i hate when people do that....why can they just spend there own money and get there own character's, instead of using other's that work HOUR'S!! on, it just drive's me nut's...plus i seen a lot of people using other's art and maybe some of your's on face book, and thinking it's there's.

People rip off other's characters all the time, sadly. Strangely enough none have tried to imitate me. As far as I'm aware.
If you're a popular artist, get good art, etc. Others are gonna be using that art as their 'own' character and the like. It's a bummer but they do it. :/
As for people imitating your characters. I wouldn't say it's a reportable offense (On Discord, Telegram, etc.) If they were reposting your artwork, using said art as a character on F-List or other similar sites, they can have the character/art/etc taken down.

Well damn.

wtf is up with some people...

Welcome to the internet where some people simply don't give a fuck and do as they wish.

I’m sorry for that to happen to you

The internet has a nasty habit of doing this to artists who get to a certain level of success and/or popularity, you would think that in communities such as this, community and content that is generally outcasted or slagged by general media and people. That people would be much more respectful and understanding in areas such as this...

But you always those few that do it

Really sucks that you have to deal with this, on top of what you are currently going through. Good for making a PSA on it, just a reminder that this stuff still happens, and people might forget about this type of stuff.

I know a bunch of words don't mean much, from an online stranger, but hope your problems get sorted out soon, or at the least levitate a little.

I actually spoke to this guy. I will say that he isn't trying to impersonate you, the very first thing he told me was that he didn't own Tarpit, and he linked me your page. But I do understand where you are coming from, seeing as Tarpit is your creation and you have him made a very specific way

I dunno about it from a "legal" perspective, but it is indeed annoying when this kinda thing happens.

While not explicitly illegal in some locations if they're not outright claiming ownership of the character and cite the original owner (allowing it to be considered a "parody use" under Fair Use in the US), it's annoying as hell. I see it so often on F-List and Twitter, but now Discord? It's getting out of control.

To be honest we live in a world where people draw pokemon and act like they're their original creations because they put a bow tie on it.

People are gunna unfortunately take your characters in the same way you take Jon or wolf or etc and draw thrm in ways the original artist or creator probably never intended.

That's just the world. It sucks.

I've had this happen to me a few times and I really don't like it when they play me as a character I'm not even am, personality wise and kinks.

ive seen people use others chars AND post their artwork on other sites. its dumb when they pretend its theirs. if you wanna do that shit at least give the artist the credit they deserve

It sucks putting effort into a character just for people to steal it. It's one of the things I hope I never have happen to me because it's a major dick move. On another note, that character does look and have some interesting attributes.

Ok Hungo ill keep an eye out for the impostor or impostors, im in a few vore related things so ill try to tell ya who is doing it

People that do that make my sick... Especially when its my fursona someone else uses in RP that make me very unhappy

Hugo, my good sir i think that the person was trying to frame a friend of mine. and if you could respond i would like to explain myself in detail about why this not what you think it is. Your characters are your creation but they are on the world wide web with traffic and information distributed at literal speeds of light across the world.

Your copyright does say you have creative licence over you characters but this doesn't limit people to role play as them. the person you were notified about was not using your works to impersonate you but take on a spin on your persona. this is protected under parody law and fair use. please understand that the person was lying to you and that he had no intentions of masquerading as you nor having him claim the artwork is his in anyway.

Please call off the witch hunt for him since it is perfectly ok for someone to use an already established character and use themselves as a catalyst or take their own interpretation as long as they do not claim to be you. which they didn't. nor distribution of selling your product, nor philandering you or your work. he is a fan that simply took the idea of one of your characters and decided to put his own personal flavor into it.

I'm not taking sides here, but it's interesting how the fandom deals with this in such dramatically varied ways.

It's not "the same", perhaps.. But a certain blue wolf who is VERY PREVALENT in someone's gallery here seems to be fair to use, abuse, and do as they wish with - no questions asked - and I doubt the creators had a day in it. Without an attempt to impersonate one could argue this is relatively similar. A hot idea, a hot concept.. name not changed.. But borrowed for fun.

When does the fandom decide that creating a rule34-esque "parody" is okay, and when it isn't?

To my understanding parody laws require the subject of the parody to be clearly distinguishable from the parody itself. For example, Hugo's use of Jon Talbain in his own artwork would be protected under parody/fair use. If Hugo started ripping Jon Talbain artwork from the games and calling it his own, it wouldn't be protected.

If this person had done his own fanart of Tarpit, then that may be protected.

Notably, fanart is not always protected under parody law/fair use. See: Various Star Trek fan works, various Final Fantasy fan works, Chrono Trigger based fan works, etc.

I mean, it's not really illegal, and personally I don't think it's that big a deal. People use characters from games and anime and other stuff as their icons, so what makes that different from one of your characters? If they're not going around saying it's their character no harm done I say.

Well at least nobody is using my blue guy character....lol

Are they claiming to be you/your character or are they using the work without permission and attaching a new persona to that work? Have you tried contacting them? Sorry that life sucks right now. Definitely feel you. :P Feel free to message me if you want to chat. :)

Oh.. This is the reason why I left DA. Art thieves. Ask them and what their OC's name is. Then ask if it was a gift to someone. Those questions can help you. It could be someone who's OC resembles yours or not...

I actually ran into the guy the other day on the said discord server, I alerted the staff in charge of the server so they can decide what to do. Hopefully that helps!

we are handling it as we speak, err Read

I mostly seen to get people stealing my name/char on steam if anything. Had to report a few ppl there

WHO EVER THIS PRICK IS, I'D TEAR THEM APART! NO! NOT COOL!!

I mean...I remember back in the day when I was playing REALLY ancient games on the Microsoft Gaming Zone I went around as SSJ Goku and used a DBZ icon, played games with Sonic_The_Hedgehog422 and Link_Kokiri and the like.

I doubt that the original artists intended for DBZ-Sonic crossover porn to ever exist but if you look hard enough out there there is definitely fanart of it - or Jon Talbain getting crammed down the dog-cocks of various and sundry creatures.

I get that you put a ton of work into your art and that it's frustrating to see what looks like art theft, but it sounded to me like he may be a fan? IDK. It's nearly 4 AM and I'm dog tired.