So I've been watching a community to track down art theives for a while now and it just... makes me giggle how theives react/act/retaliate.

Sometimes you get the followers coming to the defense of the theif. It's especially priceless, their defenses in the face of hard proof. "That overlay means nothing. Even tho' every line and shade completely match up, they're totally different works."

Or the ones that think, 'I found it on the internet, I can alter it however I want. Internet art = clip art!'

Oh yeah, and there are the ones that think using ye olde Smudge tool means no one will notice you didn't paint that image. It's smudge-a-riffic!

The disbelieving nature under the immense skill changes and style switches... of thirteen year olds. (Sure there are child prodigies out there, but they are prodigies because they're RARE. Oh no I'm sorry, you're a special special flower, who paints as well as Lassen and draws as well as Miyazaki. Ambidextrously!) Of course that's not to say there aren't those who can't style switch, but most of the time when you see extreme varying in styles you have a theif on your hands.

Sometimes you get the theif who is completely unabashed and unshameful, who refuses to admit to the theft. Even with proof. Think... Vanilla Ice and his comments on the backbeat/melody of his rip VS Under Pressure by Queen and Bowie.

"Nevermind that signature in the corner."

Today I was told something along the lines of 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.'

Guess what? I was taught not to lie and steal. Because we should totally let theives take ours and other's hard-earned works for their own credit. It's okay to let them do it as long as we don't call them on it. Mmmhmm. Silence is golden, right?

"I've paid my dues." What does that mean? I went to college, paid tuition, took classes, and can now just cut, paste and filter together copyrighted works for cash? Um, no.

"Quick, I know I did wrong but I have to push the blame/guilt onto my discoverers!" That's my favourite response. Sure, go on, try to make me and others feel guilty about calling you out on being a fake. Just makes you look worse when you get taken down.

It's theives and fakes that make it that much more difficult for hard working honest artists to get respect/credit/work. It makes me wonder if they also cheat on things like.. food. 'No this pizza didn't come from PizzaHut, I baked it in the oven myself. No that wasn't a delivery guy at the front door 10mins ago. It was the mailman. At 9pm.'

Now, back to the weird new world (for me) of logo design.