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Alright, as I’ve gotten older, my teachers have really stressed plagiarism. So of course I check everything I write, or say, or do, because I do NOT want to get sued.

Recently, a friend of mine drew a picture (let’s just say she drew a very popular anime character) and signed her name on it. It was a very good drawing, but it was almost too perfect. Others decided to pay her for a copy. So, I tell her she plagiarised that image and she is not allowed to make money off of it. She tells me "I drew it, so it's not plagiarism."


So gaians. Is this plagiarism?

No need to get rude.

Plagiarism applies to anything such as ideas, images, stories, anything that you came up with in your head. It wasn't original. It wasn't her idea. She copied it directly. It gets even more complicated since she's selling it and making money off of it.

Oh yes, thanks for telling me about an obvious dictionary site. Please leave that negativity elsewhere.

Yay pie!




You used to have to pay to protect your ideas, or songs or other stuff. But now, since you can just highlight someone's paper online and print it out as your own, anything you come up with in your head is copywrited(as long as you have proof that you came up with it).

I thought this was to be a helpful site? No need for name calling.

pi3isgood, I'm on a poetry site not related to Gaia, and have seen people take published songs, change a few lines and claim it as their own. Needless to say, the so called "original poem" was deleted and the person reminded the deed twas illegal. I have seen people take artwork and print it on the computer and place their name on it. It seems just as illegal to me as stealing someone's words.

She drew it herself. It's completely legal. If she had printed the original work, put her name on it, and sold it, then she would be breaking the law.

Anyone can copy/paste a bunch of words and call it their own. Not everyone can draw their favorite anime character.

I beg to differ. Plagiarism can most certainly apply to music. I can't claim to have written Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and if it were still under copyright, and I did do so, I could be sued. It also applies to scientific discoveries and inventions:

So why not art?



No. First, you are creating an original work of art; the person sitting for the painting is not actually painting it. Second, if they're sitting long enough for you to paint/draw them, then you probably have their permission anyway, rendering the whole issue moot.


No. As no trees have yet been observed speaking any language known to man, it would be quite difficult for them to give evidence in court. The first argument from above also applies.


But is the way the character drawn not also subject to copyright? If I copy someone else's drawings exactly, and just give the characters different names, should I be able to pass it off as my own work?

Yes, that is considered plagiarism because she drew an idea that was NOT originally hers, and she said it was. It is fan art, yes. But she has no right to call it her own creation without giving credit to whoever is the one who came up with the idea in the first place.

Intuicide, would it kill you to check another source?


Artwork would be creative work, no?