Well, it depends on how extensive it gets. I've had my banners stolen, and I've seen other people's banners stolen. Our first thought is to try and get it worthy to see who was doing it, then report them, but then again, we might never get around to it, and that would be setting a bad example to try and get copied banners worthy.
I always thought that we should be able to see who submitted which banner, and that would greatly reduce the number of stolen ones, but then again, many people vote banners unworthy because they don't like the person who submitted them (regardless of what the banner looks like) and THAT would cause problems as well.
We can't really be harsh on doki for letting copied banners in, because there are WAY too many banners to remember which ones have been done and which ones have not.
But another problem is that we will get way to picky with banners that are copied. I mean, we'll start reporting copied banners because they look 'similar' and are not ACTUAL copies. Like this one:
This banner was originally done by me on the banner collabs with me and Wurpess, and
this banner is the EXACT same picture (you can even see the little spots I forgot to erase, and if you look close enough, it is the same picture) just with different text. I could call it copied, but all the person did was use the same picture, so it's not grounds for reporting it, however most people would see it as that.
And then there are these two banners (
here and
here). One was made by
silvyfirst, and the other by
morningbelles. I can't remember which one came first, but they are the exact same text with similar pictures. Some people would call that grounds for copying.
I've even seen some people get so worked up over banners that look nothing alike, but just have the same text. (I seem to remember an argument in the journals one time over two banners that both said 'showtime'.)
there's even one where one of my old banners says 'free cat ears with every download' and now there is a newer one with 'free cup of ramen with every download'. and although I'm not happy about them being unoriginal, it's not copying, so there is really no grounds for me reporting them.
I like the idea of having a 'report stolen banner' button, but it still seems like more bad than good can really come out of it when it comes down to it. We can just as easily just have them removed and *maybe* ask Doki if he can tell us who submitted it (but to prevent flame wars will probably decline to tell us), otherwise, that's just my two cents.
/two cents.