So, we have been given an official response from deviant concerning the policy, written by $Chix0r herself. I took a long while to think the article and the whole issue over once again.

The article is still written in an inappropriate, slightly patronizing tone and it uses irrelevant references to artworks created LONG before electronic art theft copyrights were written. It failed to persuade me that tracing is an effective way to learn, it also failed to make me think that tracing is a form of art. Apart from that, I had a long, bitter laughing fit when I read this bit:

<sub>R E S P E C T

We treat each other with respect, as we believe that every staff member, volunteer, and member is a contributing factor to deviantART’s success. We acknowledge that even those that challenge our patience offer important lessons we can learn from and strive to do so.</sub>

It is such a good joke if you read it having in mind the journal entry the same person wrote a few days earlier. But I digress.

One thing that was really well worded there - and really important - was the clear explanation of how exactly the policy will be enforced and applied.

<sub>We allow for the submission of completed traced works within the FanArt Galleries providing it is a tracing -- not just a copy -- and you bring your own, original elements into the completed deviation.

If you chose to trace a stock image, either from our extensive deviantART resource gallery or from a legitimate external stock source such as sxc.hu or i-stock.com, this can be submitted into the vector or vexel gallery (depending on the method which you use) and we encourage you to supply the appropriate references.

Some deviants and others provide allowance for their artwork to be used within Creative Commons Licensing, which they indicate within the deviation description. Artists who are misled and confused into believing that our tracing policy permits anyone to take any image on deviantART and simply trace it without permission should be assured that we will always remove this when requested by the artist of the original image, and you should use the appropriate reporting tools to bring it to our attention, so we can remove it.</sub>

That is all I needed to know, thank you.

I just can't help but wonder what the problem was to make things equally clear in the previous news concerning the policy. Perhaps $realitysquared indeed is not the best person to put anything into words. I digress again, however.

My final thoughts? If someone chooses to use tracing as a crutch to just pretend they can create art - their choice, but I honestly feel sorry for them. No matter what deviant admins say, art means creation not re-creation, so traced image will never be a work of art, just as a so-called "one click render" won't.

If someone uses stock resources for tracing and posts the traces in their gallery - fine by me, even if they forget to credit. Stock is stock, after all, it's something I have offered to the community for free, taking the possible abuse risk in consideration. The only reason why I ask for credit when someone uses my stock is because I want to see what has been done with my photo, to see how many various uses people can find for it. So no, I don't expect deviant to skin alive those who use my stock without credit, but it is nice to know that deviant actually encourages crediting stock artists.

I feel much calmer now and a tiny bit safer knowing that tracing of non-stock art without the original artist's permission is not allowed, and that the offending traced images will be removed when reported.

I still remain a disillusioned and disappointed member of deviantart community, however. Some members, in notes and comments addressed to me, said things that hurt back then and are hurting still. Some treated me like their personal training dummy just because I dared to voice my concerns and take action starting my little "protest". I think this is the worst side effect of the whole issue. On the technical side, the deviation and print submission agreement still does not sound quite right to me. Some issues and doubts linger.

That being said, now that the dust has somewhat settled down, I am considering putting my art back up for public viewing. Everything I know about the art I do I've learned here, from the artists like ~mcafee2000, =RainfeatherPearl, ~Louvette and many others who were kind enough to find the time and will to give advice and honest critique; to teach me. I am still learning, of course, and I would like to be able to keep exchanging hints and ideas with all of you on both yours and my art. So yes, I do want to stay.

I haven't made the final decision yet, but I know that if my images reappear here, they will be in much smaller size and in much lower quality than before. Prints will not be available any more and every single image will have its fingerprint registered at MyFreeCopyright.com. I suppose I can live with that, but it's really sad that such things had to become a necessity.