This shit is RAMPANT everywhere! Like, it has been going on forever. A friend and great photographer, Hermin Abramovich on DeviantArt got so frustrated about it he wrote in his Journal:
Everything in my account is for free
by ahermin, Apr 15, 2013, 5:01:50 AM
Journals / Personal
You may use any of my creations in any way or form you wish. You may modify them, use them in your blogs, websites, projects, for CD/books covers, whatever.
You may pretend they are yours. You may sell them or whatever. I couldn't care less.
You have my permission for everything you can think of regarding my work. Every file is downloadable in original size. No link-backs, credit or copyright notes, mentioning of my name or nickname are required.
https://ahermin.deviantart.com/
like: his stuff has copyright written on every upload: ©2018 ahermin - what is so hard to understand about that?
And you know what's the worse? There were a whole bunch of jerks who did not get the sarcasm in this note, and wrote thank you notes in the comments!
On Facebook it happens all the time, but one I turned in and had her banned blatantly downloaded photos from well known artist Andrew Gonzalez (who is also a good friend of mine) and uploaded them as her own! Bathing in the glory of fawning accolades from her "friends".
Not long ago I did a search of one of my more prominent paintings and found that someone had posted it on Redbubble and sold T-Shirts and stuff - it was only after I threatened legal action, it was taken down - now that user likely has ripped off others, but was not banned.
Regarding legal action: this could be costly to pursue. I am fortunate that here in Austria, I am a member of a Government sponsored agency called Bildrecht that would look after this for you for free!
How do I find my images on the web? Google image search is fine, but even more effective is this Canadian site: https://tineye.com/ - the search is free, but subscribing to their Alert Service is beyond most budgets except maybe high earning professionals and corporations.
🤑
I think that some people are ignorant enough to believe that you can just use whatever you find on the internet for whatever the hell you want. The rest just want to steal shit. lol I'm going to check out these resources you posted later today when I get a chance.