martinibuster - 6:21 am on May 14, 2004 (gmt 0)

Most webmasters will disapprove. Not only are you using their image without their consent, but you're using their bandwidth as well.

According to the copyright office website [copyright.gov] of the United States:

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following: To prepare derivative works based upon the work; To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work;

So it looks like the act of displaying is what will get you in trouble.

In this age of cheap stock photography, there is absolutely no reason to use someone else's images. Pick up any graphic design magazine and you'll find that a cd of images can cost as little as ten dollars, and a subscription to over 100,000 images as little as $99/year.