I hate that it comes to this but unfortunately it is very common in the Furry Fandom. Inevitably, someone finds a character or fursona that they like and, rather than try and create something on their own that is different and unique, they steal another design and claim it as their character.
It happens even more when the character in-question is popular. This has happened to people like Telephone, Captain, and all manner of other creators and their creations. I have even had people steal Cheshire before and I had to report a TikTok account multiple times for using my character as their profile picture because they were also claiming the character was theirs.
When the Protogen species came out (see my blog HERE)~ I was quick to get one from my buddy Flamesvoices. I had just beaten the game PORTAL and therefore, we decided on a Portal-themed Protogen simply named “Portal”. He was made over 6 years ago…
This design quickly became popular in the community with many people also wanting to get their own Portal-themed Protogen. Now, don’t get me wrong…you cannot claim a pallet and you absolutely cannot claim ownership over the “idea” of a character based on a video-game. There have been MANY portal-related Protogen, but each one is different and unique, despite using similar color schemes and being based on the same game. Then, you have this person and their “Portal”:
THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY!!!
This is not even “inspired” by my Portal is it is a blatant ripoff. Worse, I see that this was made over ten months ago. For ten months, someone has been going around with a blatant copy of my character with the ONLY difference being the symbol on the hip. NOT COOL. This…is character theft. They are taking a character that is meaningful to me and doign whatever they want with it. Now…naturally, I am the type to think that maybe this was an innocent mistake…so, I did send them a few messages on the matter:
I’m still waiting for a response…but whether or not they choose to do anything about this, well, unfortunately…that is the problem when it comes to characters. Since ideas like these can’t often by copyrighted (if at all) in ay way that keeps them safe, copycats and fakes will pop up all the time. All we can do is block these people, ban them from communities, and hope they wise up and change their ways. But, I wanted to put it out there that these people need to be corrected (not rudely mind you- don’t harass people, but do educate them on why they can’t just steal someone else’s character and the damage it causes).
This has already stressed me out. I don’t know this person…I don’t know what else they have stolen, whether they take credit for other things I have done or posted, whether they are a good person or a complete asshole online. I can’t speak for any of that. If they made a suit, I would feel even more horrified because again, this is essentially my character, they just slapped a different sticker on the hip and called it a day. It’s horrible behavior and I wish it had been called out ten months ago.
So, please…if you see this person posing as “Portal”- they are not Portal. This is my character they have essentially stolen and I AM NOT OKAY WITH IT. Please ask them to take the character post down and/or change the character to where it does not mimic mine.
Again, I am fine with Portal based characters…but this ain’t it…
This is theft…
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