Just what is this “wallpaper” stuff?

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series of Blog posts, I touched on various legal concerns and common misconceptions related to the use of images on the internet.  Continuing from an earlier point, one of the more routine conversations I have with parties who use imagery in the online world is their (often detrimental) reliance on “free” images, and particularly a “free image” or “free download” from a “wallpaper” site.

Initially, it might help to gain an understanding of what “wallpaper” is in the internet sense – Wikipedia provides a useful description:[1]

In computers and mobile communications devices, wallpaper (also desktop picture and desktop background) is an image used as a background of a graphical user interface on a computer screen or mobile communications device. On a computer it is usually for the desktop, while for a mobile phone it is usually the background for the 'home' or 'idle' screen. Though most devices come with a default picture, users can usually change it to files of their choosing. "Wallpaper" is the term used in Microsoft Windows before Windows Vista (where it is called the Desktop "Background")...