Animation Source Forums

Here's my own personal rant on art theives, inspired by the awesome Ranting Gryphon, 2 (found on ranting-gryphon.com) and you "lovely" art theives.

http://media.putfile.com/the-rant-72

Can't understand what the heck I'm saying? Here's a script:

Ok, so, I've been an artist my entire life right? Well, now I have encountered one of the many obstacles all artists someday face: Art theft.

This is obviously becoming more and more ridiculous by the day, if not by the minute. Here's what I got on the situation here. People are stealing my art and others art to make themselves look good, am I right? I am, because it's always the case.

Whenever someone steals something it's to benefit themselves in some way, no matter what the situation. These guys in particular are vexing because they'll take art and post it on MySpace.com claiming it to be themselves. Now, this is fine, right? I mean roleplaying on a non-roleplaying site, fine, whatever you do to make "friends."

But these guys don't stop there, they alter the work, making it utterly ******! I made this character, right? Awesome character if I do say so myself, it was inspired by a young version of a character in a certain movie, Wolf Quest. Ok, so the young version was not mine, but the adult form was. I made it with my own brain, pen, pencil, paper and computer. It had this awesome kick*** personality.

Then one day I get this instant message from someone "Uh, hey, this person is roleplaying as this character. Is it you?" ****, no I don't roleplay, I happen to think it's stupid, but those are my thoughts, not yours.

Anyway, I look at this site and this person took MY character and ruined it! They took it, beat it to a bloody pulp, ****ed on it, ***ed it and put it on the internet for all to see! They took my character and turned it into this whiney, depressed, girly, emo piece of ****! Not only did she annialate my work, but this person put her own copyrights on it!

That was the straw that broke the camels back right there. I was so mad, you would've cried sight unseen.

Yeah, sure, she asked me if she could use my art...AFTER SHE GOT CAUGHT, that is! Now this person almost submitted and left with a scar on her pride. Almost! But then some guy shows up and is like "It's ok, these guys are just jerks! We can use their art whenever we want! Blah de ******* blah!"

And when the Roleplayers of MySpace are so-called being "harrassed" by other people for stealing peoples' art, this same guy shows up and brings his dumb*** drama to our site! He kept going on and on about how he wasn't picking sides, but he was cutting us artists no slack and giving the Myspace roleplayers all the slack they needed! He wasn't looking to come to an agreement or nothing! He just kept saying how these guys aren't "technically stealing" because they "ask permission" (when they HAVEN'T) and don't "claim it as theirs." Guess what d****** wad, THEY ARE!

They're taking this art WITHOUT permission and altering it to make themselves look good! Does that not fall under the category of stealing?!

I think it does! If these guys would have a little respect for us hard-working artists and only take a few freaking moments to ask us if they could distribute our art, WE WOULDN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THEM!

All they need to do is leave a message somewhere that connects to the artist saying "Hey, I'm so-and-so from this place, and I really like your art! Can I use it? I promise not to claim it as my own or alter it!" "Sure, thing, man! Thanks for asking!" That's it! That wasn't so hard now was it? NOPE! They still go on about it!

"Why don't you let us have your art? You put it on the internet, you should expect people to use it!" We don't! I can't believe you guys would think that you have more right to our work than we do! That's pathetic!

And what's even more pathetic is that you guys would do ANYTHING...to cover up the real picture beneath it, to fool anyone looking at it to think it's yours. You take a picture and color over it that looks like something a three-year-old barfed up, and you' say in a proud tone "Mmm, yeah, I drew that" Some of these people take our work and claim it as theirs. What they're doing is taking a piece of the artist and eating it like Fat ******* with Mini-Me!

Now, it's fine if people ask permission to post our art somewhere, it widens our audience, but only if we;re mentioned in the process!

No matter what an artist does when making a character, a bit of that character's personality IS that artist! And then the person wonders why the artist is upset when they get caught using the artists work.

If you create something that you put yourself into, all of your hard work and effort, whether it be a painting or a mere doodle, and someone steals it, puts their copyrights on them, and butchers every thing about the picture with lies about the truth behind them, an artist has every right to be upset!

This guy who starts this crap says again "Well, then stop posting your fanart" NO! People are not gonna stop posting art on a fanart site just because they're afraid of their pictures being stolen!

Fanartists, or ANY artist for that matter, should feel secure that their art is not going to get stolen and butchered!

We post our art to get recognition, but only if our copyrights are on them. If someone puts their lame*** copyrights on there that is not recognition for the artist!

And reason why artists post their art is NOT for other's to selfishly use it for themselves! Artists post their art to show it off! And if they don;t wanna show it off, they're asking for a nice critique on it to help improve their art for the future!

That's not to ****ed up, right?

So do us all a favor, MySpace Roleplayers, take what I've siad into consideration and ask for ****ing permission NOW before this has to get nasty and the court gets involved! Either that, or pick up a **** pencil and start drawing your own so called "self portraits" You may not be good at it, but at least you're trying, right?

This was your one and only 14-tailed Cat speaking, and I can almost guarantee that I'm not through with this subject.

You're righty Cat
I know how you feel,at least I lived this in reality on pics and ideeas and over the Internet music videos.
Yes we putted efforts on them,and yes we have right to kill our charries or to change them to nasty ones from inncoents.I know how it's this.And I suggest to this MySpacer sto **** off us!(Err in plural there are many awsome artists..not me included but there are)

God love you. <3

The music I added for you on this fits so well with your talking. xDD


Show them cat, whip them with your 14 tails!

Yes, it's really a big problem. Especially when there is no way to prevent this.


I'm not sure, in fact I have often seen that some people used pictures (drawings) from other artists for their sites but didn't even know that it was forbidden. They often do that only to fill the space of their sites.

Also, one important thing : people only steal something they really like. At least, the number of pictures stolen is a proof of how many people like your art...(ok ok, it's not funny)

What I want to say, is that I have encountered this problem with the content of my site, too. Some people use(d) my site content for their own. At first I was reacting like you, but now I must say I don't care anymore. Why? Because these sites will never become "famous" like mine, and they only have one or two visitors a day. So I don't really care if they did take a picture from my site. (I'm talking about the pictures I made myself, not the fanarts) If it's not posted on something many people will come and see, I don't consider that the steal is important. Besides, most chances are that the visitors are as stupid as the person who stole the pictures, so they're not worth it.
Maybe this could apply to fanarts.

FANTASTIC!!!!! FINALY SOMEONE COMES OUT AND SAYS IT!!!!!!

You are 100% right in everyway and I know how it feels to have art stollen and the feeling sucks, but im glad someone is speaking the truth outloud, thanks Cat^^


I was brawsing another balto forum/site and they did something to all of the screen shots and pictures, like the right click thing, will not work, it will not alowe anyone to save any image on it, im not sure how they did it but its exreamly usefull for keeping your pictures from being stollen.

Ok, I will admit that they take some stuff that I really don't care about, but what I failed to mention was that, if people were to see their side of the "story" first, then they are more likely to believe that one, even if it isn't the truth. It's human nature, (un)fortunately (unless they're being interrogated, then they tend to go with the latter being said, but that's a different scenerio) And that's anouther reason I don't like people using my stuff.

Also, in a way it is to benefit themselves, because even if it's just to fill in space, it's to make their site or whatever more enjoyable to look at. Now, that's fine, but I still think I deserve a little respect (meaning that they ask me first) Because my philoshophy is that if they don't stop stealing now, they're never going to stop, and it has happened before, where I have encountered people who (pretend to be) like a klepto and will steal pictures just because they can.

And it's these people who i REALLY have a problem with because they're most likely the ones who say "No, I'm not gonna do what you say." Even if I told (yes, told, but in a polite way) them to remove whatever (basically anything I cared about which they most likely altered) I prefered them to remove (i asked them that if they didn't want to remove the pictures, that they could but simply mention somewhere that the pictures were mine, and yet they still refused.

Why this was, I don't know, but I can almost guarantee that their "stealing" problem is only going to be greater ion the future.

I know that there really isn't anything I can do about them at that point, but I'm just letting them become known. (i just wish i slid them somewhere in the rant )

Yes, I understand, but the problem with the web is that there are way too many cases like that to be able to "educate" them ourselves.

Yeah...I know that it's impossible to stop all of this art theft, but it doesn't mean I can't try to do something about them



They'll wonder who's going to be laughing when I stop dealing with the fandom and stop posting art they can j**k off to every other day. Sure, it may be a bit harsh, but I dont really care.



Well, if it does come to that, then yes, their webmaster will get involved, but it's not because he can't handle it. All he needs to do is care about the situation, but I can bet you anything he doesn't. And as for those talking rude things about me, they can kiss it, because I could care less what they have to say or think about me.



No, I'll let them find it on their own if they're that desperate to find out what another has to say and want to stifle their freedom of speech.

Your absoultly right Catwhohas14tails! They should not STEAL! Our ART You made a good point! I hope they listen

They won't stop until it gets ugly sadly there will always be someone there stealing your art, they should stop and F off, but this is something that no matter how much we want to stop we can't stop it, the only way to have your art safe is to not post it and if you really want to show it off you are running your own risk, just as they are by using it without permission.

i totally agree with ya Cat.!^^

I'm right there with ya Cat, 100%. I can't understand what is so hard about just ASKING if you can use someones char, it is wrong to take someone elses art, modify it and claim that it's your own, why not just ASK, heck, I asked you if I could draw Kiona and tons of people here request to draw somone elses char but never without ASKING FIRST, not after you've already drawn it.

IF ANY THIEVES READ THIS, IF YOU REALLY WANNA DRAW GOOD, GO TO ART CLASSES AND LEARN HOW INSTEAD OF STEALING!!

It's not that hard to get into art classes and then you can learn to draw good and create your own chars.

I agree with ya all the way Cat, *growls at theives*.