Art theft can come in many forms , and some are more original then others.
Is copying a character re-making it to your characters seen as theft?
It has become more and more people who steal art, re-make art all over the Internet.


I can understand when a 10 year old girl stands against a window and trace of My little pony out of her color book. Fine you might just want draw something nice.That is kinda wrong somehow. But when a adult does it I get very angry, it is not fair against the artist who made it, at least leave some credit for the original artist.


How about borrowing a pose, but saying where you got it from? That is OK if you are bad at making a pose and just wanna borrow a pose from a screenshot of Naruto. Please add it under credits, just to show that you are mature enough to know somebody worked hard to make that anime or picture.

As written on the site Wikipedia:
"Art theft is the stealing of high-profile art. This is usually done for the purpose of resale or ransom; occasionally thieves are also commissioned by dedicated private collectors. Stolen art is also often used by criminals as collateral for drug and weapons deals, or to barter for those items."

Whatever happens when you make fanart, the stealing will come sooner or later because somebody will always love the art enough to steal it. Or when some girl makes her own character by copying a excisting character and just changing the hair and the cloths. Stealing? Maybe , or maybe not, somehow not very original and no effort was added into it, you did not make the characters, point period.


True?

That was the purpose of art theft from the beginning? A case of a teenagers jealous act in hunt for some fame? A joke just to see how long it will take for it to get banned.
Many people on Deviantart does their own way to battle the thief's. Some add sneaky watermarks, some even hunt the thief down flaming that persons page until they almost explode of anger.

Some add clever Tutorials so you out there can battle the monsters of theft. Even comics against it.. also stamps, the horde of stamps against it.


How to watermark, hide the signature


How to protect your art, kinda..


Angry comic against art theft


Tracing might be stealing, whats your opinion


Very angry artist


My opinion is simple, stop stealing and learn how to draw. It might just cost you 20 dollars for a nice well-made book but you will learn.

FAQ does tell us very well what the staff thinks of it:

FAQ #304: Do you remove copies and trace-over art?
FAQ #8: What does deviantART consider to be Art Theft?
FAQ #192: What evidence is required when we report stolen material?
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?

What can you do to stop it?

1) Report and find evidence, Do not flame the person.

2) Add watermarks, be sure to have the sketch safe with date of when it was made. If you are bad at watermark, use Deviantart´s own system to watermark.

3) Do not under and time post the link to that person in your Journal just to show your watcher how lame she/he is. This person might get flamed. (It might deserve it) but you might get banned yourself. For harassment.

Have you got your art stolen, please share how you got it stolen so others can stop it from happening to them self.





I ask you all humbly to stop flaming me for my opinions, did not force you to think as I do.