Picture pasting

Hi all,
For some reason whenever I paste a picture as an active picture and then make it an active object, the black pigments turn into checkboard background pigments (the transparent pigment). Is there any way to prevent this?

The picture needs a transparent colour. The default is black. You'll need to select a colour that isn't in your picture.

You can't select a transparent colour when you paste. You'll need to save the picture and then import it. The option to select transparent colour is in the Import dialogue box.

oh ok thanks