Plagiarism
Plagiarism basically means to take someone else’s work and
pass it off as your own with no reference to the original source. There are
different forms of plagiarism such as you can draw over someone else’s work and
recolor it, then post it or try to sell it and that’s plagiarism. Large
companies can also take artists work and put it on their products without
crediting the artist or even asking permission, one of these companies that is
well known for its plagiarism and ripping off artists is Primark, who have been
sued by H&M, Monsoon, Superdry. Primark have stolen work off many small businesses
too such as Punky Pins, Prabal Gurung and many more.
It’s difficult to be an artist based on the internet because
people can easily steal your work and repost it as their own on an abundance of
social networking sites. Fortunately when this happens people usually notice
and tell the artist that their work is being plagiarized. There are serious
consequences and social consequences for plagiarizing other’s work, such as
being sued, and getting hatemail until you leave the internet forever.
There are ways however to avoid your work being plagiarized,
if you’re selling your art you can watermark it on its preview before selling
it, watermarking is pretty much like a marker on your image that is distinctly
your own sign or signature that shows that the artwork is yours. It’s like how
artists from the past used to sign the bottom of their paintings but digitally.
If you find your art is being plagiarized by either a company or another
artist, you can send them a cease and desist letter to them which is a letter
that informs the receiver that they are in breach of your copyright and it
suggests that they remove the item and destroy all copies of it. Cease and
desist letter’s are good scare tactics and a pretty easy way to inform them
that you know they stole your work.
There are also lots of ways now that you can find out if
someone has stolen your work too thanks to the internet, such as like on Google
you can copy the images url and paste it into the search bar and Google will
find the source and any other websites showing the image for you.
Plagiarism is a tough subject sometimes, when you’re growing
as an artist sometimes copying other artistic work is the only way to learn how
techniques which is an unavoidable part of the art education process. However
even with this being so you still cannot pass off someone else’s work that you
have worked from as your own individual work.
Plagiarism causes a continuous debate about homage, which is
referencing someone else’s work but giving them credit or honouring them in
your work or in respect of their work. ‘The Wave’ by Hokusai is one of the more
well known works to have been paid homage to, as it’s been paid homage to many
times by many different artists such as Stephen Kade, who recreated it in pen
and watercolour with a monster surfing on it.
