If we all step back for a moment and catch our breath, what's the real issue here?

Old LeeSpeed feels his photos were taken without permission.

Others have said "public domain" once you post it on the net.

Do the site Terms of Use say that any photos linked on the site may or will be considered to be "open license" or the property of NitroExpress.com?

Now, does including a link to your photos on NitroExpress.com mean that you are "uploading" your photos, when those photos are hosted on another website?

I'm not a lawyer, but I'd say no, it's not the same as uploading your photos to NitroExpress' server. Some websites do offer that; they pay for the bandwidth and if you upload it to their servers, you are giving them the right to use it.

Personally, if I post a photo online somewhere, I know that anyone who wants to can save a copy of it, and then do what they want with it, subject to my legal objections if any of course. That's the reality of the Internet.

It's really annoying when people post threads and then in a few weeks the photos are gone and the whole thread is meaningless, so CaptCurl is trying to do us all a favour by saving the photos, but on the other hand, sometimes people have good reasons for deleting their photos once their questions have been answered.

Mabye for the future it would be good practice to amend the Terms and Conditions to tell users clearly that if you post it or link it here, it will be considered public domain or open license and will be rehosted on the NitorExpress servers for future reference.

And would it not be just common courtesy to ask first?

Now can we bury the hatchet and get back to the rifles?