well, here's the story:
i drew a lancer (school mascot) for a story last year for the Harbinger (school newspaper). you may remember it, the title was lancer moolah. i submitted it Feb 19, 2005. if you want to see it, go to my gallery, there's a link to it under all the links to my recent deviations.
anyway, this site is copyrighted, right? well, somehow i start seeing all these posters for "game day" t-shirts with that very design on them! some economics class had put my art on a t-shirt and was selling it for profit!! it was almost identical, other than the shoes and the fact that there were basketballs and footballs on the lance instead of cash. all the hilights were the same, and all the proportions and such were exactly the same. it's kind of funny that the only part of the drawing that doesn't look like the same artist drew it is the part of the lance that she changed. i guess art isn't so easy when you don't have something to trace from, eh?
anyway, i talked to the girl and she won't admit to anything. it's kind of funny that i mentioned that i drew it for the harbinger (i hadn't mentioned deviantart yet) and she immediately responded with "i don't even have the internet at home!" busted. just plain busted.
the teacher isn't going to punish her, though i think that's what should happen. he tried to defend her, saying that she didn't intend to steal my work, that she had no malicious intent... but come on, man. i don't care if her intentions were good, she was lazy and decided to steal instead of do her own work. if this had been an english paper, she would have gotten an F. if she had done this in the real world, she could kiss her career goodbye. you don't make friends by plagarizing. and my lancer is protected under this site.
the sad part of this is they aren't making any money off of it. apparently no one wants to buy a shirt for $10 to wear to a FREE high school football game in order to support their team... i wonder why!
maybe this economics class should stick to thermoses and, y'know, ORIGINAL work.