What if your "use" is framing it and putting it on your wall because you love it. If you are the artist what have you lost?
Control over my work. What if I don't support you or an organization you work for and don't wish to be associated?
Of course, if you sold your original and it was purchased you would have your money, but many people can't afford original art.
And if people go around reproducing it willie nillie for any reason they wish, the value of the original decreases. That's why many artists make prints available, often times in a run of limited copies. I'm totally good with people who are starving stealing food, not so much someone else's intellectual property. And it is considered theft under law.
Similarly, museums sell copies of art in their museum. And I have a key fob of the little footbridge by Monet that I bought at the Musee d'Orsay's gift shop in Paris.
And that's because either they're granted permission to reproduce, or it was no longer copyrighted.
I write about art because I love it and have had my readers comment that it made them appreciate art more and actually made them happier. That artist or those artists may then be sought out on that despicable Google. Beauty is thus proliferated in the world.
It doesn't belong to you, so you don't get to decide how and where it's used. Why not just ask your favorite rock band to play at your event for "exposure?" It's the same thing.
As I said, the bottom line is if it's not yours and is copyrighted, you don't have permission to use it until the artist or whoever controls the copyright grants permission or until it expires.
Copyright in the U.S.:
https://www.copyright.gov/what-is-copyright/
How long does copyright protection last?
The length of copyright protection depends on when a work was created. Under the current law, works created on or after January 1, 1978, have a copyright term of life of the author plus seventy years after the author’s death. If the work is a joint work, the term lasts for seventy years after the last surviving author’s death. For works made for hire and anonymous or pseudonymous works, copyright protection is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Works created before 1978 have a different timeframe. Learn more about copyright duration in our Duration of Copyrights Circular.
Terms of copyright vary in different countries and are internationally enforced via the Berne Convention:
https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/
If you want to use and spread art, either get permission or use works whose copyright is expired. If you love and appreciate art and the artists, it's the legal and ethical thing to do.
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