Art Theift. The Silent Killer.

<img src="img.photobucket.com/albums/v31…"
___

This is a report I did for Launguage arts. sooooo enjoy my crappy writing XD

Art; over the years it has played an important role in society. It has awes many and inspired for years to come. It takes years of work for people to acquire this amazing skill. And the people, who succeeded in this field of creation, SUFFER for it. For you see, many do not respect the artists work. They trace, edit, abuse, sell, infringe, and destroy their lives work. And many think nothing of it. This ignorance and inanity sometimes destroys lives. It destroys the artist's confidence, and another beautiful idea is destroyed and shattered. But so many people ask "why do they care? It's just some character or piece of paper." That character- is the artist's child. It's like having your child beaten and abused right in front of you. It's like saying "OH! It's just a child!" But you might be thinking- "but the child is alive- the character isn't!" INCORRECT!! The character IS living; in the artists mind the character walks, talks, breaths, thinks- The artist gives life to that character.
Well you might be wondering how the artists feels? How big is this issue? Well, first off. The artist feels ANGER, hatred, sadness, and disrespected. I know this because, it has happened to me. My characters, my creations, were stolen taken, and edited. Anger filled me. I felt like the person didn't respect me at all. One place this happens quite often is MY space. No one on the internet has common sense anymore! My friends character, Max, was taken and posted on forums with another name. She was sickened and appalled and was driven into a state of panic. This happens on the internet on various occasions. In fact, if you Google "art theft" it comes to an extreme amount of results. One of which was a rant by 2 the Ranting Gryphon. He had some excellent arguments along with it. However, there was a very large amount of profanity, but a good quote from it was "If you have to ask yourself why it's wrong to steal someone else's art work then half your brain was lost when they tried to abort you." Yeah, it's offensive, but he gets to the point.
Another question I asked myself was- what do I think is the line that has to be crossed between inspiration, and art theft. Yes; there is a very slim yet solid line between the two. And what I think crosses that line is when you take an idea and do not credit the artist. When you LIE and disrespect the artist. I believe when you credit and ask the artist, like "Hey I really like this idea and wanted to know if I could use it in a picture." And if the artist said "no." then you respect that and DON'T use the idea! However; if the artist believes that EVERYTHING is theirs and they ATTACK the person. That is disrespectful on the artist part. I believe that being inspired from artists is part of the learning process of becoming a better one in the future. If you steal a whole character however; that is not being INSPIRED, that is being a thief.
But off art theft- let's go to the progression of art over the years and see why it is so important to respect the artists work. Back; before I was able to draw as I do now. Artists were forced to use cells. Doing animation frame by frame by frame. Not until the late 90's did animators start to use the amazing power of computers. This process has smoothed animation from what it was back then. However; many studios still use, cells, pencil flip books, and animating tools that most people have disregarded in order to use computers. Even I use a computer, but that might possibly be because computers have much simpler and easier to use tools (they also have an undo button). Not only art the tools easier to understand- But it makes things move so much quicker and faster the regular. It takes usually years to animate or draw things out cell by cell. It takes even longer to create a character! It took me 12 years to have what my characters are now, my blood, dreams, sweat and will were all put into my creations. But most importantly- My heart and soul.
So now you know why artists get so angry and upset when they see their characters being stolen. I've interviewed many artists about how they have felt. One of which was my friend Lizzy. She was the girl with the character named Max. This is how it went:
Me: So; tell me. How does art theft make you feel?; What is your opinion on it?
Lizzy: It shows ignorance and disrespect for the artist.
Me: How much time does it take to finish a picture regularly for you?
Lizzy: Depending on how hard I work on it- an hour to six hours.
Me: When you create or finish a character; how does it make you feel?
Lizzy: A mix of being relieved that it's out of the way and a sense of accomplishment if it doesn't turn out bad.
Me: And when the character is stolen?
Lizzy: It kind of hurts; especially when it's over the internet because there is hardly anything you can do about it.
Me: Can you explain how it hurts?
Lizzy: I'd get angry and upset and feel like the person obviously doesn't respect me. Like they said "Hey! This is mine now! Kthxbye!"
Me:  Thank you for your time Lizzy.
Lizzy: You're welcome.
So as you can plainly see; art theft is WRONG! Its wrong wrong wrong! So Don't DO IT!

___

and now to make your lives complete, here's the Mighty one.

<img src="img.photobucket.com/albums/v31…"

NOT LOOKIN SO MIGHTY NOW ARE YOU!??!