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After my recent experience of being accused of doing the very same thing I think I have a unique perspective on this particular topic. The shock of being accused of plagiarism is horrid to a graduate of law. All the years of absorbing academic principles and professional conduct rules prevents me from even contemplating such a thing. Easily said but others from a similar back ground will understand my point. My childhood values being reinforced by such training and ethos. Not to mention my dislike for thieves in general. Being ex-army and anyone who is former military will know how theft is viewed in the military and what happens to thieves. All in all, it is not in my make up.
However, one must consider that if you put up an image for exposure on the internet that you run risk of that image being stolen by some little ferret. For years I have put up near full resolution images. I have never been worried about someone using my images for information or spreading the word of science. Its part of why I put up the images. I have assumed that several images have been stolen already and that those images in some way are educating someone without me knowing about it. Let's face it commercial use of astronomy images is pretty rare simply because of the HST data.
Finally if someone is using my images and calling them their own, it is they who are deluding themselves and no one else. I know I took the data and I know who owns the data.
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