Maybe I'm just being dense and hangry (need to go to lunch), but what are legit reasons for this?
Some usecases I’m thinking of: printed handouts for a (kid’s birthday) party, a picture for an informal non-public Powerpoint presentation, setting the picture as your desktop background, printing/viewing a large diagram, etc. E.g. if I search for “pyramid”, why would I need an article to go along with it? Also in some countries printing for educational/school uses is legal.
while you may not be using it for commercial purposes for a kid's party invite, it's still not right/legal/moral, nor does it qualify for fair-use. just because an image appears on a website does not mean it is free for the world to use for whatever/however the viewer wants to use it. if it has been done correctly, the site has been granted permission (free or paid) to be able to display on that site. using it as a personal desktop wallpaper is also not legal if you do not have permission. it's great that you think it is an awesome picture worthy of being on your desktop, but that's not how it works. same thing for use in a powerpoint presentation. you might get in less trouble if you actually credit the site/photographer in the presentation, but it's still not a legitimate use. i'd be surprised if corporations don't have a policy against it. the fact that you are suggesting printing an image you've just ripped off of a google search is legit, suggests you're just poking the troll.
please, list the countries where it is free to just rip something off of the web for educational/school uses. i really would like to know.
There are several such countries, here is a list: http://teflpedia.com/index.php?title=Copyright_in_English_la...
You can google for more info.
Some more points:
- not all images have copyright (public domain images, most images by NASA, etc).
- printing out things is certainly something people do, why do you assume that’s trolling?
- whether copyright and copyright infringement are right/wrong/moral/immoral is a discussion for a different time
And in the end, people might just not care whether their desktop background is properly licensed or not. Is yours?
And what would you actually do about the kids birthday invite with a Mickey Mouse on it?