Posting a photo on such as a Forum is different than cut, copy and paste as you would in an email, always has been that way. Not on just the Hauptwerk Forum, but on others as well. As Grant asked, what photo posting service are you using? Be aware, there is a (picture) size restriction.
For instance, from Photobucket, here's a picture of an old project I was working on:
I do notice that on the free version of Photobucket, there are all kinds of pop up ads to deal with and that older uploaded pictures appear to be blurry. (low resolution). But that's true with many other internet services. It's the ads that pay for these "so called free" services. There is a commercial (for pay) service available on Photobucket as well.
For others that formerly used Photobucket, your uploaded pictures are still available and your old login (user name or email and password) are still valid. Uploads are still possible. Photobucket plants a cookie on your computer so it can monitor/track you. How much and what they do beyond that, I don't know. A guess would be, they look for trends in your browsing habits in order to "overwhelm" you with ads for stuff you look at. Probably sell this (trend) info as well. This mode of operation is true for many other sites these days as well.
Case in point - The Weather Channel. It takes longer to download all the ads than does the weather info. And then there's the (for pay) ad eliminators.
Go figure. No free lunches anymore
Rgds,
Ed