Why You Should Respect Copyright

Thanks for coming to this page.
The very fact that you've done so shows that you're no doubt a considerate sort of person who's likely to take the issue of copyright seriously. So I won't go on too much. However, it's a serious subject that affects my livelihood, so I will go on just a little.

Why shouldn't you use my work (or any other artist's) without permission?
Basically, because it's theft. Theft of time and theft of skill.
Some people may assume that the work's there, it's been done, the artist isn't losing anything by it being 'borrowed'.
But that's not the case.
It takes TIME to create artwork.
If you got a decorator to paint a wall in your house you wouldn't look at the finished work and use the argument "I supplied the paint, the brush and the wall. The paint's now on the wall rather than in the tin, but otherwise nothing's changed. So frankly I'm at a loss to understand what I'm supposed to be paying you for." You have to factor in the TIME.
Equally you wouldn't go to a vegetable shop and just pick up a cauliflower and walk out with it on the grounds that "It's just there". You know someone has invested time, effort and materials in growing that vegetable. The same applies to art.
Creating art is just the same as any other job of work.

Anyone who wants to use an artists work without paying for it should be prepared to donate an equal amount of their own time to doing work for the artist. If you don't like that idea, don't use the art.

Finally, and very importantly, if artists aren't paid for their work they can't afford to be artists any more. They'll do something else. As a result the supply of high quality art will dry up and the only new art that becomes available will be second rate work by inexperienced artists. It's taken me forty years of constant effort to reach my own level of competence (okay, you may think I should be better after all that time) - if people hadn't paid me in the past this work wouldn't be here today. If you don't pay today, it won't be here tomorrow.