Everyone knows about plagiarism. We’ve all probably done it at least once on a paper or two. The kind I’m referring to isn’t the written type of plagiarism, but it can be. The kind I’m thinking of is more into the world of art, more than just downloading a picture and posting it as your own. There are actually several other methods of “stealing” others art than that.

Those whom have had their pieces claimed as someone else’s at some point start putting what is called watermarks on them, or just placing a signature in a hard to edit spot like a place with multiple colors. That doesn’t stop some people though. A second form of art plagiarism is known as tracing. Taking someone’s work and tracing it exact or almost for those who use mice to do it. A good chunk of the time hardcore fans of the artist will alert them if they believe a tracing[1] as occurred.

Finally, you have just plain copying, taking a piece and mimicking it save for a few places so it isn’t “exact”. But, isn’t “everything a remix”? Or so Mr. Rickey’s favorite catch-phrase goes, yes everything is a remix but in this case it isn’t. Taking a piece of art or an idea someone may have spent weeks or months on and just changing a few things here and there then claiming you made it up on your own isn’t remixing, it’s plagiarism. This goes for stories too.

I know there isn’t a lot of arty people who would get any of this but those of us who do, it’s horrible when it happens to you or you know someone who does these forms of plagiarism. “But I suck at art” you might say, that doesn’t mean you can go around stealing other peoples. “But the character looks actually like the one I made up, so I use it for their reference” This excuse only works if you commissioned someone to draw the character and have their permission to post it other places, or if you give credit to the original artist. “But-”, no more buts, no more excuses, plagiarism isn’t cool, people who do it are either lazy or trying to make money off of it. Imagine having something you worked hard on ripped from you and used for monetary purposes or just to gain fame. It’s not “cool” or “funny”, it’s very upsetting. Those of you who do draw or write, watermark your pieces in a spot that can’t be edited quite so easily, if you can, turn downloads off so no one can get the un-watermarked version, and always put a signatures somewhere in the piece. Plagiarism isn’t awesome, it hurts the artistic community and those who create art.

[1] “Bases” aren’t traces, often the base artist asks permission from the artist of a piece they wish to make a base of to make it into one. Usually linking or giving credit to the artist and piece they made the base from.