Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

Re: are images on websites and are received images now public property?

No. The copyright belongs to the author, and copying without license is a violation of the copyright act. How much trouble copying may cause depends upon whether the material has been registered with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

Re: are images on websites and are received images now public property?

NO. They are copyrighted and use of them is probably copyright infringement. If the copyrights of the author are registered (with Copyright Office) statutory damages may apply to your use, and those damages could be huge. Having said that, most authors only go after substantial infringers and not individuals. The exception is the RIAA and MPAA, who are aggressively going after individuals who generate pirate copies of songs and movies via "file sharing" networks, having filed nearly 7000 suits against individual infringers.

So, even though it is illegal, individual copying of pictures on the Internet seldom is punished in any way because the cost of the suit would usually be more than the damages that could be obtained. Unless the author is wanting to make an example of you or unless you are doing massive quantity copying you are not likely to be sued. But you must recognize you are breaking the law if you do it and could be surprised with a lawsuit with huge damages at any time.