Last night I got the unfortunate news that a friend of mine had been banned. I know this may have happened to many of you, people get banned all the time, what am I whining about. What I’m whining about is the fact that ’s banning was in fact wrong. !Static101 was banned for what was not her fault; in fact she was the victim all along. You might be saying, ‘What does this have to do with me?’ What it has to do with everybody is the fact that I’m fairly sure that this is not the only case. Please, hear me out. Take this as a case study, if you will.

Let me take you back a couple of weeks. Static101’s character, Shock the Hedgehog, was stolen by a SmackJeeves user named SuperSonic456. Character theft is, unfortunately, a common occurrence. It was only a matter of time before it was going to happen to one of my friends. Static101, although banned, still has copyright over Shock the Hedgehog, as he is still in the scraps which are available for viewing on all deviants’ pages, including (importantly) the pages of banned deviants. What happened was that SuperSonic456 began exhibiting pictures and comic strips on his page containing Shock and naming him as Shock, and even went so far as to create a sprite sheet claiming that Shock the Hedgehog belonged to him and that people could refer to him [SuperSonic456] as Shock.

I sent two e-mails anonymously to SuperSonic456 (the e-mail address was visible on his page), outlining that he did not have permission to use Shock and that he was breaking the law. It was after the first e-mail that he claimed he owned Shock. The second e-mail was more irate and forceful; I have gotten replies to neither.

About a week later, 17 of Static101’s pictures, entirely of her own creation and containing her own characters, were removed from her gallery. I thought it was unusual that deviantART were taking the side of the thief, but nonetheless, she carried on. Then, yesterday, only a day after reaching 1000 pageviews, she was banned from deviantART. deviantART were under the misconception that she had stolen Shock from SuperSonic456. She was banned for what was not her fault; this is a case of blaming the victim.

THE POINT
If you skipped down to here to skip to the point, go back up and read the rest, you lazy fruit.

Go on, read it.

What I’m trying to say is that unfair bannings are exactly that. Unfair. Take this article as a wake-up alarm call, because something has to be done here. I’m not just talking about Static101’s case, I’m talking about all the unfair bannings. Those of you who know who has been unfairly banned – you know who you are – step forward. Tell the stories of your friends where they can’t. This can’t be the only case. I don’t want to hear how people got banned because of flaming, or plagiarism, I want to hear who got banned because their art was stolen and they got the blame, where judgement error was involved.

If I get banned for submitting this article, then it proves that deviantART doesn’t want to talk about this, and in a democratic society that is unacceptable. I hope this isn’t the case, or deviantART will have a lot of egg on its face.

Static101 was not a flaming waster, she was a productive and aspiring artist who was the victim of a theft and received the blame for the same theft. I will not rest until, in some way, shape or form, Static101 is back on deviantART with her rightful claim to the ownership of Shock the Hedgehog. The same is true for all the rest of you. Do not accept the fact that injustice has been done, take action! Demand that deviantART reinstate the wronged deviant and return their claim to the artwork. Consider this a petition and a call to arms. I mean no disrespect to deviantART, but this is a wrong which cannot stand. Who is with me on this?