I have mixed feelings about this. Over the years I've had a lot of artwork stolen and kind of got used to it. Nobody ever made a lot of money from it though and I didn't hold the final artwork so had no control anyway. These days thanks to digital I can keep hold of the artwork and supply digital copies so I guess its a bit easier to protect.  These days I just figure if people want to take it and claim it as their own there is not much I can do about it. But they will be in trouble if they get a commission from it since how can they do anything original in my style? They will have to contact me to do it for them or  loose the commission. Maybe they take deposits and never deliver, but in the end hopefully they will get tracked down.
If somebody takes a piece of mine and it makes them a lot of fame and  cash that's great, because I can sue them and get the cash.

As for plagiarism it all depends on how its done and what the intent is.  What Nick Simmons did was all a bit of a mistake. I get the impression he really liked bleach and  let it influence him too much. Now as A kid when i was learning I did the same thing with my personal art. I copied a lot of stuff. I don't know a lot about it butt seems like he did the same thing but coz his Dad is rich he got his "practice" published. In reality he just wasn't ready. I feel a little sorry for him for not owning up before it was published and making changes. Ow he's probably messed up his credibility for ever. At least with fanatical manga fans who will never forget and remind everybody when ever he does anything new.

I use reference a for most of my work though I do tend to use photo reference but there is no harm in using reference from any source as long as you are not exactly reproducing the original. However where is the line drawn? With Nick Simmons some stuff is clearly copied and other stuff no more than referenced : http://bleachness.livejournal.com/446299.html


For the most part I take plagiarism as a compliment that does no real harm to me. Perhaps it even helps the plagiarizer's ego so that's a good thing  right?  Since they are so mentally deranged and  I assume unskilled that the only way they can make them selves feel good is by claiming they produced the work of some other. If its done for profit  we can expose and sue them.

That's all I can think of for now.