Take a moment, if you will, to browse through the fanart of your favourite anime. Look to your left, look to your right, the chances are 100% of the images you view are stolen.
No, that's not true at all, but there is a large chance something will catch your eye as you swear you have seen it before. There is something in the pose of a character or the set up of the scene that is ringing some bells. It is at that point you realise you have seen this work before, in its original state by a different artist. Usually you have come across said artwork on deviantart or on that anime's forum and there is a chance this alteration was submitted by the original artist.
More often than not though, it has not been drawn by the original artist, and certainly not approved. What is even worse though is the large amount that do not credit the original artist. They take, for example, a fanart of Riza and Roy from FMA, they copy/trace it but replace Riza with their O.C and post it here for the world to admire. They didn't create the setting, the style or the pose, but claim it all as their own work.
Is this theft? If they posted the original, claiming it as their own it is. So can the same be said for copying and altering? If the original artist is not credited the new artist is claiming that work as all their own when it is not. Such works, I see, often stay put while theft is clamped down upon, and only a few will credit the original artist when asked. You could be direct and ask the artist the credit the original, you could report them, you could even be sneaky and report them to the original artist.
So should this semi form of art theft be reported? Loving an art so much you wish to copy it is not a crime in itself, as long as you acknowledge the original artist. Many artists to not want their work copied, but others will be flattered. I have seen two fanarts this morning that have copied someone elses work and not mentioned it was not originally their idea. Sticking a different character in to another place does not make it your own, neither does adding a random O.C. Please artists, be fair to the creators of the original art, if you loved it so much, give it the credit it deserves.
