want people using these at random. I suppose it's fine to use it if you make it clear who created it. If you are putting your own artwork on your website, go for it. I really don't think people steal fanart, not like they do scans and captures.

For fanfiction: Make sure you credit the author if you wish to use it, and try to contact them, if possible. I really think they'll like the publicity though :) This, more than anything else IMHO, should NEVER be passed off as your own! Writing is a long, involved process. Don't claim you wrote something that isn't yours. Don't steal characters or edit the story and claim it's yours. Basically, don't mess with fanfiction. If you are an author, it's unlikely people will plagiarize, but be on guard. If you see someone stealing your story, flame 'em like crazy and make it known to all you can that you created it.

In closing, don't be intimidated by the thieves. If you put something online, don't expect everyone to be courteous enough not to take it. Just ignore them, and keep up your site for those who are kind enough to respect it.