"Thou shalt not steal." Exodus 20:15. Yes, even God does not like art theives.

Learning About Art Theft

Art. n: the products of human creativity
Theft. n: The act or an instance of stealing; larceny
Art Theft: Stealing another person's creativity.

Okay everyone, due to a disturbingly large amount of art theft recently, I decided to post this page to help educate the masses on what exactly is art theft and how you can avoid being one of those people.

Types of Art Theft

1-- Taking someone's picture, editing out any copyright or signature and claiming it as your own.

This is the worst and most blatant form of art theft and there is no excuse for this. Babies, when they're old enough to understand spoken language, are taught that you don't take what is not yours. I don't care how young or stupid you are; this is not a hard concept to understand. If you didn't draw the picture, it is not yours and you shouldn't say it is.

2-- Copying someone else's picture.

A lot of people don't believe this is art theft, but it is. Art theft, in the professional world is measured by this: If you can tell what the picture was originally copied from, it is art theft. And, in the real world, people could sue you for it. You did not come up with that pose. It is not yours to take. Therefore, it is stealing.

But what if I'm new at art and I want to copy pics for practice?

If this is your arguement, is there a way around this problem? Yes, there is. It is by simply doing this: Give credit to the original picture you copied from.

This is not hard at all, and yet, so many people cannot do this simple task. All you have to do is say "This is a picture of Quatre I tried to imitate from the Gundam Wing art book [insert title]." And you are no longer an art theif. How simple is that? In fact, you may even get more compliments from people comparing the two pictures and seeing how well you were able to duplicate the picture.

But as much as you use this method for practice, keep this in mind: You will never EVER be a good artist by always copying someone else. To succeed, there must come a point where you no longer rely on other people's tallent and you do your own. If you don't, you will just be a copy cat and no one will have any respect for you.

3-- Taking someone's pose and changing the character.

Again, a lot of people don't consider this art theft, but it is. That is not your pose. You don't have the right to change it into something else and claim it as your own.

So what can you do? Once more, you simply have to give credit. "I saw this DNAngel picture that I liked so I redrew it with my characters instead." And the problem is solved! That way, when people see your picture, they'll think 'Hey, that was interesting what they did with that picture.' instead of 'Hey, they totally ripped off that DNAngel picture.'

IF YOU HAVE COPIED OR IMITATED A POSE OR PICTURE IN ANY WAY, DO NOT TAKE IT TO ART SHOWS AND TRY TO SELL IT. When I go to art shows at conventions and I see people trying to sell copied art, it makes me so mad. You totally stole someone else's creative tallent, you have absolutely no right to try to make money off it. DON'T DO IT!

4-- Finding fanart on the net and posting it on your site.

First, ask the artist if you can put it on your site. If they say 'no', then you cannot post it. End of discussion. If they say 'yes' then just make sure to give them credit by posting an e-mail address or a link to their site.

A special note about Japanese fanart sites I know their art is gorgeous and you want to show it off. But, if you can't get a hold of the artist or they don't speak English then DON'T TAKE THEIR ART. I think it is so sad that just about every Japanese fanart site out there has to make a special page in English practically begging us stupid Americans not to steal their art. A lot of great pages have gone down because of this. If you want to share the great art with other fans, post a link to their page and say "Hey, this page has awesome art, come see but don't steal it."

5-- Using official or doujinshi art found on other people's pages to put on and/or decorate your page.

This is a very small form of art theft that hardly irks me as much as others, but it's still a form. When you buy an art book or doujinshi, you have bought the right to do whatever you want with that art within certain boundaries. You do have the right to scan the art you purchased to use it on your fan page as you see fit. But, if you see scans on another page and use them without permission, you are taking something that someone else owns and took time to scan as a service to their fellow fans.

So what should you do? Obviously, ask permission for the use of the scan and link to that page as a source of whatever you used for your page.

A very incorrect myth about art theft: "Stealing official art is not as bad as stealing fanart."

This couldn't be more wrong. In fact, if someone called you on stealing official art, you'd be in way more trouble. The people who draw the official art are paid to do it and own all their creative work BY LAW. As in, if anyone was feeling ambitious enough, they could sue you for art theft and win.

So please guys, all I'm asking is to take a little extra time to give credit where credit is due and get out of that 'everyone owes me' type mentality. Also, help me spread the word about art theft. Anything found on this specific page you may use with my permission. You can link to this or just copy it onto your page. I just want to get the word out to help further educate our fellow fans and make our wonderful artists feel a little bit safer about sharing their tallents with us.