How do you feel about this excuse “Sorry but the internet is free and open to everyone, even to people who recolor/edit other people’s works. It’s your own damn fault if people mess with it when you put it on the free internet.” I ask because this came from the people who recolor/edit My Little Pony humanized PoC drawings and turn them white. There’s also the excuse “You stole/defiled my art! Dude they’re not selling it”. Like where do you begin with all this?

asknethesem:

Urrgh. No no no. Creative works belong to the creator.

I think people should be free to make fanworks and derivatives – up to a point, recolouring and stuff like that is not derivative – but even then it should be done with respect and credit to the original artist.

I would contend that anyone who doesn’t understand that is not a creator. I’m no artist, but as a writer with a built-universe I base my stories on, I’d be like “sure, you can write a story in my universe if you want, that’s awesome, but no, you may not define canon… it’s my world. I make those rules.”

Art is the same, I think it’s okay to draw other people’s (fan or official) characters and say ‘I love this character by XYZ!’

But direct tracing, recolouring, not giving credit and all that – no, you clearly don’t understand the work you’re meddling with.