Rampant Thievery on DeviantArt

[Seifer]

I'm sure a lot of artists (or just those that peruse DA) have noticed that a lot of "artists" on that site will trace over or outright copy someone else's work and then neglect to give proper credit. Most of the time no one notices or cares, because the copy/tracing work is so awful that the "art" doesn't get very many views.

I found a piece of "art" on DA today that is an obvious trace/rehash of an older Seifer/Squall (Final Fantasy 8) picture from Maxim Deep Forest (a japan-based website, from what I can remember). The traced artwork has no comments, so either no one has noticed it's an obvious ripoff or no one cares. I'm tempted to leave a comment telling the "artist" to give props to the original artist, but something tells me they'll either get butthurt and delete my post or ignore me outright.

To be completely truthful, I don't even think it's worth making a stink over on DA. The artist is obviously someone who copies/traces all of their artwork, and therefore doesn't have many followers.

[Hyena Dandy]

That's just frustrating, yeah.

Though I had one person who got yelled at for 'stealing' someone else's art.

"Stealing" amounted to "The character's head is oriented at the same angle."

Otherwise, it was HUGELY different.

Including not even being the same character. >_>

[Seifer]

That's just frustrating, yeah.

Though I had one person who got yelled at for 'stealing' someone else's art.

"Stealing" amounted to "The character's head is oriented at the same angle."

Otherwise, it was HUGELY different.

Including not even being the same character. >_>

Some people take it way too far (like the "grammer Nazis" who will go out of their way to point out every misplaced comma in a comment like their very life depends on it), but a lot of the stolen art is blatant to the point of being pathetic. In this case, the "artist" flat-out traced the original artwork, took out a few small details (in the original picture one character was holding flowers, while in the traced image the flowers are gone), and switched the character's heads around. That's it.

[Andara Bledin]

Unfortunately, this is something that's pretty much a constant in the art world.

Just in the digital age, it's easier for them to do it and much, much easier for other people to catch them at it.

^-.-^

[Nekojin]

I recall one time, pre-DevArt, that one art community had a raging flame war that lasted for weeks over an accusation of stolen... poses. The accuser (a drama whore of the first magnitude, and NOT the creator of any of the art in question) flamed many newer artists for copying poses from more established artists. He/she sincerely thought that poses were somehow proprietary, and declared, repeatedly and with utter disregard for any of the MANY posters who told him that he was flat out wrong, that pose theft was just a step removed from tracing.

[Seifer]

I recall one time, pre-DevArt, that one art community had a raging flame war that lasted for weeks over an accusation of stolen... poses. The accuser (a drama whore of the first magnitude, and NOT the creator of any of the art in question) flamed many newer artists for copying poses from more established artists. He/she sincerely thought that poses were somehow proprietary, and declared, repeatedly and with utter disregard for any of the MANY posters who told him that he was flat out wrong, that pose theft was just a step removed from tracing.

The way I see it, if you can look at a piece of art and immediately see the original image within it (as in, there is almost no difference or the lines are exactly the same), then the person who used another person's work as reference needs to at least give credit for the reference material. The art piece I'm talking about in this post is line-for-line the same as the original art - it's even the same characters, just with the heads switched around. Of course, the person didn't say, "I used such and such as reference" - they make it sound like it's completely their own art.

[Nekojin]

The way I see it, if you can look at a piece of art and immediately see the original image within it (as in, there is almost no difference or the lines are exactly the same), then the person who used another person's work as reference needs to at least give credit for the reference material. The art piece I'm talking about in this post is line-for-line the same as the original art - it's even the same characters, just with the heads switched around. Of course, the person didn't say, "I used such and such as reference" - they make it sound like it's completely their own art.

*nod* I understand what you're saying, but in the anecdote I related, they weren't copies, and there's even a chance that the accused had never SEEN the art they were accused of copying. While the poses were similar, overlaying the art showed that there were no points of similarity - it clearly wasn't traced.

And, of course, poses aren't copyrightable - there's only so many ways that the human body can move!

[SongsOfDragons]

One of the last pictures I drew (haven't coloured it yet) I had to go searching for a pose...from a well known, very codified set of poses too. I know they're free for all to use too...because they were ballet poses.

I also recall there's a resource account on DA that has a myriad of Sailor Moon-style model posed photographs. I haven't used them myself but I appreciate the existence of such a resource. I can't remember the name, or the permission she gives, but I think it is quite open.

I've been lucky and under the radar thus far, unnoticed. A mate of mine has an artist friend whose cupcake kitten pictures were stolen for use by a...Thai I think? a Thai cake company for their labels... EDIT: bugger. Been looking for her journal entry on it and it's on her old account. Sowwy. Now I feel silly.

[Nekojin]

I've been lucky and under the radar thus far, unnoticed. A mate of mine has an artist friend whose cupcake kitten pictures were stolen for use by a...Thai I think? a Thai cake company for their labels... EDIT: bugger. Been looking for her journal entry on it and it's on her old account. Sowwy. Now I feel silly.

When I lived in Vegas, I found a business card for an "escort" service that was using one of Olivia de Berardinis' pieces. I seriously doubt that was properly licensed.

[Hyena Dandy]

*nod* I understand what you're saying, but in the anecdote I related, they weren't copies, and there's even a chance that the accused had never SEEN the art they were accused of copying. While the poses were similar, overlaying the art showed that there were no points of similarity - it clearly wasn't traced.

Yeah, same with the one I was talking about earlier.

With the added bonus of the poses weren't the same except that the 'original' artist had photoshopped the 'copied' picture by flipping the direction and rotating it.

And then cropping out the rest of the body, because her 'original' had been only the head.