The discourse community I have chosen to write about is the one piece community. It is an online community that is very large so like many large communities, it has many issues. Some issues that I find are more prevalent in the community are art theft, and sexism. Like I mentioned in my previous post, my friends like many others, like to create art out of the anime. The problem here is that someone would see the piece, like how it looks, and then post somewhere else without crediting the original artist and thus passing it off as their original artwork. Many times these people have a much larger following than the original artists which they can use to tear down the original artists. Since all of the artwork made is fanart which is almost always free, it is incredibly easy to just take someones artwork and pass it off as your own. Or people will just copy the art, tweak it a little, and then try to pass it off as being “inspired” by the original artist.
There is a fine line between inspiration and copying. These people of course are eventually exposed in the community but because like I said they have large followings, it is hard for there to be any damage. By then their large following has also grown to be very loyal since these types of anime communities tend to have many young kids in them. The young kids grow up seeing one of their favorite creators post amazing art not knowing it has been stolen or copied from someone else so they have a hard time really letting go. Also, since this is all fanart, art theft/art copying is never taken seriously. For example, in an article by Miki Nguyen they added “Instagram really doesn’t care about artists,” said Tenshipastel, an artist on Instagram. “The only time they’ll care is if an artist is big [indicated by 3,000 followers or more and an inspirational style]. For people like me or any of the smaller artists, if their art gets taken, nothing’s going to happen.” Nguyen also stated “Still, media platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, and DeviantArt do little to stop it.”. So not only do the art thieves barely get any repercussions from the community itself but also from the social media platforms. According to CIIT College of Arts and Technology “Though it violates the author’s or artist’s right and goes against the law, plagiarism is not a serious criminal offense; but since it amounts to copyright infringement, the act is still punishable by law.” While the act is punishable by law, it rarely is. Many of these artists are just regular people with low a income job doing something that they enjoy, so it is rarely taken to court. This happens not just in the one piece community but anywhere that art is being made. But the community has been changing and people are being exposed more while also being blacklisted from the community.
Tips to Avoid Art Plagiarism Toward Becoming a Better Artist
This sounds like an excellent project. You know your DC and problem and seem to even have a sense of your audience. Is it the social media sites that don’t help control the theft? Or are you thinking of something else?
I can relate to this. I’m apart of the anime community myself, though not One Piece specifically. Art theft is a big thing in a lot of communities that revolve around animation and art. I agree heavily with a lot of the points you made!
I can relate to this. I’m apart of the anime community myself, though not One Piece specifically. Art theft is a big thing in a lot of communities that revolve around animation and art. I agree heavily with a lot of the points you made!
These are interesting points you are raising here. The amount of art and pictures being stolen or repurposed on the internet is great and little has been done to bring this issue to light. Most people affected by this problem are not even aware of it until is too late.