well,
having thought about this way too many times,
here's what I think. I'll give some cases of each I guess
Drawing inspiration:
- entirely different character; perhaps similar colors because the way they go together is nice, or similar markings because of, again, the way they go together is nice. personality and name are not the same.
- personality is rather close to the original character's, however, the looks and name are different.
- having the same/a similar backstory, however a much different character.
Copying:
- character with the same markings, colors, style, personality, and history as original. name is different, not always.
- character with the exact same markings and colors, different name and personality. original was extremely unique and it can not have been/wasn't a coincidence (slapping your character onto my design)
- exact carbon copies
yeah. the backstory part is where I draw the line on inspiration. this is because while the character is not the same, their history is -- that doesn't mean they are an absolute copy. however, this is rather iffy because backstories are supposed to be unique.
yeah, I guess these are just my thoughts.
while one cannot entirely "copy" a design, it is only, I think, really copying if the original character was extremely unique with a complex background, history, and personality that is not similar to, well, anything. which is an awfully hard goal to accomplish.
despite the fact they copied you, I (having never been copied except in name which doesn't actually matter) believe that it could be considered a form of flattery. they liked your design so much, they copied it. now, normally these cases are with younger kids and therefore we shouldn't be too quick to judge..
this was probably really contradictory but yknow