Urgent: Possible Art Theft

[Lion]

Certainly art theft. That is my professional opinion and how I would handle it as such. You should report it to dA nonetheless. I know you doubt they'll do anything, but it's just better all around if you do.

If thats a serious comment, I can't believe you posted that. they look NOTHING alike.
I would just like to point out ALL horses have the same skeletal structure, therfore they're going to look the same shape. but they've used completely different colours, style, positioning and everything. I don't see how this event appears to be stolen. @cpvr @Corsair @Vermillion

[Alkali Regnant]

I have to agree that doesn't look like theft :/ While it is similar, look up standard side view horse poses. They'll all look similar. She may have referenced that image more, but it doesn't look like straight theft too me. The lines vary to much.

[Roconza]

@Corsair - There isn't even any sort of mention of referencing to @RatherBeRaving 's image at all on the dA page =/. It's very fishy and this isn't the first time this girl has stolen something from another person.

While I understand it's best not to jump straight to the evil option without proof. She could be just learning for all we know and we don't know for sure she even referenced her art she could have referenced any number of things Not to be rude to rave but the post is not really that unique.

[Gabby]

If thats a serious comment, I can't believe you posted that. they look NOTHING alike.
I would just like to point out ALL horses have the same skeletal structure, therfore they're going to look the same shape. but they've used completely different colours, style, positioning and everything. I don't see how this event appears to be stolen. @cpvr @Corsair @Vermillion

..: Why Can't I Use Other People's Art as "Reference" to Make My Own Art? :..

Referencing another piece of art on its own is not wrong. You may need an understanding of how a limb bends or a garment would hang/fold--it's okay to get a general idea for how tangible properties, bodies, and objects work. It's also okay to look at a body of works by a particular artist with the intent of mimicking their style for a particular piece.

It's not okay to pick up a work and "reference" the placement of essentially every element on the page, or take any one major element of that piece and say you thought of the design yourself.

Many people do not understand that all works--of any media--are protected by an understood copyright. Intellectual property is any idea that is entirely of one's own creation; an invention is a great example. You have to file for a patent so that everyone knows who got the original rights to the royalties; but, this is to protect the money involved in producing merchandise using the invention. You don't have to file for copyright every time you make something--it's understood that you had that idea, and it's yours. The "patent" is already understood when it comes to literature, art, and film--it's rarely about money when it comes to Internet media, it's about ownership.

The establishment of this inherent copyright is the reason why Creative Commons was established--it is the exception to the unspoken rule regarding the etiquette of intellectual property. Creative Commons is a form of licensing that explicitly states how the original creator will permit others to use his work. Creative Commons is NOT the standard for any piece you find online--the inherent copyright is. You must have explicit permission from the original creator of a piece in order to use it in any way that you can claim as your own.

One makes allusions, references, homages, and parodies by mimicking the original piece. This is the only acceptable reason and way to copy the original inspiration detail-for-detail, because the mere act of alluding to another work denounces your ownership of that idea. If you wanted to draw a picture of Sephiroth doing the pose for "The Vitruvian Man" as a parody of daVinci's original masterpiece, you would need to have the exact pose and style of composition in order for your audience to make that connection. Without these clues, your audience would not connect the two ideas you are attempting to link together. It's something akin to iconography in its workings.

It does NOT excuse your theft just to say that "referencing" the entirety of one picture for your own picture is "an homage to the original," or that the original "inspired you" to make the exact same piece, "only different." (More on identical reproductions later.)

Regardless, adding disclaimers to your pieces are a good way to let people know what the original work(s) was. No one could ever know every piece of art in existence--and as such, it's a good idea to explain where you got your ideas. Most of your audience will probably be very interested to read what inspired your art as well--it's no admission to guilt to explain where your inspiration came from! Background on why an artist did a piece always adds depth, value, and meaning to a piece.


http://datenshikurai.deviantart.com/...THIS-234951828

That is also my professional stance on something like this.

@uglytrolls This is my response to your comment below.

[uglytrolls]

Reffing a piece of art without the copyright holder's written permission is still technically against the law. I know it's crazy but if it's reported and the original author feels they've been infringed upon, it's theft.

what? i dont see your point sorry.
like i said theres not many ways you can draw a horse at that view. and like @Lion said, all horses have the same bone structure.
even if the artist did reference her horses, whats to say they referenced the girlfriend in questions horses? it could be any horse considering they all look very similar from side view.
it just seems like a coincidence imo. nothing more.

[RatherBeRaving]

Also I wanted to make it known this isn't the first time this has happened as my girlfriend has edited her original post. She has blatantly copied a character of one of my other best friends, and attempted to sell it as an adoptable. She has been witnessed in the middle of a "Join Me" session where she proceeded to screen cap a character of a well known artist within the dA equine community and used the color picker to get all his colors and made a batch of adoptables for her friend all of which resembled this well known character named "Gunnar" . On top of that one of my fellow friends on deviantART has a character named "Ishvan" Whom has sort of rainbow speckle markings all over. She's been whipping out character after character with those same speckles all over. There are about six now of them. Now I know she can't "Own" speckle markings. But as soon as she started roleplaying with her my friend the speckle ponies all started coming out from this girl and it's gotten out of hand.

She's also a crazy girl regarding roleplay as well. We all believe she's almost legitimately in love with that "Ishvan" character. She's been trying to break out group of friends up by becoming crazy obsessive over our characters. She tries to kill off our characters without asking our permission and all that. Now I know the roleplay doesn't really deal with that much here. But the girl is crazy and I just thought it was worth adding to show how crazy she is.

Just adding further detail to this. I'll be reporting her though I doubt it will do much. Me and my friends will all be breaking contact with her as well as blocking her.

[Lion]

It's not okay to pick up a work and "reference" the placement of essentially every element on the page, or take any one major element of that piece and say you thought of the design yourself.

Sorry, but unless you are the artist drawing the work, in this case the horse you may not have used another persons art as a reference.
You can go around saying people need to post a reference, unless you, as a person are 100% CERTAIN a reference is used.

Its like me saying that RatherBeRaving must use this as a reference, http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...ri-d34o334.jpg, simply because she drew a horse.

[Roconza]

I'm not defending her but I think we should not run to the "start a angry mob" or "THIEF!!!!1" option yet without clear cut proof.
@Lion I agree, I think we need 100% proof before condemning.

[kami]

I honestly don't see this as being any theft whatsoever. In regards to copying characters, why not just report those? If you think she is stealing anything, I would talk to her about it first, not plaster it all over the internet.

I don't really see the necessity to tell us how she RPs though, that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.

[Vella C Raptor]

She has blatantly copied a character of one of my other best friends, and attempted to sell it as an adoptable. She has been witnessed in the middle of a "Join Me" session where she proceeded to screen cap a character of a well known artist within the dA equine community and used the color picker to get all his colors and made a batch of adoptables for her friend all of which resembled this well known character named "Gunnar" .

In that case I would report the character(s) in question and inform the original creator(s).

Though, upon browsing through her gallery, images I thought were traces were indeed not and it seems the girl has no problem giving credit where credit is due for lines and characters that are not hers.