I'm so glad all the bawwww cry moar entitlement people are done, now. It's like they think they own the internet, and everything that gets posted on the internet is THEIRS FOR THE TAKING who cares if it's against the fanartist's wishes? THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE PUT IT ON MY INTERNETZ.
I can objectively see both points, here. Sure, an icon is just 100x100 pixels, and most Japanese fanartists (which is mainly what we're talking about here) don't go looking all over LJ for their art, so what's the harm. They're not losing money or sleep over it, so neither should you, right?
On the other hand, parading around with a picture, icon or whatever is just an amoral thing to do. If you don't know the source, you don't know if the author requested you leave it alone, and if you do know and don't credit, you're an asshole. Sure, you get to walk around with a pretty icon, but if you can't summon the respect for the artist who made the picture enough to even credit or find the source, you don't deserve the image, fanart or not.
Besides, if you paint it off mockingly as 'oh, it's just fanart', then use official art, dumbasses.
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I can objectively see both points, here. Sure, an icon is just 100x100 pixels, and most Japanese fanartists (which is mainly what we're talking about here) don't go looking all over LJ for their art, so what's the harm. They're not losing money or sleep over it, so neither should you, right?
On the other hand, parading around with a picture, icon or whatever is just an amoral thing to do. If you don't know the source, you don't know if the author requested you leave it alone, and if you do know and don't credit, you're an asshole. Sure, you get to walk around with a pretty icon, but if you can't summon the respect for the artist who made the picture enough to even credit or find the source, you don't deserve the image, fanart or not.
Besides, if you paint it off mockingly as 'oh, it's just fanart', then use official art, dumbasses.