Ask the copyright holder for permission.
Unless it would fall under "fair use" no it is not "okay" to use copyrighted material without permission
Yes, it is illegal to download copyrighted material without permission, even for personal use.
It is not necessary to ask permission for "Fair Use" of any copyrighted material. The best source of information you have particular to your state and district for the use of copyrighted material is your district head librarian.
If there is no "fair use" exception the only way to legally use copyrighted material is to obtain permision from the rights holder.
You can use copyrighted material without permission when it falls under fair use, which includes purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.
When determining if the use of copyrighted material falls under the DMCA Fair Use provisions, key considerations include the purpose of the use (such as for education, criticism, or commentary), the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of material used, and the effect on the market value of the original work.
1) Use only original material that you have created.2) Use only works that have fallen into the public domain3) Use only copyrighted material that you have obtained permission to use from the rights holder.4) Use copyrighted material in such as way that it will qualify as "fair use"
It depends what kind of material and how much. There are laws protecting the fair use of copyrighted material, but lifting an entire website wholesale is plagiarism and copyright infringement.
Under fair use, using copyrighted material for commercial purposes, reproducing the entire work, and causing financial harm to the copyright owner are prohibited.
The other people could have been the actual owner of the material and due to that it means they are allowed to upload there own work. However, others could have a licence to use the copyrighted material from the owner of the material. The others also may have found a way to classify it under fair use.
Yes, pirating copyrighted material for personal use is illegal.
In all likelihood no.Ostensibly your portfolio is designed to generate revenue for you. This would be a commercial use of the copyrighted material and would probably disqualify it as "fair use"