AGAINST
Name: Brittani
Country: USA
Website(s): My deviantART
My Thoughts: I personally do not think any editor will know the true hardship an artist goes through making a picture. To color over what somebody has slaved away for two days or an entire week is not only illegal, but disrepectful.

AGAINST
Name: Justin
Country: N/A
Website(s): N/A
My Thoughts: in this case its just a LAZY HALF ASSED way of getting away with using a screenshot its cuz of this trend that i stopped going to animegalleries.net this kind of shit is all u see now.

AGAINST
Name: Warren
Country: USA
Website(s): Warren's deviantART
My Thoughts: I am against editing because to me, that's basically taking someone's art, making slight changes to it and then, saying that it's yours. That's stealing! I mean like just because you take someone's fruit and put you're name on it, doesn't mean that it's yours!.

NEITHER
Name: Mei
Country: England
Website(s): Mei's deviantART
My Thoughts: I'd prefer the editor having permission to edit, to be honest. However, depending on the kind of editing, I would say different things. If the person is just going to change colours, then I don't really think that it could class as editing, as such. For editing the colours people can still tell what the original anime/manga is, and so long as there is, somewhere, a copyright to the original artist owning the original image, I believe they should do that - you can always tell it's been edited from an anime, anyway. For photoshopping, the editing is a little different, as most people just use a base they could do anyway - and now, thanks to the use of the 'pentool', it's hard to tell if they really drew it or not. If you cannot tell if they have drawn it, I believe they should either make it VERY CLEAR that they do not own the original image - however, could it be classed as their own image? We learn to draw from looking at and, often, copying drawings, and at the end of the day, a lot of people 'adapt' the style of their favourite artist into their own style. I know a lot of people that learned to draw from copying the images - so how can you tell? After all, they could have traced it. We don't bash people who copy things from the computer and draw it by hand on a sheet of paper, as much as we bash editors. It's the same thing, effectively. Someone takes a picture someone else has drawn, and changes it - edits it. To make people stop editing - FAIRLY, would in the end, result in a lot of artists who could no long draw the image from the screenshot and colour it in random colours. I know, I've not really got a 'point' supporting one side or the other, but really, it's the original artists' job to stop the people editing their stuff, if they want to stop them, that is. This sounds a lot more bitchy than I intended. Oh dear...

FOR
Name: Chuv
Country: N/A
Website(s): N/A
My Thoughts: i believe this started off as people who couldn't draw and didn't have truly origional characters(i.e. sakura, naruto, sasuke or any other main characters Clones) just wanting people to see what there characters would look like if they were on the show. to that effect i don't think there's anything wrong with the editing as long as it's directly from the manga or anime( i.e. something that we already have seen or know that kishimoto had a hand in making). as far as changing Other Artist Fanart. I believe it is absoulutly wrong (unless you have permission and give credit) to rob another artist of their hard work and efforts to express themselves through their art. To put all faith in another is the same as quitting alway trust thy self

AGAINST
Name: RajaJugaro
Country: USA
Website(s): RajaJugaro's deviantART
My Thoughts: When I go to animegalleries, almost all I see these days are edits, and personally, it's rather disgusting. One time, someone took one of my pictures without permission and blurred it a bit, is that EDITING? It's STEALING. And it's a major insult to anyone who works hard on their pictures. I can understand being bored, but please keep them to yourselves, and not post them publicly. Even if your edits make the picture better than it did originally(though I've never seen that) it's wrong, gross, vile. UNLESS you have direct permission from the artist. ^^; That is a short summary of my feelings. Please, stop posting these edits.

AGAINST
Name: Deidara-Chan
Country: N/A
Website(s): N/A
My Thoughts: I am AGAINST editing all the way! Save for the joke edits, of course. My thoughts: I could ramble on incoherently for hours using foul, and maybe even offensive, language describing my hatred for these blasphemous works of crap and how much I loathe them. There is no good reason as to why one should edit a perfectly good screenshot and screw up a perfectly good series. As shown in your example of Sakura Haruno and her edit, you see just how bad these things can be. I am proud to say I am a Deidara cosplayer who knows the ins and outs of wonderful art (even though I'm a fairly mediocre an artist myself), and let me tell you this is an offense to the very definition of the word "art". It curses the works of the cavemen, the Renaissance, the late works of Monet, and everything in between and afterward.

Now I am especially scolding animegalleries.net here with my schpiel of wrath as I look upon their albums and see the majority of them are edits. I would see the crappiest remakes of amazing, well-rounded characters with arms too big for their bodies, too bold of lines, and the stupidest background history with the worst grammar I have seen in years. So after nearly vomitting over these works of the devil, I just had to mimic how stupid they all were. Therefore, after I payed my two cents to these morons and told them their work was crap, I put up joke edits. It wasn't long after that when I began to get flame after flame from probably every pre-pubescent little girl or boy in all of North America calling me "mean" and telling me making edits was the way they expressed themselves, went to another world, and left the trouble in their lives behind. Well all I had to say to them was based on their crap, their lives had to be way above the "troubled" level. To this day I still continue to check the comments on my joke edits and check the new l337 flames on them. You would all think by now no matter what these little kiddies say, they will not acheive the title of "t3h l337 h4xx0r".

In closing, allow me to make just one final point; If you want to have true and full pride in your work, get a damn pencil and a damn blank paper and draw your own damn original character and make your own damn original series Don't go around and immaturely tarnish the good works of others who had the knowledge and effort to make their own series (and get famous for it) themselves.

AGAINST
Name: Grace
Country: Yoo Ess Ayy
Website(s): Grace's deviantART
My Thoughts: I'm actually against editting someone else's art work. I actually I did edit it once, but after that, I decided that it wasn't right of what I was doing. So instead, I just took out a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and lots of hard work, and out came my character. It's not that hard to think up of a character! You just let your imagination explode, and you'll gain new ideas everyday! What do you gain from editting someone else's hard work? How would you feel if you did all the hard work, and someone just takes it, just edits it a little, and takes all your credit?

The number one place that is filled with this, is AnimeGalleries.net! Those people should take the time and go through the pictures and delete the edited pictures. It might sound like hard work, but in the end, it'll be worth it. Tons of Sakura pictures and the other Naruto girls have been edited for people's veiwing pleasure, and yet, no one is stopping them! Some are really good edits, and others are just plain horrible to even look at. Are they trying to make crude jokes about some anime that a lot of people look up to? What if little kids saw that?

The most famous one, has to be a girl named MaruMariMaru. She takes Sakura or other character pictures, and edits them to her pleasure, making her OC, Shizue Asahi. I have a friend on Deviantart that is outraged that MaruMariMaru took her picture of Kiba and Hinata and edited to her liking. To me, that is very unfair. My friend worked her butt off on that picture,and some girl would have the right to take it without permission? She should be sued for that!

Here's the original pic: Kiba and Hinata
Here's the edited pic: Kiba and Shizue

Would you be outraged if someone did this to you? I would! They have not right!! Unless they ask your permission, and I doubt majority of the people do that!!!

My other friend on Deviantart also showed me the girl's Deviant Profile and here is what she states:

"I don't know why, but my images have been removed from this page. So, if u want to see my images and videos, plz go to:

http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w135/MaruMariMAru/

http://www.animegalleries.net/category/87439

http://youtube.com/profile?user=MaruMariMaru

Well...it's pretty much obvious why your stuff is getting deleted. You're illegally editting pictures that aren't yours. She's lucky that the Naruto creator isn't suing her. She could at least put a disclaimer saying that they originally belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

To sum up this verrrrrryyyyyyy long thought, I think that you shouldn't edit other people's stuff. Just because you can't draw, doesn't mean you can take someone else's photos and alter a little bit and say it's yours. Just draw it out!!! If you don't like it, keep drawing it until you get better at it!!!!!

FOR
Name: Anna Smyth
Country: Canada
Website(s): N/A
My Thoughts: I would like NOBODY to take this personally. I am NOT attacking you or saying you are bad people. I'm FOR editing and here's why: Most people think we claim the original art as ours. We don't. Just getting that straight. Some anti-editors REFUSE to get to know us, and start pointing fingers. I don't think it's fair to do that. Myself, I picture this as a Death Note type thing. Anti-editors as Light, and Editors as L. We both think we're doing what's right, but in the end, only one of us can win. Nether the less, I wish you would take a look through our eyes, as you wish we could take a look through yours. Once again, don't take it personally and start flaming away at me. I don't hate you. =P The end.

AGAINST
Name: Moreah
Country: USA
Website(s): Moreah's deviantART
My Thoughts: This is a topic that has been bugging me for a long, long time and I just wanna say,EDITED OC's ARE NOT CREATIVE!! True, they may pour their heart and soul into that one edit, but it's still a waste of time, and talent. Yeah, I know the whole "WHUT IF I CAN'T DRAW" excuse, Wanna know what I say to that? TRY. Did they ever TRY to put EFFORT into their own art, not someone else's!? And don't get me started on "WHE PAI MONEYZ TO BUI EDITIN' PROGRAMZ!!!!" well, put that program to BETTER use and try to draw your own! All other excuses, are excuses to try and sneak to the easy way out of the process of creating art. Fan art- don't get me started. This rant will get even longer. In a nutshell- If you're an editor, stop, If you're thinking about starting to edit,don't do it if you don't edit and don't even want to, YAY YOU!!

AGAINST
Name: Maru
Country: USA
Website(s): The Random Adevntures of Maru, Maru's deviantART
My Thoughts: I believe editing is wrong. I have original characters of my own- not fan characters, actual characters I CREATED. I feel they are more special to me than any fan character could ever be, because I crafted them on my own from head to toe to personality- I didn't just take an anime screenshot and paint-bucket in alternate colors to someone else's character. Drawing inspiration from other works and stealing from another artist are two different things. If anyone were to take one of my characters, change the colors around, re-name them and call them their own, I would be enraged, not flattered. It is stealing, and it is lazy. You want to make pretty pictures? Practice! Practice practice practice! Start drawing things YOURSELF! Editing is lazy. "I can't draw" isn't an excuse. Do you have arms? Do you have hands? Do you have a pencil and a piece of paper, or a mouse and a computer? "I don't have a scanner so I have to edit waaaaah TT^TT" is no excuse for being lazy and stealing another artist's work. In short: No matter how lame your early attempts at drawing may be, editing is ten thousand times lamer.

BOTH

Name: Sarah
Country: United States
Website(s): N/A
My Thoughts: I'm kinda for, kinda against editing. The general reasone people edit (I think) is to show what their character looked like if it where actually in the show or when the caracter is being RP'd. Then, I thinks it's....not very respectable, but justafiable none the less. It's a good way for RP enthusasts to be more thorough, even though they are not very artistic. To be honest with you, if someone came to me saying, "Hey. I was wondering if I could use your drawing to make my RPC? I'll give you credit!! I cannot draw to save my life!" I would be okay with that. Of corse I would check and make sure creit was givin, and hownd them if it wasn't. But all in all, I think that is all right.

Now, on the other hand, many editers enjoy dawing and do draw there own pictures of their character, fanart, blah blah blah; but at the same time, they claim they want to draw proffecianaly or at least be known for their art. THIS is when I frown upon editing. If you are a serious artist, ther should be NO REASON WHATSOEVER not to do your own art. You will get absolutely nowhere if you edit over others art od screenshots. Sure, you will be a kick ass editor like Shizue, but NO ONE will take you seriously. I couln't imagine being asked, "Wow! Where did you learn to draw so well?" and then reply, "I edited over other peoples work and traced them, claiming them as my own. :D " How shameful.

Here is a great alternative that makes everyone happy. Use fanarts and screenshots, not as somthing to edit over, but as a REFERANCE! This both keeps you 99% guiltless and you learn from observation. Slowly, you begin to realise what was wrong with your picture and how to fix it! And THIS is how 100% origanal artist come to exist.

Hope this helps to justify EVERYONE!!