An Important Life Lesson

I loathe to break your attention away from Chibi Wars, but this is important. 

Recently, a lot of you have come to me asking to do Chibi-related things of your own. I say that is okay (I don't own the Chibi maker. Gen8 does), as long as you don't copy my stories or Chibis.. Then I have no problem with it. 

http://therandommspbloggy.blogspot.co.uk This goes against everything I ask. 

Check the posts labelled Chibi Wars day 1, 2, 3, 4 + 5 

Want to know why I'm so angry? Well, let's break it down into points. 

1. This person has shamelessly used the names for MY Chibis. So far of hers I have seen the names 'Liz', 'Ellie' AND 'Kita' popping up. These, might I add, are names of my actual friends that I have had to ASK permission to use. 

2. Look at this extract from her blog: 

Look familiar? Sort of like Chibi Doll, perhaps? That's because it IS Chibi Doll! 

Do you know how you can tell? Because the REST of her pictures have the Chibi Maker border around them, like this: 

This is what happens if you press 'save' on the Chibi maker. I snip mine straight off the website so that boarder isn't there! Even if she HAD re-created Chibi Doll on the site and saved it this way, Chibi Doll is still my desgin! Just like this: 

She recoloured Chibi Missy!

These were actually quite painful to look at. 

3. Read that extract.

It's not exactly the same, but many of her writings are INCREDIBLY close to my original story of Chibi Wars. Look, if you're going to do your own, take it in your OWN direction instead of following mine! 

And what made me most upset?

I had to stumble across this MYSELF. She didn't send a message, didn't ask. Didn't INFORM me she was going to copy my photos, my names... The things I had to ask for. 

Do you know what that's called? Plagaiarism. 

And do you know what that is defined as?

'Stealing someone's ideas and passing it off as your own' 

Now, I have never claimed that the Chibi maker is mine. It belongs to gen8 and you all can use it to make chibis, but the STORY of Chibi Wars and my characters along with their names all belong to me and my friends! 

So, whoever did this (Since I can't find your MSP username- lucky you -.-) 

I found this incredibly hurtful. It actually made me cry. Congratulations  you did something that only a few people have EVER managed to do. I do not spend my entire week WRITING chibi wars just so people can take take take without even ASKING for my blessing, especially when you so shamelessly took photos and names STRAIGHT off my blog. Call it what you want, call it intense fandom, say you loved my series and you were inspired by me to do your own

IT DOES NOT MATTER. THAT IS STILL PLAGIARISM. 

People, you must ASK before you do these things. You must ASK the people who own the pictures, ASK the person who created the story, ASK ASK ASK. If you forget to ask straight away or don't know who to ask, do it as soon as you find out (Like me when I learnt the hard lesson about plagiarism)! This can end you up in serious- CRIMINAL- trouble.

If you can't learn that lesson, then I guess I can't write Chibi Wars anymore.