In the last two months, there have been three incidents of artists "borrowing" the work of other, often higher-ranked, artists in order to improve their own work. In each case, the same situation has occurred - a base of the higher-ranked artist was used, and added upon, but the lower-ranked artist in order to make their own graphic look better. All three of the artists in question are talented in their own right, yet still have done this horrible thing, whether out of laziness or jealousy, I don't know. But it's very upsetting.

All of these artists have been dealt with accordingly, either by full-out banning, or by a demotion to Member Artist, from which they cannot be re-promoted from in the next six months based upon their subsequent behaviour. These members will be heavily observed, both here and at similar graphics sites for the remainder of their time on these sites.

In order to properly explain what "ripping" constitutes, I will attempt to define it:

1. taking someone else's work and claiming it as your own.
2. using a portion of someone else's work in your own without credit. (note that this includes stock, textures, etc. as well, unless the person who has offered these things has clearly stated the credit is not necessary. However, if you claim this work as your own, it still counts as ripping.)
3. directly copying the contents of a graphics tutorial, then displaying it as your own work.

There is no reason at all to steal from someone else. If it is merely to make yourself appear better in the eyes of others, hard work tends to do that job quite nicely. Everyone here is extremely vigilant, as many of you know, and if you rip, someone will catch you in the act. It's not difficult to tell when something out-of-place appears in someone's gallery. I would rather not have to punish people so harshly, and the only way I won't have to do so is if you all be entirely honest in your work here.

In order to stave off questions and suspicions of ripping, I ask that you please save all the original files of the graphics you produce. These files include each individual layer of the graphic you made, and providing it when asked gives you the chance to prove yourself innocent of ripping. For colourizations and manipulations (and probably for blends as well), you should also include your name on the graphic in a place that would be difficult for others to remove if they try to steal it from you.

Even if it's not a question of ripping, you should still save the original file, especially if the graphic is for a request. Many people ask for changes, and not having the original file for those graphics is just plain silly and means a waste of time for you and the requestor.

You can keep these files in a special folder that you clean out every so often to keep it from getting too large.

A list for quick reference, created due to numerous confusion.

1. tutorial graphics can be included in galleries. while they do not help you with promotion, with proper credit or alteration, they are acceptable to include.

2. tutorial graphics should not appear in challenges. if you have used parts of tutorials, like a little trick or something small, that's of course fine. A complete colouring scheme, however, it not acceptable.

3. tutorial graphics can be made for requests, though it does get messy. in these cases, try to follow the same rule as for challenges - parts of tutorials can be used, but not complete areas (mostly colouring - that's the big one).

4. tutorials are for helping you learn new things, not to steal styles from others. If you're clever enough to steal someone's style without using a tutorial, then kudos to you. Creativity, however, it always perfered. Remember, I'm omniscient and know all the tutorials and styles.