Hi, all;

I don't ever want to look back at my work because someone has suggested I borrowed something from their work without permission.  I know many of the rules when writing a paper about how to avoid plagiarism.  Don't quote someone else's work as though it were your own.  If quoting someone else's work, cite the reference in your annotated bibliography at the end of the paper, or at the lower portion of the pages.  Scholarly works often tell you in the front how much you're allowed to copy without obtaining the publisher's permission.

I don't know, but I'd imagine the rules to be similar in creating graphical design works.  Brushes, for example, don't always say anything about their use in commercial work, some are not to be used, others suggest to write and ask.  Are our skins commercial in the first place?  I mean, we don't sell them after all.  To what degree must a photo or a texture, for example, be modified before it becomes our work?  If I do a Google images search for something, and find an image that has no specified permissions, what thoughts do you all have about cutting little bits from it and using them in your work?

Ideas can also be plagiarized.  Color combinations can be 'borrowed' from another design altogether.  For example, many of my color picks in the skin I'm working on come almost directly (I don't use an eyedropper) from a classic Jaguar interior.  My design also has a steampunk feel about it.  How much of that idea can be new without borrowing from the ideas of others, and still be recognizably steampunk?

Would love to hear the thoughts of any and all who have them on this subject.

peace,

Mally