This one time, at band camp, Simon wrote:
A little more discussion from others would be appreciated. We can have a two-way debate, but I suggest reference to copyright law is made before ayone does anything.
The problem is that copyright law is far from clear in this regard.
By way of example, back in the early days of frames (evil evil evil), a company framed CNN's news site and put their own banner ads around it. CNN initially sued the company doing this. Eventually they dropped their case because they found a reliable technical means of avoiding this (Javascript take frame to _top hack).
There really haven't been many cases exploring this area, particularly the use of inline images. Since HTTP was designed explicitely to enable this, I err on the side of open access. There are relatively easy technical means to stop your data being publicly accessible, if that is the work holder's desire.
Using inline images without permission in my mind is theft of intellectual property as well as bandwidth; both have value.
Here we go again...
If you have a can of Coke and I take it, you no longer have a can of Coke. That is theft.
If I use my Coke-copying machine to copy your can of Coke, we both end up with a can of Coke. This is not theft, but is probably some kind of obscure infringement of Coca-Cola's rights.
There is a difference.
As for "intellectual property", well, it isn't. There is no such thing. Legally there are a number of different and distinct classes of law: copyright, patents, trademarks.