Can you say "bullshit"? Because if you can, then you are old enough to know that's exactly what this is. Bullshit.

That's why I can't believe deviantART is trying to do this. No...wait. I can. In between of taking advantage of their good artists providing prints to rob profits from sell and attracting various other artists which to bombard with ads until their eyes bleed, this one fits in real cozy like. I mean, it's all about the money, right?

The sad thing is that dA has a legal leg to stand on in this. Likely because the legal system itself is full of enough holes to den a plague's worth of rats, but I digress. As I'm given to understand, the reason that tracing is being allowed is mainly due to two things which they are trying to slip what every artist intrinsically knows is real tracing in between. The first is fan works, which are technically copyright infringements in and of themselves. The other is the line drawn for arts and crafts. If you aren't aware of it yet, both of these are very sticky areas.

They also relate to tracing in a very key way. Fan works provide the loophole to reproduce another's character or an extreme likeness to a character so long as either credit is given or money is not being made. Though even these conditions have exceptions. The broad definition of arts and crafts provides the other. Not all arts are drawn arts, though there are some which are dependent on the drawn arts. This can include everything from decoupage to the various app skins and wallpapers. Which is to say that if someone copies or traces your work to use on these, they technically are not stealing credit of your work as what they produced had nothing to do with the original concept at all.

So, be forewarned now that the law is not your friend in this case. These laws can only be applied as intended where there is money involved and few if anyone on dA makes enough money through their works to have a case. And even then, the dA ToS takes care of them.

What is real tracing then? I know I said before that every artist intrinsically knows what it is. Simply put, real tracing is artwork that is directly traced through any method, whether a lightboard or vector with intent to display as one's own work. In short, a forgery.

This is very different from the definition that dA is trying to place tracing off as, even as they are protecting the forgeries. Currently a work by anyone that is directly traced and displayed will be under equal protection as a fan work that was painstakingly drawn and colored by hand (this includes by a mouse/tablet too). Both can even be identical, but the real difference here is the method and the intent. The first just wants credit as I fail to see how tracing in that manner would produce any viable skill except that for forgery, while the other will eventually develop their own style and grow less and less dependent on copying a work exactly until they are no longer copying at all.

So why is dA doing this if they are effectively stunting the growth of newer and better artists? Because the sad truth is there is more money to be made out of newbies and posers than there is the more experienced artists, who eventually grow tired of dA's shifty policies and move on to greener grounds.

For now though, I have no intention of leaving. I technically have yet to begin. And while I do find the restrictions of various artists to be impeding to my own creativity and development, I do/will try and respect them as much as I can.