So let's talk about copyright creeping or copyright overreaching or IP overreaching where creators are completely overreaching on what they actually own. In online art spaces, it looks a lot like micro-gatekeeping. You have artists threatening others with plagiarism accusations or legal action just because a drawing looks vaguely similar to theirs. But legally, copyright offices don't protect general ideas or concepts—they only protect the exact, finished piece of art you made.
You see this gatekeeping all the time with made-up rules like "pose theft" or "color scheme theft." Legally speaking, nobody can own a standard pose, an angle, or a color palette. Those are just the basic building blocks of art. You can absolutely copyright your specific drawing of a character in a cool stance, but you can't stop someone else from drawing a totally different character in that exact same stance. Trying to police these basics is just using social pressure to scare people, because there's zero legal backing for it.
The absolute best example of this is the "closed-species" drama (This is actually real internet history! I experienced this actually), which is pure community hype with no real legal weight. In these circles, an artist makes up a creature concept—like a weird hybrid animal—and expects people to pay a fee just to draw their own character as that "species." Legally, you can't copyright a biological idea or a fictional species, only highly specific, named characters.
Whenever an outsider artist tries to upload their own original character based on a so-called 'closed species,' the designer's loyal fans will immediately dogpile them, calling them a thief and a plagiarizer.
A creator owns their specific artwork, but they can’t legally stop you from drawing a similar-looking animal. When fans attack outsiders for drawing these creatures, they're just enforcing an online honor code, not real law.
Honestly, these independent artists are acting just like massive corporations. Disney and Nintendo are famous for this kind of aggressive copyright bullying. Disney literally changed US laws to keep Mickey Mouse away from the public domain, and Nintendo drops DMCA takedown notices on fan games and mods constantly. When indie artists try to control poses, colors, or species, they are using that exact same corporate bullying tactic, just scaled down to police their peers on social media.
Because this toxic culture of extreme ownership was around long before generative AI, it has naturally bled right into the anti-AI movement. A lot of critics aren't just mad about AI models scraping work; they’re carrying over these old habits of policing trends, concepts, and workflows, attacking anyone who doesn't make art the traditional way.
To stop the constant harassment, the art community needs some practical fixes. For starters, we need better legal literacy so artists actually know what copyright covers versus what it doesn't. We should also push for open-species models or Creative Commons licenses so people can share concepts freely while keeping their specific characters protected. Finally, platforms need better labeling systems so artists can clearly tag if a piece is handmade, digitally assisted, or AI-collaborative without triggering an immediate witch hunt.
If we can actually set these boundaries, everyone wins. Getting rid of these fake copyright rules would instantly cut down on online toxicity and stop the endless dogpiling and false plagiarism accusations. It would give artists way more creative freedom to practice the basics, use references, and try new styles without worrying about being labeled a thief. Ultimately, separating the basic building blocks of art from actual protected work will give us clearer rules for tech, protecting real human creativity while letting modern tools exist without all the drama.
Source: r/aiwars · by /u/Otherwise_Army9814