I’m gonna reply here to keep the Dir en grey thread more clean.
People have been copying each other since the dawn the time. But they still gotta put in the work and effort to do it. It’s unoriginal, but it’s the artists work that gets them the end result.
You have a point though. At what point is it referencing another person’s work vs plagiarism? Sometimes the line is unclear and other times it’s blatant. Rotoscoping is a technique many animators use these days to translate realistic movements into animation. Sampling in music could be considered ripping off other artists especially if someone uses the whole song, just adds a beat, and titles it something else. Vaporwave/Futurefunk as an entire genre is that.
I think what makes copying better than using AI for me though is that someone chose a specific source of inspiration that spoke to them. In that way, it’s still personal even if there’s overlap with other artists or content that’s already been created. Doesn’t necessarily make it excusable or good though.