Image Reproduction in the Digital Age

One of our class's recent reading was on digital image reproduction, covering aspects such as both copying and manipulation. I for one have first-hand experience with issues relating to the topic. My favorite internet forum had an incident roughly one year ago when one of the members posted a generic image of a Toucan to the forum. Unknown to him, it was copyrighted. The owner(s) of the image somehow found out one way or another and were understandably displeased. They had the forum shut down from public viewing until moderators were able to go in and delete the offending post. This incident helped show me that some companies take their intellectual property very seriously and that stealing from them can have major consequences.