Imagine if God exercised copyright over images depicted in works by the old masters, and He refused to grant divine consent to artists inspired by the natural environment or the image of man. Iconic works would be erased from history, unless, of course, such works fell under the "fair use" exception to copyright in the United States, in which case the artists would arguably have a defense.

God is many things—but He is not litigious. The same cannot be said of humankind, nor its alter ego: corporations that exercise copyright over much of the mass media imagery, logos and photographs that bombard our senses, mediate our reality and infiltrate our psyches.