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Overly-Dramatic Wolf Artists

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It's story time, kiddies! Names and links withheld/changed to protect the identities of the morons and their victim (who we'll call 01). One day, a note showed up in the inbox of one of the wolf groups I used to help administrate. We'll call this person 02. This is what it said:

Subject: Theft: Reference without permission
"The following image was referenced without permission: _________
Here is the reference she used: _________
The user was told not to reference it here: _________

01 claims to have referenced the image from somewhere else, however, the resemblance is defined in the two images above. Please remove the image from this group's gallery. That would be greatly appreciated, thank you."

Here was my response:
"Referencing is not theft, and 01 did not steal any part of that work to create hers. You cannot copyright or reserve a pose for your use only, otherwise, there would be a lot of people in trouble. We will not remove this piece unless tracing has been involved.

Thank you."

This conversation went on for a while, and it sure took 02 long enough to admit that her initial claim was flawed. So, she changed it to "well, 01 needs to link to my friend's picture, because I know for sure that she referenced it, and this isn't going to end unless she does what I say." I told her that while it's courteous to link back to references, she doesn't even have to, because it's not law, and it's certainly not a rule on deviantART.

This wasn't good enough for 02. She responded to every comment left on the deviation she thought was "stolen" from her friend, and told all those people that 01 was a thief. This still wasn't enough, and 02 left an unnecessary comment on 01's profile page, saying again that she was a thief. And, even then, this still wasn't enough. 02 had sent the same note I'd received to all of the groups 01 had submitted her work to, and told them to remove the work from their galleries.

In 01's defense, I sent notes to all the groups she had submitted her work to, explained the situation to them, and asked them not to remove the work from their galleries. To my knowledge, most of them did not remove it, and the ones I'd heard back from agreed that no wrong-doing had taken place. However, two groups did remove the picture, and one even banned 01 from being able to submit there anymore. So, I helped 01 find some more groups to submit to, to make up for the loss.

I talked 01 out of removing her work from deviantART entirely, and assured her that she hadn't done anything wrong. She still feared for her reputation, and was worried that 02 and her friends would keep coming after her. I sent one last message to 02:
"I really hope you're happy with yourselves. You bullied 01 into almost removing her work, and fearing for her reputation, all over a silly pose in a drawing. Not only that, but one of the groups you sent a note to removed her work from their gallery and banned her from being able to submit there. 01 told me she would have worked with you if you hadn't caused such a public ruckus, but no, you had to cause a scene. Despite not having literally referenced your friend's drawing, but rather being inspired by it, she has reluctantly placed a link to your friend's picture in the description. I've encouraged her not to even do this, because neither of you deserves the satisfaction of knowing that your humiliation and intimidation tactics worked. And hopefully, with a little more encouragement, 01 will remove all references to your friend's drawing, because frankly, she doesn't deserve it after this.

A couple of groups I've spoken with have agreed that your treatment of 01 was unfair, and that your accusations were wrong. I'm hoping that the rest of the groups I sent notes to will also agree. I'm submitting 01's work to as many relevant groups as I can find, and I will be warning them of you and your friend so that they are not deceived into removing her work, either. You are truly a snake in the grass for engaging in such an elaborate and stealthy attack on 01's reputation. You two owe 01 a serious apology, and you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves."


You know what witty, insightful thing 02 said to me in response?
"wow lol"


No apology, no remorse. Just that. In hindsight, I don't know why I had expected anything different to come from 02. People like her and her friend are what's wrong with the wolf art community, and one of the reasons people think they're a joke, and easy to make fun of. People like this need to fall off the face of the planet, or at least never breed.

In conclusion: You can't copyright a pose, and "similar" doesn't mean "stolen."
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Comments217
CylenaWolf's avatar
I just love this stamp!!!!! It really tells the truth about some wolf artists out there, sad but true. Doh! 
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