Irrelevant anyway, I can't even pretend to know US laws, but I'm not in the US. I'm not bound by your copyright laws and there's nothing that can be done about it. This is to say it's the case for this global community, once you post to a global community your image is public domain, because there is nothing anyone can do to prosecute people for using the image unless they're in your country, which they're probably not. So in posting it you could easily argue there is an implied shared work and right to use for non-profit reasons.

This would never have been an issue to begin with if they stayed within their own subreddit. They didn't, and now they are reaping what they sowed.

Eh, look at my Karma breakdown, I have never posted in FPH. I'm only jumping on this now because I'm a firm believer in free speech, so I'll ask this. Why weren't the users banned rather than the sub, because I doubt the majority of the sub were doing it.