Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a huge problem in the art industry. The word came from the Latin word ‘Plagiaius’ meaning Kidnapper. The reason it is given this name is because plagiarism is the act of taking something which is not your own but calming it is. This problem costs a world economic loss worth billions of pounds and puts about 200,000 people out of work each year. Plagiarism has always been a problem but it has become a lot more common due to the internet. The internet is a great place for artists to communicate and promote their work but it also makes art a lot easier to steal. Thankfully the internet makes it a lot easier to catch the culprits. 

An example of the art work. Right image is the original.

One example of plagiarism happened in 2009 when a student won a competition for her work. Her textile designs seemed very impressive especially for a student. She received global recognition and many opportunity’s to display her work.  However it turned out that the student had plagiarised an American illustrator. When the illustrator found out she contacted the organisers of the competition, she told them that her work had been copied. When this was confirmed the student lost her reward and title as a designer.  In this case there was no legal action taken but in most cases it does happen. This was a rather large case of plagiarism but this sort of thing happens all the time. Most creative people will unfortunately experience it.

It’s important to know the difference between plagiarism and homage. Homage is more like a tribute, it’s not stealing but features other art. It’s not stealing because the artist has not claimed it to be their own work. Often the homage will be a tribute to a famous painting or a character. The artist creating the homage will often draw the original but in their own style or with a twist. You can think of homage to be a bit of fun to celebrate the original image.

Original image by Katsushika Hokusai

Homage by Yuko Shimizu

 

As an artist it’s important to be aware of this problem. The easiest way to avoid plagiarism is to not copy. It sounds simple but that’s all it is, you should come up with your own ideas and creations. Of course there will be coincidences. There are a lot of artists in the world and sometimes their creations can look very similar. For example there are a lot of artists who have drawn skulls. Some of those drawings look very similar but that’s because they are all of the same thing. This happens a lot but you can usually tell if someone has stolen a particular piece of art.