Art theft

This article is crap. You can help by completely re-writing it.

The animu *Eureka 7* actually stole *her* art.

Art theft is a common, and rampant form of plagiarism. It incites an overwhelming amount of ED quality drama; hence why this page exists.

So, who are these art thieves, why are they in my internet and how do I troll them? Anybody can be one of these weasels: Your mom, sister, teacher, dog and of course, any and all of your so-called "Friends" online.

What kind of people are art thieves?

The typical art thief is either as smart as a rock, a troll, or have some vendetta against people that have more talent than they do, so they upstage or revenge on them by taking their art.

By definition, everytime you post a picture you have not created on the internet makes you an Art Theft.

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SoubisLover, on a debate against a barely popular tracer, explaining why he's fighting art theft.

Where do I find one?

DeviantART is the most common breeding ground where many mentally challenged art thieves breed. It is a proven fact they rove in packs; if one person is a thief, there is a 70% chance their few friends are too. It is also hereditary, as art thieves will have thief siblings and if they can manage to find someone willing to share their filthy genome, thief children as well.

Species of art thieves

Abigaille is a common example of a Ripper.

The Photobucket Kid uses DA as his personal image host. He also cannot get his grubby hands off of other people's artwork for their gay ass MySpace page, even though this promotes that user's artwork.
The Tracer traces shit. DA now allows anime and Disney screen captures to be traced, air brushing over photos and other work is the bastard child of the re-colorer and tracer.
The Ripper takes things they never made at all and lies their ass off about it, the most common art thief.
The Copier copies work and never gives credit, then throws a shitfit when called out, leaving claim that the original artist ripped them off, even if said work is 4 years older than theirs.
The Re-colorist colors other's work without permission. This goes for photos as well, which often are renamed "traditional media". They also take animation stills and create "OC's" with them.
Photo manipulators often don't realize royalty-free means you need to pay for those images, they also cite Google as the bona-fide copyright holder to anything on G.I.S. If it's not google, then Flickr or Photobucket created the photos. Not, you know, a human with a camera. These people will often slap crappy filters onto photos, and like the re-colorist, they believe this makes the work anything but a photo manipulation.
Slideshow Makers take their favorite pictures and put it to tasteless, generic pop music. They are very common on YouTube.
Outright Retards upload famous work and expect people to believe them, its just unfortunate that they do believe so and ripped artwork gets 200,000 faves and a daily deviation.
Profiteers are the fags that sell their work. Not only do they rip, trace, smudge and smear but they make a nice amount of money off of their hard work and efforts.

How to find an art thief

Oh em gee! An epiphany

Word on the street is that the one way to identify a thief are these common attributes:

Style is inconsistent (results from ripping off of a variety of artists).
Quality of work is inconsistent (gallery fluctuates randomly between shitty and fantastic works).
Unnatural growth of skill (from shitty stick figures one week to professional anime the next).
Drama whoring - This is disputed, as almost everyone on DA is a drama whore of some sort.
Illogical categorizations (example: "Vector" for tracings, "Digital Art" for screenshots, etc.).
Talking about it all the time (wanting everyone under the sun to know and recognize them)

How to explain your art theft away

The most common excuses of these shitheads are

Its not mine, my sister/mom/cat/boyfriend/cousin did it
I didn't know
I have permission from National Graphic/Disney/God to use it
<insertyournamehere> tried to screw me/called me a bad name so now I'm taking this as revenge
I'm An hero
Well if they're not going to/theres nothing they can do about it
I found it on Google and cannot find the original creator
I found it on Photobucket so it's public domain
I have ADHD!!

Retaliation!

Art thieves never like being called out on their deeds. They piss, moan, cry, whine, make death threats and rants on how unfair it was that "their" art got removed. One of the funniest things to come from them is the fact that, without a doubt the only reason to remove someone's work is "Because you are jealous of their/my talent". Aside from that, the vultures are playground bullies waiting to make some 12 year old cry for ripping Yoshitaka Amano's work. Of course, if you praise them they'll be eternally thankful. Most are dumb enough to believe their traces/rips/whatever are 'great talent'.

OMFG what do I do?

So they got your art, eh? Or they robbed your friend? Or do you think you can copyright a pose? Or "green on a dog"? Well sorry pal, but that doesn't count. The only way you'll get anything done is with a good old layover.

File:Dontusemyposes.JPG

because generic is original now!

So now that you have a pack of witch hunters after your blood for reporting their stolen crap, have fun reporting their death threats to the Mod box of DA. If it's not a deviantART issue a nice lawyer, crowbar or M-16 can suffice.

Hang around Live Journal's "art_theft" community for many fun adventures with these guys, but remember "play nice". You may also find a fitting hugbox following the violation you've been victim of amongst these people:

Cry a lot and never stop, you have been a victim, fight back for all what's worth your magnificent artwork But really, good luck. deviantART has been pretty retarded about this the past few years.

What NOT to do, if you're a good tartlet

DO NEVER, EVER use the "report a deviation system"! admins will just delete it, that's all.
NEVER contact a moderator! again, they will just remove it and case will be closed. As a victim you won't get justice.
NEVER EVER WAIT to report one and write a journal about it, as they win YOUR pageviews!
NEVER come without proof : like, post a photoshopped pic using layers that clearly shows how traced or eyeballed a pic can be.
IGNORE the CreativeCommons license, there's only one law about pictures : the Copyright, enforce it.
NEVER give up insulting the person who offended you, as a theft you're in your right, may he have stolen your art or someone else.
NEVER FORGET, the internet *IS* your personal army.

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In all cases, you're fucked. Popular or not someone, somewhere stole your precious art or make profits over someone else's creation. It's okay to cry.

Misadventures of art theft

About missing Pics

Yes, because Erin Hunter is a real person and draws cats. Side note: This person's name is Devil's Cream 666
All that matters is that someone liked it
The guys at Capcom would be so proud