Copyright for Designers

This blog post will cover the importance of copyright parameters for Graphic Designers.
First of all, copyright of an image itself extends only to the artist. Any one who goes under the nose of said artist and uses their images are doing it illegally and if caught, the illegal user is definitely at worst going to be sued. At best, everything is fine and the artist doesn't care. Secondly, when it comes to intellectual property (created works by some form of artist), this includes more than just a graphic design: poetry, video, music, writing are all mediums of creativity designed by an artist and as such, they are all protected under U.S. copyright laws.
So yes, that also includes content and fonts and online as well as offline content. Now, that isn't to say a person can't just ask the creator to use their work. Honesty is by far the best policy in terms of copyright, and most users can buy a copy of the image for some kind of royalty that would go to the creator. Or depending on the site (and the diligent hunting skills of the user), images can be found online for free but often require joining the site as a member.
In conclusion, there are a multitude of reasons how copyright benefits the graphic designer. By copyrighting an image, you as the artist can better protect your produced works from being stolen and used without permission and keeps it so that whatever intellectual property of yours remains just that: your property.

All information was gathered from www.copyright.gov, and online excerpts from Tad Crawford's "American Institute of Graphic Arts" 2008.