Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-6078077-20160914152653/@comment-27636373-20160918140532

The second example is almost always  outright theft if they don’t credit the original artist, and it’s still pretty sketchy on if it’s stealing or not if they give any credit on their page. Base-users are people who either find pre-made bases on the internet and draw their outfit over that so they don’t have to draw their own people, or they find a pose they like (be it in a base, or from a different character) and trace that pose and then add their outfit on top of that. Both are methods used by people who tend to have a low confidence in their ability to make a decent looking human but still want to show off their ideas. For the ones who use bases and draw on them, they’re almost always requited to give credit unless the creator of the base says otherwise. I’m unclear about what the people who trace screenshots or other pictures are actually doing and if it should be cited as something as harsh as stealing, and more along the lines of ripping-off a work of art.

At the end of the day, even someone like me who roles their eyes at people who use bases and/or trace, I’d rather see that than outright stolen pictures. At least it requires some actual effort (even if it is a way to cheap out at times) and then people get an idea of what your characters look like. Plus it tends to give more accurate results than a dollmaker, since there’s only so many options on those sites.

In short; don’t find designs you think are cute off of Zerochan and then make up a story around them without permission of the creator (and good luck with that), give credit if you use a base, and you should be fine.

