Steal art? Why?

Ok, I'm looking at the HoS, and the bottom I se the preson I was fooled by. I clicked on the link only to find that this person is a Class-A art thief. She removes waters, that's identies, all that...just to take people's arm on the internet.

I seriously do get scared and paraiond about things like this. She imed me on AIM ,and for those of you that know me I talk ,talk ,talk ,talk and do MORE talking. I don't go passing out my life story ,but you can get euongh out of me to do what she's done to others. I've only been watermaking my lastest ,and really don't think no old stuff is worth stealing, but i swear if someone emails me telling me my work's been stolen I'm gonna cry to everyone ,including my mom. I'm really gonna cry ,y'all. I'm VERY sensative about stuff like that.

Honestly ,there were a few signs that tipped my off ,but i didn't think much of them. When I asked her a question she just copy and pasted her answer. I think she stopped talking to me when I asked her to roleplay with me ,thinking I was testing her when I was really just being naive.

I just wanna know what would make someone want to bother doing that? How will you ever know your own ability if all you do is steal and impersonate others? What do you gain from doing that? How do you think the people you stole from feel? Do you even care?

I know there's MUCH wrose going on in the world ,but do we need lil things like this making it wrose?

Pride. People that can't draw are sometimes shamefull enough to steal art to get attention and compliment. I mean, how AWESOME does it feel to get an estatic compliment from someone? That's what it is. Fishing for attention

They don't realise HOW much work goes into art though

Art theft is very scarey- it's easily done. Thepencilclub on DA had a journal dedicated to fake pencil artists that use pencil filters on photos to pass off as photo realism. It's scarey. It worrys me alot, but its like MP3s and stuff- it doesn't feel wrong if noone complains, right?

Wrong

I've always drawn a blank on why people make it a career to steal people's online art - re-post is even try to act like the artists.  Many don't even reply to the comments they manage  get.  And fewer still (in my experience) try to sell or make some sort of monitary profit.  A lot are young self-concious females with little or no sense of right and wrong. So what's their damage? 

I liked drawing as far back as 1st grade and I would never have imagined taking someone elses drawing and saying, yup it's mine.  When I was fine tuning my skills in middle school and highschool I used to trace a lot.  I always had compliments but I I'd mention that  I just traced it.  People would be dissapointed so I would work harder to learn from what I traced and show off my originals.  However, I suppose I'm comparing apples to oranges.  I'm not some deviant clepto with a fetish for praise.

This art thief is different from your usual plagiarist though. The person who impersonated NEPi (who's also the same person who impersonated Saimain) was far worse. She goes all over the internet impersonating the same artists. She actually goes to conventions and sells prints of these people's art! Can you believe that? Here's a page detailing her history:
http://meadowhaven.net/php-bin/view.php?pid=2061

I'm just really scared because she choose to talk to me. She IMed me frist...I donnno if that's a sign Oi'm in danger or not. I never thought my stuff would be good euongh to steal.

*faints* HOLEY CRAP!! That person is imfamous and all!! *cries* I feel so sorry for the owner- they sound really annouyed and flustered abotu it. That person is a total loser

Well, y'all can go ahead ,and beat me up. It was my fault for bringing her here. ._. I thought it was real so i was like "Hey! Check out PD!" I'm really sorry everyone. *covers head and waits to get stoned*

Oh, it's not your fault, Nekoyoujo. You didn't know. I don't think many of us did. (I certainly didn't know.) We're not going to stone you. We've seen worse. And we've risen above it.

I've never had to deal with art theft before. I never really worried about it. I'm not good enough, and this is the only account I have art submitted on (I think. . I don't remember if I ever submitted anything on Sheezy. I may have to go check now! Crap!), so I'm not really public. *shrugs* But I guess it can happen to anyone.

Ooh, which reminds me. I've been meaning to ask. How do you know when your art's being stolen? It sounds pretty dumb, but I don't quite know...how you could tell.

On Aug 1, 2007 8:38 pm, Dollmaker said:

Thanks.

It's not dumb.There are alot of was to find out. Someone that know you ,and see your art with the watermark removed contacts you. The mods got the thief ,found you as the true artist, and contacts you. You surf around a site you've never been on of don't post much,and find it yourself. A few other ways ,i think with all that.

Pff, no one blames you for that. I was quite in admiration of her work until I read this thread. But then I found the real artist and e-mailed her a compliment. ^_^ So it's all good. The art was definitely pretty.

-hugs-

*Sudders* I quite scared now to post any of the Pictures I do Draw now. I have very few but there still mine, And this Woman steals Fan Fiction too. *Dies* what do you do if you see one of your fan Fictions that has been Stolen? Oh I I will keep an Eye out for this Woman, Just to make sure she Doesn't Steal any Fan Art that I have seen before.

On Aug 2, 2007 1:26 pm, mikachan said:

Don't get too worked up about it- seriously. They're losers that DO get caught. IT's not really that common. If you put in precautions like water marks, signatures and websites, then people pick up that its fake. IT's usually prety obvious. What we're talking about here is a MAJOR case. This person does it for a living. Most frauds do it crapily and are easy to spot Besides- you want people to see your art, right? ^^

On Aug 2, 2007 2:41 pm, arkillian said:

Oh okay, I was just worryed. I do Find Pictures on Photo bucket, but I'm always trying to find who made them or at lest someone who knows. I thinks its really wrong that she does this for a living and I really think she needs help.  People work hard on there picture and It really Saddens Me when Someone Take other peoples Work. Thank you for the hug. ^^ *Smiles Sweetly*

I'm scared too. The thing about it is she IMed me. That's what scares me. IMing me to get info out of me ,so she can copy me.

You can watermark art (in some cases can be removed) ,but what do you do when you fanfic is stolen?

...Did I miss something?

Psycho Kitty Net:  We were infiltrated by the now well-known art thief, Stacey English.  There is a link you can follow at the beginning of this thread - BogusRed posted it - with information on the thief.

She came into our midst twice - first posing as NEPi for Y! Gallery, and then posing as Adele Sessler (DA and Elfwood, very renowned fantasy artist here on the web).  We have banned her and blocked her IP.

Crazy bitch....