Advice about someone possibly stealing art?

[honeybunnns.livejournal.com]

Hello! Sorry for any mistakes I make while posting this because it's my first post, but I'm in need of some advice!
I'm a not so popular artist. Only a few hundred followers. Someone popular has heavily referenced some of my art and made profit from it. I'm honestly a little afraid to make an official beware. I don't want their followers to attack me. I don't know who's in the wrong but I will explain the situation a little bit without giving away any identities.

A few months ago, I posted a YCH on my furaffinity with a set theme to the pose and background. All was fine and well until about 2 weeks ago or so when some of my friends and I noticed that a rather popular artist, that is watching my art account, posted and sold a YCH with the same theme, and an almost identical pose. When I say identical, I mean 90% of it is the exact same as the one I did previously. I asked my friends what they thought about it and one of them contacted the popular artist. Long story short, the artist contacts me and apologizes profusely, claiming it was mere coincidence and they've never see it before. I tell them that this is strange considering that they followed me shortly after I posted the original YCH, and they've been around to see the reposted reminders for it. Just to clarify what that means, when a YCH doesn't sell after a week or so, I repost it, with a link to the original post, for new people to see.

They apologize more and still say that they've never seen it. This time they offer me the money that they earned from the YCH, which I deny. I personally felt like it was a bribe almost, and I didn't want them to hold it over my head in the future. They never posted the finished YCH and deleted the post where they sold the YCH. I have it screencapped in case I need to post an offical artist beware. I've noticed that they've copied poses and adoptables from other artists which is more proof that maybe this wasn't a coincidence at all. This has made me worry even more. Let me say that none of it is traced. It's all in their own art style. So is it really a problem then? Is heavily referencing and selling for profit as bad as tracing and should I really worry about it? Any thoughts would be appreciated! Sorry for making this post so long.

Comments

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

It *might* be a coincidence. I've actually had something similar happen to me on more than one occasion. An artist I follow and I both posted a YCH with the same character in almost the same pose within the same 24-hour period. We didn't copy each other, it just happened. Another time I posted a YCH that ended up not selling, so I eventually cancelled it, then months later another artist I follow posted a commission that had the same character as the one I used in my YCH in the same pose. Again, she didn't copy me, it was just coincidence. And those are just two examples; they aren't the only ones.

This sort of thing happens a lot more than most people realize, and it's pretty normal. There are only so many poses out there, so it's bound to happen.

That said, if they're using a lot of other artists' work for reference...really I don't know what to say about that. In that case they're really shooting themselves in the foot with that, because when you reference other artists instead of life or photos or whatever, you're going to end up replicating any mistakes the original artist makes... I also find it strange they offered you money.

[honeybunnns.livejournal.com]

Well, if it is a coincidence, they've had quiet a few coincidences. I'm not trying to talk bad about this artist, but they have another ych that is an exact copy of someone else's art work.

I just think it's unfair that they're making a profit off of other people's art and ideas. They seem creative enough to be able to make up their own stuff on their own.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

I mean yeah, if this is a habit of theirs, then it's less likely a coincidence.

[mistresswolf.livejournal.com]

heh One time I posted up a YCH and soon after that, someone I had never heard of Noted me screaming at me that I was copying/tracing their YCH and how dare I and such.

... But we had referenced the same image for pose ideas. I linked her to the photo and was like "Looks like we used the same pose from this!" and just ended up deleting my sketch to keep the peace.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

Pfft. I would've just told them to get lost...