What is meant by "stealing" and by the "ownership"? It depends on the author of the original photo or illustration, and even on the author's institution.
I considered a courtesy to ask whether or not I could use a scan of a picture from the published book in my PowerPoint presentation and the author of the book said definite "NO". Never mind, I had a much better picture drawn in a few minutes. There are court cases where the photographer's institution claimed the ownership of the author's photographs, hence the "ownership" and "stealing" is not a laughing matter: This was exactly the subject of a court decision involving the Royal Ontario Museum some years ago. The issue was some bird pictures that someone took on a[n] [entomological collecting] field trip in the Arctic and then published in a magazine. The ROM claimed the photos were theirs and the curator said that he did the photos with his own gear on his day off and so they were his. The court held that the curator would not have been able to take the pictures if the ROM had not paid to get him to the location and therefore, the pictures were the property of the ROM. I think that the curator's mother should have claimed the ownership, since the curator would not have been able to take the photos, had not she gave the birth to him. My conclusion from these cases is that it is a good courtesy to ask the author(s), but you should never ask the lawyers. Adolf Ceska, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
