@Keba Si Rota:

OH I do think you read this! I saw that you commented on the original post :D

TRUE! I have seent he same issue here on theO... I know people who have been reported and there is no action. Thats why I was so surprised that Puiman was taken down immediately.

Seriously? If you need help with the person, I'm here to support you. I can't believe that! Like, sometime its so obvious when you can see someone is stealing or tracing since its clear that they don't have the skill. But thats really a handful, to have her not learn her lesson and just keep returning to steal like that =_=

Woah, thats really bad! Good job on trying to put a stop to her. I'm dealing with a couple issues as well, but they arent major like what happened last year with an art thief and also what you've mentioned. I don't know what is wrong with these peoples' consciences O_o
Again, if you need any help, I'll be here!

I think I read this before. Or maybe not. Either way, I totally agree about all the points.

I find it odd that theO is cracking down on art theft for some and not others. Like the Puimun thing. That got taken care of in a jiffy once someone found out the fraud.

But I've been reporting this one person for MONTHS who has spammed theO with all kinds of stolen art that was turned into wallpapers. And the wallpapers look absolutely atrocious. The worst thing is that this person has made a million previous accounts. Every time she gets banned, she makes a new one.

Just a day or two ago, I alerted her to four different DA artists, for stealing their art. I gave them all links to contact the admins, so I hope this thief/spammer gets taken care of. At least until she makes a new account.

@LGA775:

I think that makes you an amazing artist yourself, you can take a reference picture and use it to inspire your idea <3 Thats ok in my mind, its a great way to do art!!
>/////////////< GAH you're so nice, but I think there are so many great artists on this site!!! I want to learn from them <3 But it makes me sad that some artists would steal or trace to get good, cuz I'm sure they'd definitely be good without having to steal things!

@MangaKid:

hehe I use reference pictures alot but i always tend to change the whole drawing to my liking so that it doesnt look like the reference at all...I saw the drawings you did from memory and from the mind and its amazing Jen...You'll always be one of the best artists here on theO..

@LGA775:

Ah I see what you mean, Werner! Yes thats like the most worst art theft. In my opinion tho, I think its bad if people trace or copy another idea and take credit for it since they are actually doing 'some' work to cover up that they stole something :(
Haha its ok, I also like to use reference pictures to look at and I think thats fine!!

@toyotami kun:

Yeah definitely!! I was amazed at how Emi wrote the post!

Lol no worries, me too... But thankyou for commenting and also talking to Chivee!
Haha yeah!! And did you see the artist called 'puiman' who was here recently? Someone found out that it was a thief who took the actual artist's art AND identity from DA and was posting here O_O' They were all watercolour artworks. I do believe theO has dealt with them or else they left.

It does make sense, and I agree!! I barely have traced except when I first started drawing, and I only did it to 'rehearse' what I was planning to draw when doing a tough pose. Then I did it on my own, or chose not to post it.
I hope people would realize this too :(

I know what you mean!! I started getting into references when I did so much fan art a couple years ago, but it got tiring since I couldn't draw anything without looking at a reference xD So I think its good to do things originally and in your own style, but ref pictures can be very helpful!
Yes for sure!! I'm glad it helped you in that way :D

@just.me:

Ah i'm glad u think so too!! I thought Emi's post was very well done!

@ChiPolVee:

Ah I see what you mean.. I also saw the examples Toya posted! But I don't think you have to be afraid of that... Its inevitable to some degree! I used to worry about that when I would want to write original manga stories. There's just so much out there! But you can still get an idea and make it uniquely yours. If you still are worried, you can always give credit to the image you reference from or mention any inspiration that you got from other works. And if there's accidental copying going on, its easy to tell whether an art is traced or not depending on the quality or the circumstances!
Its not wrong for a piece of work to look like someone else's work.. What is wrong is when the work is SO close to another art and its clear there was tracing involved or no credit given.
If you had no knowledge, then you aren't wrong. I made a wallpaper using an artwork once and I thought it was a scan. TheO removed it, and I explained I didn't know it was an art! Doesn't mean I get away with having it still but at least I wasn't wrong, u see? I would only be wrong if I stole the art and then lied about it.

Well that guy definitely rose some red flags, but even more recently a watercolour artist called PUIMAN came here to theO and spammed it.... all with stolen art from the real puiman on DA. Its a real thing that happens all the time :( ya DA is quite huge and not as friendly.
No technically art theft is when someone steals an actual image or artwork from someone else and claims it as their own. Also an art theft (the grey area) is when someone traces a scan or other image and takes all the credit for it.
I don't think you have to feel afraid like this :( but I do understand you. Once I entered a contest with an artwork that had the same colours as another entry and it was totally a coincidence!! But I talked to the other artist about it and explained. Its going to happen, but if you give the proper credit or put a copyright on your own original work, it'll be fine~
I'm glad Toya helped out and talked here too!

@toyotami kun:

Oh no, please butt in any time~ :D

What you showed me is exactly what I'm afraid of and I fear that if the issue were to rise with me, I would be too afraid to stand up for myself and would just let the other person win... which is why I don't want it to happen... I would much rather avoid conflict...
But I have to say, those two works are art, although they had a similar theme, really looked nothing alike... I'm just too afraid of that happening... I know it probably seems silly but I just don't want to do anything wrong at all.. ever...

Thank you for giving me your input too though~ I value everyone's opinion on everything so it makes me super happy you talked with me about this~ <3 Ee, thank you~ Though I hope I don't upset you or something with my words/passiveness...

Interesting post Jen^^ In my eyes the only thing that is art theft is if someone took a drawing (Not a reference) and opst is has her or his own...Thats way every artist always puts a signature next to his or her art...Like if someone takes your art from your portfolio that is art theft..But respect for those who actually draw everything from the mind...I know its not always easy to pull off..I think most are to lazy to use their imagination lol like me..I'm one of them...^^'

@ChiPolVee:

ah sorry Chi but I don't mean to butt in. oTL but I read your comment and see your concern about it and I can tell you that it can happen to anyone.
There is this one artist on DA that I admire called Yuumie and she ran into this type of situation.
Her artwork Countdown looks pretty similar to Time by an artist named pepey and it was brought to her attention, and she clarified that they happen to have the same idea but she did not copy Pepey's idea since she had not idea about it since "Time" was made 2 years before hers.

That being said, there will probably always be artworks or stories being similar, you just need to clarify yourself when someone says something about another art or story being similar.

Well I took a look at the article you posted and I agree with it a lot. Emi really nailed a lot of things it's just amazing she could get all that.

There are so many things I'd like to say but I don't want to go into a rant since this kind of thing hits sensitive areas for me.

I think this is a good way to remind people that you cannot steal art or trace art, or edit art claiming it as your own cause it will come back and bite you in the bum, when someone recognizes where the original comes from.

The tracing deal, my opinion for tracing is that if it's done, it should be so you can get an idea of how to draw something, Just use it as a guide? Like to breakdown shapes and other things? (does that make sense?) but DO NOT POST IT publicly because it is NOT your artwork, even if you change things from the original.
I am not saying it's okay though.

I really don't like referencing much because for me it feels wrong since it doesn't come from my mind, but lately I have kind of stop thinking like that and realized sometimes you need to reference if you want to get something right.
and also the article makes me realize that it's okay to reference since it's still me the one that's drawing it and I'm just referencing so I can create my own thing from it.

Great! It's very clear and straightfoward :D

@MangaKid:

I totally understand and can see your side, but let me try to explain myself a little better. I have two "examples" so to speak. Okay, I start simple. A friend of mine here once told me how she made a wallpaper and felt super proud and put it up, only to have it taken down the next day because someone else's wallpaper looked almost just like it. Now my friend didn't know what wallpaper even existed before she made her, yet she was still in the wrong. Thats what scares me. I don't know if somewhere in the world there's a character, piece of artwork or heck even a story that's just like the one I'm making. I can't look through all the art of the entire world to find out. I mean I could make something totally original with no help, no references or anything and have it look like someone else's just enough for it to be wrong. Then what? I had no idea it existed before this, but I'm still wrong. I guess that's what scares me. I don't want to be wrong when I had no knowledge I was doing anything wrong... Like with the wallpaper. I'm sure it's less likely to happen with works you drew yourself, but I have that kind of luck and it scares me...

Oh oh oh! I understand this too! Art theft is VERY wrong and I guess I wasn't much into the art scene before this year so I don't know much about it and everything but it all seemed to flare up at once... I hadn't heard anything about thief or anything until like a few weeks ago... Did this all start with that one IFESTIMAGERD, or whatever his name was, guy? I totally forgot his name, Dave or whatever? And I'm not on DA so I have NO idea what goes on there... DA scared me way too much to ever post art on... >.>
What's technically all art theft? Like everything from tracing to references...? I guess I just don't want to deal with the drama this can pose so I don't want to do anything that even kind of could be wrong... Even going so far as I don't want to write anything and post it here either because someone somewhere already came up with the idea...
I don't know... I guess I'm too much of a conflict chicken...

@ChiPolVee:

Hey Chivee! No problem, I'm glad u commented on this!
Ok I hope I don't sound blunt but I'm going to say it how I think... If I drew a fan art from reference (which means eyeballing a reference picture) then I wouldn't be afraid to post it unless my work was super horrible. I'd be proud if my work paid off and I ended up having my art look just like the scan. Even if I had to state that I eyeballed it and link the original ref image, I'd do so. The only time I'd start feeling uneasy about posting is if I was tracing or doing something wrong. TheO doesn't really crack down on this stuff, I don't believe... and you know that everyone here is super friendly and artistic!! So I don't think you have to be worrying yourself. If you have nothing to hide, then just feel good about your work and post! :D

As for this coming up lately, I don't think its as recent as you think... Yes lots of people have recoloured or traced over the years but just as many people are trying to stop theft like this. Last year in the summer, there was an actual theft problem with someone stealing art from off theO and posting on another site. I don't like art thievery, as no artist does. But I almost feel more upset with people who copy other peoples' ideas or trace cuz they can 'get away with it' so to speak.
When I started drawing, I thought it was bad to draw fan art! I thought that it was 'copying' the character since it wasn't original, even if someone just drew a manga character in a different way/style. But now I believe that getting attention for tracing or art theft is what is not right, but eyeballing a reference picture or redrawing a fan character in the same way from other pictures is OK.
Like the article said, if people use a base or trace over something to help them, they've got to give the link in the description to give credit instead of taking it for themselves. Again, I feel like this has always been an issue, even if it calms down at times. Not really, there's that certain issue and then also others. I see tracing happen all the time even on DA =_=
You can ask me whatever you'd like anytime you feel like it~ This is something that more artsites should start to take into consideration tho, since its all technically art theft to me :(
You're welcome! Talk later dear!

Hey hey girly~ You know where I stand on a lot of this so I won't bore you with the details but thank you for posting this. However there are some issues I would like to bring up. And one of them is what happens when this because such an issue that hardly anyone wants to post art at all for fear of something being wrong with it? I'm starting to feel that way lately. I almost don't want to post anything, not because I feel I do bad things with my art, no, but I just don't want someone to find something wrong with my art... You know what I mean?
Secondly, why is all of this such an issue as of late? People have been tracing things and recoloring things for years and I guess I don't understand why people get upset... Plenty of people I know "copy" or have a base to help them or something. I don't know. I just want to know why this issue is on everyone's minds right now? What triggered all this? I know one thing, but is that the only thing?
Okay, I do have more to say and ask, but I would rather not go there at this moment in time so... Thank you for reading this~ :D