Hey, I cited the source. I'm safe, right?

There are an awful lot of misconceptions about copyright law that are floating around.  If you're reading this, you might even have some of them.

One of my favorites that I keep hearing over and over again is that people believe that you can use any copyrighted work that you want as long as you give credit to the original author.

Don't cry about it...
You still can't steal other people's copyrighted work.
(and, yes, I did pay for this image)

Ok, folks, this isn't school. Citing the source may have prevented you from being dinged for plagiarism when you were in school, but plagiarism isn't a violation of the law. Copyright infringement, on the other hand, is. 

I've said this before, but I'll say it again since it bears repeating. Any original expression fixed in a tangible medium is protected by copyright. There are very few exceptions to that rule. (And for my international friends, this applies not only to United States law. The Berne Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention and the WIPO treaties subject member nations to the same requirements when using works that enjoy copyright protection under U.S. law.)