Okay, so this is my geek-dom rant of the month (I hope, but there will probably be more since I'll be on summer break soon) ... But I REALLY get annoyed and HAD to say something.

This whole credit for graphics thing has gone too far. It's one thing to request credit for something you drew or a picture you took: that's your original work and you SHOULD have credit. I guess, since culturally that's what we tell people in much of the Western world - you do things to be recognized not to necessarily make an impact on greater ideals or share something beautiful. Fine, whatever, have it your way.
But I ain't gonna credit you for cutting and pasting, copying, animating, or otherwise altering another's image, okay! This is something I see on LJ all the time - an insistence for "icon makers" or other graphic "artists" to get credit for putting a glitter fill in a pre-drawn image or animating an image or changing text on a blinkey. None of which they have actually taken the time to make. Okay - you are all wonderful, talented people and I sincerely thank you for pimping my blog: but I'm NOT going to credit you when I don't think any more than Thanks is due.
Fist I have to say there's a complete difference between this:

Which is a mostly original work by ... Well actually I am not sure, chmedhal I believe but someone from Sassy Layouts and:

which is NOT an original image at all - but something obviously drawn by someone else. Disney no less - if you want to get in specifics of credit, they can (and might, as they often do tend to get a stick up their ass about things I consider frivolous) make you take your image down for infringing on their legal copyrite.
ordinarily I wouldn't care but often I see people kicked out of communities not for giving "proper" credit to people - and really I just have to say. You do not get credit for adding J and my names to this:

.. Which I appreciate but I also realize the person who added them did not make those dolls and if anyone deserves "credit" for the graphic, the person who drew those does! Not the animator! Animating something doesn't make you the creator. This is not a movie script it's the internet - it's shareware - it's free use shareware and frankly I find it damn annoying when drama queens (and kings) want credit for work that's not even theirs!
What lies at the root of this problem for me is that there are AMAZING graphic artists out there who draw dolls, design backgrounds, and other artists who make amazing drawings and are kind enough to allow them to be on the internet, knowing that someone is going to steal their hard work and manipulate it to suit their needs. These are the people who genuinely deserve more than thanks but credit. Other people like Disney, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, and countless unknown fashion photographers who's add in Vouge would go unremembered if someone didn't make it into something else don't depend on this kind of non-paid consumer support and may not really appreciate having their images used. How often are these people credited? That's right: almost never.
So - next time you put up your little "please credit" spiel... Save it, I'm not listening. I thank you for being more creative in your plagiarism than I am. I thank you for taking time out of your busy life to do this. I am not putting your name on a stolen image. I am not claiming it as my own work either - I will happily refer someone to you to get their own copy of whatever of they like; but I suspect I won't have to they're just going to right-click and it's theirs! And you can bet your name won't be on their site for the image they stole from mine: you may say that's my fault but that's okay with me: I only credit those who deserve it. Really.