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I think on the sites that you are mentioning the website is actually the one that has the internet rights to distribution of the content.. as for the actual image it is the property of the subject until he/she signs the rights of his/her image over to another company for the use to make money off of. Without a model the release any other person distributing or using the pic without the consent of the subject is then open and liable for damages and money made off of the sales of the pic..
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I'm not sure what law you are talking about. And, in point of fact, there are two issues here, one is copyright the other is right to use image. Unless there is a specific use for hire agreement in place, the person who clicked the shutter on the camera owns the copyright.
However, for commercial purposes, such as making money on a website, the actual model or person photographed retains the right to his or her image, unless there is a model release signed.
There are other complications, such as where the photo was takes; public or private property, things like that.
But, it is very important to understand that in the vast majority of cases, the photographer owns the copyright to her or her work.
The simple way to look at it is this, if you did not snap the photo yourself, you need a signed contract from the person who took the photo and the person in the photo (which would be a model release in most cases) to use the photo for commercial purposes. If you did snap the photo, you need the release of the subject to use the photo commercially.
And, by the way, just because a photo has been published to the Internet does not mean it is in some sort of public domain. Someone snapped the photo and that person is usually who owns the rights to it. That does not mean commercial rights, but the copyright rights.
Again, this is US-centric...but the Millenium Copyright Act applies, and many nations have signed onto that.
Brutal
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