posted this info on tumblr to educate youngins and figured maybe it could do some good here too, since there's always new users who don't fully understand basic art etiquette. comments are disabled because this is not a debate. art theft doesn't stop being wrong just cuz you're too lazy to learn to make stuff yourself/too selfish to be respectful of the people who actually created the work you enjoy.



'credit' on art doesn't mean clarifying that you yourself DON'T deserve credit (ex; i didn't draw this, this isn't mine, credit to whoever drew this, found this on google, etc).

it means calling out the person who DOES deserve recognition for the majority of work that went into creating the piece, in a way that other people will actually understand and be able to find more from them/contact them if they are interested in it. (ex; base used originally made by username on deviantart, heavily referenced from username's work on instagram, artist is username on twitter and they gave me permission to post this here, etc)

also, credit is not permission. you need BOTH to ethically post anything. just putting a link to someone's original work does NOT make it okay to repost it, you must also ASK for and ACQUIRE that person's EXPLICIT permission to do so. people post things in certain places and avoid posting them in others for REASONS. and if the artist doesn't post the image themself, they can't take it down or alter it anymore. thus, reposting goes against artists' wishes/intent and removes them from their own work- THAT is why it is NOT okay.

if you don't know who made something, not only can you not credit them, but you can't get permission, and therefore it is NEVER okay to post such things. this includes 'ai art' which is made out of others' work, almost entirely without their permission. that image your prompt generated didn't come from the computer alone, it came from hundreds of artists who you can't name and who didn't give you their permission to use that work.