Single post in Regarding Art Theft

[font=verdana][size=8][I'm just going to throw by two cents in here, it's a bit of a rant so I apologize but I feel like I need to speak from an artist's point of view.] I'm a little shocked by the responses that I've seen on here regarding this topic, I didn't expect to see so much resistance to this. For the people who are claiming that "this is the internet and everyone does it", this is a pretty flimsy excuse. Do you think that because you're anonymously posting online that it doesn't affect you or other people? Is cyberbullying ok because "it's the internet?". Is plagiarism justifiable because someone posted an article online therefore they're running the risk of people stealing it? No. If you were caught turning in a paper with information that wasn't properly sourced, you can get kicked out of school. This is no different. Whether it's art, an article or a song, stealing is stealing. I would like to think that people are above the influence of peer pressure and from thinking that something is ok because everyone else is doing it. What the mods are asking is what most websites should be asking of their users. It's not that they want to make things difficult for everyone or because they sit around in a darkened room plotting, there are very serious legal implications for them if they chose to ignore this issue. If it seems unreasonable, it is just further proof of how badly this problem has progressed. I've had my own problems with people stealing my art. Even on the original pokefarm, I received messages from people who had spotted my pixel art being used without my permission. If they had asked, that's fine, I would be more than happy to let people use it if they credited me. It's just pixel art anyways, nothing too fancy. However, a couple of them were commissions and requests that some people wanted and it really got me upset that people would just take it without asking and without crediting me. I'm proud of my art and I want to show other people so am I taking a gamble because I chose to post my art online? I hope not. I admit that I've been hesitant to share my work in the past because I'm terrified that someone will use it without my permission. Seeing some of the responses on here is really discouraging. In the end, what the mods are asking isn't that hard to do. It takes more energy to argue rather than just look up the art. It look me less than a minute to find the sources for my avatar. [Again, I'm sorry for the rant if it seems off topic, but I wanted to add my opinion to the discussion][/font][/size]