For those who don't know, or are unsure- Art Theft follows the same lines as basic literary plagiarism does. According the to Oxford English Dictionary and turnitin.com, plagiarism is:

   1. to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
   2. to use (another's production) without crediting the source
   3. to commit literary theft
   4. to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It can involve both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward- but plagiarism can be committed EVEN IF you give credit- That's where Art Theft comes in.

If you are using someone's photo, brushes, anything, without asking them FIRST, you are STEALING their work.  Not only that, but you are making the assumption that their finished work is just stock for you to use. This website is used by beginners to professionals, and unless otherwise stated, all artwork is ARTWORK and not STOCK. By using someone's work without permission, you are breaking DA's terms of service agreement, and you're disrespecting the artist who originally created what you are using.

Maybe you go around the rules because you don't want to be said "no" to, or maybe you are SO EXCITED about the work that you're working on that you completely forgot about asking. Regardless- When you use someone's work without asking them first, it's no different then shoplifting. It is a crime.

It is important to prevent this new generation of theft. It's not cute, it's not permissible. It's important to remember that in a lot of situations, if you take something without asking- you could be reprimanded. If you ask the artist, chances are they would say yes the first time.

So, Recap: BEFORE you use anyone's work, whether it's a brush or a texture or a photo, or anything else- you have to ASK THEM. That doesn't mean thanking them for uploading their artwork so that you could gleefully utilize it in your own. That's stealing.

Deviantart's OFFICIAL stance on Art Theft is the following,:
"
Copyright Infringement (aka "Art Theft" or "Ripping")
Current deviantART policy defines 'Art Theft' to be any situation where a user takes the original art, photography, or writing of another person (a 'third party') and then either misrepresents the original, unaltered work as one of their own creations or includes the work (either altered or unaltered) in a new image.

Generally speaking any submission which is directly built upon the existing work of another artist or photographer can be considered to be a case of art theft. These works may feature screenshots, official artwork or sprites taken from a video game, scans from an art book, artwork found on a website somewhere on the internet or a photograph of a famous person (just to name a few examples), but in every case the 'seed image' is the legal property of another artist. In many cases these 'seed images' are manipulated, colored over, blended with other images, and otherwise digitally worked over but none of this makes the use acceptable or allowed.

These submissions will be removed regardless of whether you have credited or linked back to the original source. Knowing where you ‘found’ the original image or knowing who created it or took the photo is not the same as actually having the legal permission to use it in your submission.

Only valid, legal, stock resources are allowed to be used as part of your deviantART submission. Public Domain imagery and works governed by certain Creative Commons licenses may also be used.
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can be found at :[link]


Let's keep this website pleasant and respectful for all artists who post here.