alskylark:

Alex, this makes me so, so mad. I absolutely can’t stand plagiarists. That’s what he is: a plagiarist. Sadly, most of his followers and most of the younger generation don’t seem to understand that what he did was not only dishonest, but damned illegal.

I’m glad to see that both BABScon and EFNW have banned him. Hopefully, everyone else will, too. Keep proselytizing this. The word must be spread about this liar. Where the light shines, darkness cannot exist.

Please let Claire know that she has so very, very many people who love and support her absolutely amazing work. She was one of the very first artists who drew me into the MLP fandom, and I’m still fascinated, awed, inspired, delighted, and humbled every day by her talent, passion, kindness, wit, and skill. As a fellow UC sufferer, I know what she’s going through, and am absolutely amazed at her strength and character—most people would just curl up and quit. Instead, she seems emboldened and brazed to the challenge.

Anyway, here’s what I wrote to him. You’ve been my go-to “breaking news" Tumblr feed for this drama; this is my weird, cathartic “thank you” sharing-post!

In situations like this, I always remember the words of John Hammond, from “Jurassic Park,” when he was addressing Dennis Nedry’s complaints: “I don’t blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them.”

And oh, how you shall pay. You brush it off, “Lolz, yeah, I traced show assets, my bad.” Then you *sold* them. YOU SOLD THEM. You’ve made a massive empire out of it. You have HUGE booths at 10-20 cons that push out smaller artists that work hard—GODDAMNED HARD—to pull themselves up and make a name for themselves. That is called STEALING, sir, and I hope Hasbro’s lawyers just NAIL your ass to the Apple Family barn.

And you know what really galls me? What really stings? That you sat up there, at that How To Draw, with dennybutt (an amazingly-talented girl who has debilitating ulcerative colitis (the same disease I have) and draws circles around you) and tsitra360 (who has an excellent, level-headed, and fair-minded response on his dA page) and LIED THROUGH YOUR TEETH. You claimed over and over and OVER that you were selling Original Artwork, when it wasn’t. All you had to do was give credit, and specify what was traced and what wasn’t. No one would’ve thought less of you. But the lying … the LYING is what gives EVERY … SINGLE … MLP … ARTIST … a bad rap.

Now, having said all of that, I have this one last thing to say. I honestly, truly, deeply Wish You The Best, after you atone. You will go through a rough time; Purgatory, even. You will see friends, customers, mods, sponsors, vendors, subscribers leave and criticize and demand their money and services back. But you know what? This is the lesson you need to learn, right now. This is what YOU NEED TO LEARN, to become a BETTER PERSON. To learn that you CAN’T TAKE OTHER PEOPLE’S SHIT, and claim it as your own. It is much, much better that you learn this now, at this stage in your life, than later on.

So go in peace, Neil. I’m done with you. I can honestly say I will never, ever trust you again. But I can also honestly say that I hope you become a better human being, and learn to love, tolerate, and respect others because of this epic fuck-up, and not in spite of it.

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Talk about a rant! Thank you for the kind words though, Claire appreciates them very much :3

Very nice and heartfelt comment though, I hope he does read it. Like you said, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if he had been transparent from the get go. Making money out of traced art is still despicable though. He doesn’t have an official Hasbro license, yet there he was overshadowing the guys that DID HAVE an official license selling official merchandise at Ponycon. It’s just wrong.