Having a Scion paint donor but if the car still look like an S2000, Personally Im not a fan of it but I'm still ok with it as long as we can tell the Base image is there.

Like your chops, in your signature you have a Volvo with a R34 z-tune kit and a Vw with a Techart kit. I dont mind the fact you used donors, in fact, Its similar to my own chopping style and I like those 3 chops because they are unique.

Originality and uniqueness seems to be dying because everyone uses the same donors and dont bother to change anything.
As mentioned, I myself copy and paste reflections all the time, or else my brushing will just look like smudge/ blur/ gradient fills. but it's the chops that make us doubt if the base image is actually there anymore, that's when the line is crossed and issue arises.
Yes, I would like to think of it as a misunderstanding, I dont mind c/p chops to a certain point.

Im talking about the real extreme c/p chops where the base image is actually altered to fit the donor. (which doesn't happen to often, but has in the past) or when someone post a chop and the base that doesn't match the shape of the chop.

Like I said, Hugo is one of the best C/p artist I know, even with just one donor he can make amazing chops because he alters the final image to the point it doesn't look more like the donor and I can still see the base image. I dont mind Srcky's chop to an extent, he put in the effort and the final work does match the base image. But this is also the sort of grey area I'm talking about. Because now Im seeing the exact same image I saw yesterday but with a different car in place.

Just put yourself in the photographers position, wont you feel cheated that your work got stolen and ripped off?

Or maybe this is what chopping is about and I missed the whole point, if that's the case, I'll just leave the thread alone and pretend this whole thread never happened.
Once again, my apologies, it was a chopper called Stjepan, he was banned after he was caught stealing several times.

I'm sorry for outing Srcky specifically, it's an old chop, and a done deal. I will let the post stand for now, as an example of what 'we' think is the problem, and it was a decent comeback to his post tbh. It's not really clear if what he did was wrong (especially at the time he did it, it was not considered cheating yet), and part of the point of this thread is figuring out where to draw the line in the future.
That is also why we need feedback on the problem. As all C+P chops will easily enter a gray area when it comes to copyright laws (or downright break them) it is important that we decide what should be accepted. For me it is more about the deceiving of fellow artists than it is about stealing, especially when it comes to competitions and featured chops on Facebook, which are quite public. That some new members and rookies choose to take some shortcuts on a chop posted below pro is not a big problem for me, but mods/admins need to make sure no-one is promoted or given credit where it is not deserved.

So i guess there isn't a straight jacket solution for this problem. We can only ask the artist to post the reference images they have used heavily or otherwise credit the sources properly or else post WIP's every time while posting the chops.

And I think this why we have WIP thread in Autemo, so that others can see the progress of the chop which in turn not only helps the chopper doing it as suggestions for improvement are given but also others in getting acquainted with the kind of work involved. It helps others analyze how much work and effort has been made for real.

Lets have a war muuuahahhahahahahah

EDIT
Just kidding
imo every artist should post the donor links in his thread and we can judge him
but this is'n gonna work like this arguing about it, and with those damn false accusations and misunderstandings like that one between J_HUI and Srcky
a-a-a-a
that isn't gonna work

We are a community of thieves, we take pictures, ideas, BG, of athmospheres, etc ...
And we try to make a unique work ...
When begins ART and when are we thieves? o.O o.O o.O

In music, it takes 7 consecutive musical notes to talk about plagiarism ...
then we will need to find a similar rule to fix the red line ...

It will be very difficult, but it's maybe possible
In a perfect world, we can maybe set up a committee of "wise"
which could make the right decision and sanction in each case ...

True, any sort of copy-paste chopping is copyright infringement from the very start, unless you have permission from the owner/creator of the original artwork in question. There are huuge gray-areas surrounding this, especially when the artwork start to get it's own identity.
Many times you can get away with just using a small parts, creating a unique artwork in it's own, or just giving credit to the original artists.
Parodies and comedic works are also usually regarded as 'legal' depending on what they make fun of.
For me (but not everyone) the biggest question is what ethics and moral do we want among us 'thieves' on Autemo. I think we should not expect to be lied to when someone is showing off their work. If we can't even trust each other, how can we expect people to not steal our work later ?

PS: tbh, usually I feel quite appreciated if someone bothers to 'steal' my work (no, it doesn't really happen much...
It helps to have a unique and recognizable style, it certainly decreases the chance of someone stealing it in the first place, but also the chance of ever being 'popular'

Well you can find some real car the have lot of parts from others cars:



Golf VI with Alfa 156 tail lights



Clio with 206 tail lights



Saxo with front from Alfa 147

These are just some example, but if you do a quick search for "spanish tuning" probably you will discover a plenty of cars with lot of parts from others

They are al stealing!! Burn them!! argh !!

Well it happens everywere, I sell cars for a living and if we see that an other manufactorer has a promotion action like "pay half now and other half in 12 months with no interest" within a month we have almost the same action but with little change
"pay half now and rest in 24 months with no interest"

That is exactly the same as in chopping, you take a frontbumper but change the color and som reflections.. Tadaa cool chop!

I do agree with the "stealing" part when clearly one donor is "raped" into something that looks a little like the base car.

It's is a difficult discussion, but there has to be a clear definition of what is right and what is wrong..

greetz Kevin

unfortunate that all "robbers" are not as easy to manage as it ;-)

original:
http://www.autemo.com/dc/users/1/OOA63/1342/chops/Audi_A1_by_design05.jpg
copy:
http://www.free-hdwallpapers.com/wallpapers/cars/11047.jpg

Some month ago I've found people selling posters on ebay with my Supersic wallpaper...