I gotta say, I think photosets are the kind of thing where they're putting you're bike up b/c they think it looks cool and, even though they're doing it to make themselves look cool too, it's basically kind of just a form of appreciation. Yes, ideally, they would give credit to the original photographers and the bikes' builders, but that's more about manners than it is about morals. If someone puts a pic of your bike up on their flickr or tumblr, you should be
minorly flattered that some kid thinks so highly of your bike. If someone puts your bike up on a photoset but neglects to give you credit, you should be
minimally flattered that some
rude kid thinks so highly of your bike.
OTOH, recently on the "Strandies" thread at bmxmuseum, some flickr guy came on begging for more scans of vintage strand ads and more pics of hott survivor strandies, and the regulars over there recognized him from his photostream (where he basically re-posted everything cool ever featured on that thread) and gave him a well-deserved hassle about it. The guy actually handled it rather humbly/gracefully, though, which was rad.
What gets me more upset is when craigslist scammers put a photo of someone else's bike on their ads, b/c unlike a photoset where ppl are promoting awesome concepts, the scammer is using your picture (and, kind of, your
bike) to try to swindle somebody for their own personal gain. That's just plain unethical.
Now, as a guy who tends to bolt together some rather low-buck and mundane bikes, I don't see a lot of this happening to me often. But, I can recall at least one situation where I was browsing a "klunker"-themed thread, and somebody posted a pic of one of my bikes. They said it wasn't theirs and all, which is cool, but they must've pulled the pic from either here or FB. To be honest, I felt deeply honored in a VERY small way...