After a sleepless night spent grinding my teeth, and a morning of sore jaws and a cross nature, I have decided to spit this out and then let it go. Humans - you are on your own, I have decided to add the topic of copyright to my 'taboo subjects' for polite company (I shall continue to snarl and rage about it in 'impolite' company).
The issue of copyright should not be a difficult. If you did not create it - it is not yours. If you find it so attractive you cannot control your keystrokes and keep from 'borrowing it' - at least have the decency to add the creator's name to it, even if it was created by Anonymous.
If you are a creator and want to protect your work, whether you are a writer, an artist, a composer, an architect or a photographer, you will take steps to do so. The wonderful information highway we all know and depend on is not a secure place for publication. For authors in the U.S., something as simple as signing and sealing your manuscript in an envelope and mailing it to yourself (do not open it when you receive it with the postmark on it - just file it away) can serve to establish a copyright date. If you want something more secure and official, that will stand up in court - invest in yourself and establish a registered copyright through the U. S. Copyright Office. Forms and all instructions are available through their website. The cost works out to less than three thousandths of a cent a day.
If your fondest desire is to publicly display your work on a website, watermark it. Those waiting to prey on the talents of others will take and re-distribute your work if it is posted. There is little hope of avoiding it, but you can make it a wee bit more difficult for them to claim it as their own by securing a solid copyright date using one of the above methods, and watermarking the work to make it a bit less attractive. If you are lucky, the thief will wander on to a work that has not been protected. Now, I am going to take two aspirins and file the topic of 'copyright' in the dark recesses of my mind - where it will not again see the light of day.