It could have been deleted because that is often done if the person who owns the photo (most often after buying one from ebay only to find it posted here) asks for it to be removed. The Forum has always been cooperative. Other forums, not so much, but they can enter the copyright fray at their own risk. We have many published authors (and aspiring ones as well) who spend a good deal of money to collect images to use in their books. They are very scrupulous (and polite) about asking them to be removed. It's long been the policy to do so quietly and without fuss so as to not engage in multiple rounds of copyright discussion (there is a thread for that) or hurt feelings as used to happen. If you use a photo that doesn't belong to you, you may wish to mark it somehow--that often allows the photo to remain on the boards. As long as no one can copy it and then resell it on ebay (as has been done) thus robbing the owner of some of the photos value. Also, and I presume Eric amongst other can speak to this, it lessens the value of any potential photo books (I point out Eric here since this is his genre) if the photos he buys at often great expense end up all over the internet unmarked.
