Well, I think there’s another form of art theft that is debatable. What about when you see a picture, take the theme, and then make a piece that has nothing visibly similar other than what it is about? People call it inspiration. Is that stealing? Is it partial stealing? Maybe an appropriate kind of theft? Or perhaps it isn’t stealing at all. I found a PokÈmon fan art picture. In it, my favorite character, Dawn, was doing something. So the theme of the picture was that girl partaking of a certain activity. I loved the picture and what the theme was, and I was inspired to write a fan fiction based off of the theme of that picture, what Dawn was doing. Now, otherwise, there was no copying. The method in which the activity took place was somewhat different, she was wearing different clothes, her reaction was a bit different, and so on. So I did not take any literal, tangible elements from the picture, just the theme, what the picture was about and was trying to say. Does anyone see that as a form of stealing?
There are just so many boundaries of taking something from someone else. There is direct like literally claiming ownership from someone else or just slightly altering a picture. Those are not difficult to define as wrong. Yet, inspiration is a tricky matter to deal with. When does inspiration stop and originality begin? Is theme-stealing an offense or just something commonplace that everyone does and no one really cares about? Should using another’s theme be taken by the artist as flattery, or is there cause for anger? If someone draws a dragon eating a gnome on a mountain, then someone sees it and, being inspired, with totally unique designs, draws a dragon eating a gnome in a valley, is that cause to call “Thief!” or is just something that even the original artist would overlook?
For one thing, I’ve never seen an artist copyright a theme. When someone draws a red dragon feeding her young, I see things like, “These characters are owned by me,” not, “Since I drew this, no one else is allowed to draw red dragons feeding their young.” So while there are black and white lines of taking art, I feel that there is at least one that is transparent. Some artists may feel that another using his or her theme is wrong, some may be glad that they helped another artist, or some may simply think nothing of it. I think that when it comes to themes, it’s more or less “Anything goes,” but that is just my opinion. With so many ideas out there in use, it can be hard to be one hundred percent original. So my addition to this thread is just to consider that not everything is a definite act of robbery in the world of art, namely the act of being inspired.
