Let me begin by putting forth a scenario.....Let's say you are visiting a friend's home. While at your friend's home, you spy a beautiful painting on the wall, that your friend had painted himself. You like this painting so much that you think "I'd like to have that for MY wall !" So when your friend leaves the room, you sneak that painting off the wall and run out to your car, drive home and hang it on YOUR wall. Does this sound like a nice thing to do? No it certainly doesn't. Not only is it not nice, it is also illegal !
   Everytime you visit someone's site and copy a graphic, or text from that site, it is the same kind of action as discussed in the scenario above. Not only is it "not nice", but it is also highly illegal and even punishable by law.
   Some of us work very hard to make our own graphics so we can have an original site that is different from everyone elses's. When someone puts a request on their site not to take their personal graphics, it is only common courtesy to abide by that request. You should know that taking someone's graphics without permission is a form of plagurism and is punishable by law. It is very easy to trace the whereabouts of the thief as all that is needed is their IP address. Every time you sign a guestbook you leave behind your IP address, and you do the same when you send an email.
   I think you would feel the same way if you spent the time and energy to create your own graphics and someone copied and used them without your permission. Some graphics can take 2-3 hours (or more) to create. It is NOT a good feeling when someone steals all your hard work. Think about it.