>>153758
>did you actually have any intention on spending money to get that something in the first place?
that's actually a good point, I guess you could say I wouldn't pay if i knew the free version is available, however when speaking about software specifically pirating usually means you miss out on updates, to mention the risk of malware but that's a minor thing at this point, these are small inconveniences but they are enough to make people pay to avoid them. For art though I guess it would only apply to people who really really care about art and want to support their favourite artists, but in any case I can't imagine why someone would make art their main or even only source of income, that sounds like a dumb idea to me.
Oh and another thing: if someone has enough money that buying whatever item we are talking about isn't a big deal they will buy it since it's the easiest way, however if, like in my case, dropping 100$ on a drawing is a pretty big deal then of course i will generate it for free even though i can technically afford it

>That's not to say that whatever they made is "bad", but more "I don't like it"
while that is true what "I don't like" seems to be shared by the vast majority of AI generated art, I swear I've seen AI generated art from 4 or 5 different artists and they all look either the same or very very similar. Also something mindboggling is that there are AI artists that SELL their AI generated images, we've come full circle

>what are your thoughts on tracing and references, and copying an art style/pose/color palette?
I think it's perfectly fine, if someone copied my artstyle/pose/whatever I would feel extremely flattered, that's basically meeting a fan, why would anyone feel negatively about it?
now tracing something (as in making a 1:1 copy) without changing anything and presenting it as your own creation is not ok, obviously, but tracing can be a good way to learn/improve (although i wouldn't recommend it)