I've often heard amateur photographers complain about unscrupulous breaches of their copyright but I've never been aware of it happening to me.
However, a couple of times recently one of my images was "stolen" and used elsewhere on the internet. Neither was for personal gain but it has opened my eyes a bit.
First, I posted the following image of Saturn and the Moon, on Facebook and Panoramio.
The Facebook image was shared by one of my sons onto his own timeline (nothing wrong with that) and I later found out that one of his Facebook friends, parading under the name of Warh3art, had illegally downloaded the image onto his Reddit page and generated a big discussion about astronomy. I'm not too upset about it, although he should have asked my permission and he should have credited me as the photographer.
However, I was amazed to watch the Reddit conversation turn into foolish accusations that my image was a fake, as I posted earlier > Here <
This is one of the reasons I don't post very many images onto Facebook.
Yesterday I discovered that the following image of the 2005 Fisher's Ghost Parade posted on my Panoramio photo gallery had been illegally downloaded by a lady who calls herself Becky67:
She published it (without my permission and without crediting it to me) in support of a submission advertising the Fisher's Ghost Festival. I contacted the website and to their credit they very promptly credited the image to me and I agreed that they could leave it there.
Both examples show the need for people to give credit where credit is due. The former generated tittle-tattle which actually discredited my photography. The latter was used to promote a local event and I would have granted permission for its use, if asked.
I might look around a bit more to see if any other images of mine are being used without my permission!