How do you download pictures from newsgroups?

It doesn't matter how much hard work was involved in building a directory or photographing items unless there is some creativity involved. No creativity and there's no copyright protection at all. Accurate mechanical reproductions (scans; photographs of artifacts or paintings, simple conversions from one image or sound storage format to another) don't create a new copyright beyond that of what is being copied unless there was some creativity, perhaps in lighting. If the source is not copyrighted, the copy isn't either.