"Queen Beryl!" yelled Jadeite. "I found a new source of energy!"

"Jadeite, what do you think of my sprite sheet?" asked Beryl.

She pulled it up on her crystal ball.

"Hmm," said Jadeite. "They're a little small."

"That's the point," said Beryl.

"Wait," said Jadeite. "Didn't you just rip these from a game?"

"Yes," said Beryl. "What do you think of my rip?"

"Hmm," said Jadeite. "Not the best rip. I've seen better rips of the same sprite sheet."

"Shut up," said Beryl. "I don't need you undermining me. You'll never find a rip from this game that used the same shade of red for the background."

"True," said Jadeite. "But the background color is meaningless."

"You are dismissed," said Beryl curtly.

Jadeite left. He was surprised she was not madder.

"Hrm," thought Jadeite, making a sharp U-turn toward the Nega computer lounge. "All this talk about sprites is making me want to finish my flash series."

He sat down at one of the desktops and opened his $500 video editor.

"Ah!" he said. "I only have a little more to add! I need to put in Bowser."

Jeddo hopped on Spriters' Resource, and went into the DS game section.

He found a good bowser sprite sheet and tossed it a download.

He then used it and completed his flash series. He uploaded the series straight to YouTube, and then he waited.

One second later, there was a comment.

"Oooh!" said Jadeite. "I worked long and hard on the series. I hope it is a comment telling me how good it is."

Jadeite read the comment.

It was from some sort of goony man.

Jadeite began out loud. "Read the bottom corner of your sprite sheet," the comment stated.

"Odd boy," said Jadeite. "But I'll humor the kid."

Jadeite looked at the bottom corner of his bowser sprite sheet.

It read, "Use: Yes. Permission: Yes."

"Huh?" said Jadeite out loud. "Do they expect me to credit them for ripping a sprite sheet from a game? If I should credit anyone, it should be Nintendo, and their workers who actually made the sprites."

Jadeite replied this in a comment.

But the goon soon sent a rebuttal.

"I spent a very long time putting these sprites in order," the kid said. "You need to ask permission to use them!"

"No," replied Jadeite. "They're not yours. You didn't ask Nintendo for permission!"

"Listen, kid," said the man. "You need to ask permission and then credit me, or I will report you to Spriters' Resource."

"So?" asked Jadeite. "I don't even post there. What are ya gonna do, IP ban me from the website?"

"Alright pal, I give you permission," said the dope. "But you gotta re-upload your video and put credits in the beginning, or I will report you to YouTube."

"I will do no such thing," replied Jadeite. "My video already has 13 views. I could have easily ripped that sheet myself."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," said the man.

But Jadeite wouldn't let him go.

"What are ya gonna do, kid?" asked Jed. "You can't make me credit you for something you do not own! You can report me to Nintendo, but then you'll get in trouble too!"

It took very long for the guy to respond.

"It's unethical," was his final resolve.

"AHAHAHAHAHHAH!" laughed Jadeite loudly. "You can't do a thing! AHAHAAHA!"

"Keep it down," said Queen Beryl, a few computers over.

Jadeite looked at her screen. She was watching Clarence.

Jadeite looked away and said nothing.


Kunzite loaded up his fan ROM.

"This needs something," he said. "Ah, I know! It needs the X and Y series Pokemon, but sadly the regular DS can't handle 3D models, and it would be too hard to code in. I need 2D sprites of the 3D Pokemon!"

Kunzite Googled "2D X and Y sprites," and downloaded them all.

"Ah, I'm so glad someone went and did this to help people out! I'm in a good mood, so I guess I'll credit them, even though of course I don't have to, since there's nothing they can do."

Kunzite finished off his fan ROM and posted it to the internet.

As the game loaded, it began with, "I would like to give a special thanks to the artist Yumemi Yumeno for providing the 2D sprites of the 3D Pokemon used in this ROM."

But the instant he posted a video of his ROM, there was a comment.

"What the hell?!" said Kunzite. "Do you people just sit around waiting for people to use your sprites? What's the point of posting them if it comes down to this every time?!"

"Excuse me," began the comment by Yumemi. "You are not allowed to use those sprites. Please check the terms of service before making the same mistake again."

"Check the beginning of the video," replied Kunzite. "I credited you."

Yumemi Yumeno replied with a head-shaking emote. "You are not allowed to use my sprites. Take them down."

"No!" said Kunzite. "I gave you credit!"

"Thank you," said Yumemi. "But no thank you. I didn't give you permission to use these!"

"Well I'm going to use them," said Kunzite.

"No," said Yumemi. "That is art theft."

"ART THEFT?!" yelled Kunzite. "Art theft! You made sprites of a copyrighted character! Are you gonna sue me, kid?! Cuz then Nintendo will have to sue you!"

Yumemi Yumeno did not reply right away, so Kunzite sent another comment.

"I don't have to credit anything you post for everyone on the internet. If it was something original, that'd be a different story," said Kunzite. "But it's not. You just drew a picture of someone else's work! Art theft!"

Yumemi Yumeno blocked Kunzite, and then she came on another account.

"Do not download this fan ROM. Uses stolen sprites."

Kunzite deleted the comment, and blocked the channel.

"Unbelievable," he said. "Foolish humans."

Kunzite turned off the computer and went back to his castle.

"Unbelievable," he kept saying. "Why would someone even spend the time to make 2D sprites of 3D models? There's zero point! The models are obviously superior!"


"Free download! Smash 2 texture pack for Smash 3!" Nephrite titled his video.

"Wow, what a great pack," he thought to himself. "Project M will never be the same!"

Instantly, there was a comment, from none other than Melvin.

"Seriously," said Nephrite. "Do you guys just sit here all day?"

"Is that MY Ganondorf?" asked Melvin.

"I don't know," said Nephrite. "I just downloaded it from the vault."

"You didn't credit me!" said Melvin.

"Yes," said Nephrite. "I just downloaded it to be part of the pack, and then I added the armor to it."

"That's MY Ganondorf," said Melvin. "You NEED to credit me!"

"No," said Nephrite. "Nintendo owns the character Ganondorf. You don't own anything."

"I spent hours on that Ganondorf," said Melvin. "Hours of labor, on modeling the perfect Smash 2 Ganondorf!"

"It's your fault for spending hours on something that's already copyrighted, and then posting it on the worldwide web. You should have just used the Ganondorf from Smash 2! I mean they look exactly the same, how can you even tell that it's yours?"

"I can recognize my Ganondorf anywhere. I spent more time with that Ganondorf than I spent with my mom!" yelled Melvin.

"Dumb kid," replied Nephrite. "Why spend so long when no one but you can tell the difference?"

"MY Ganondorf," said Melvin, "I'm reporting you to Smash Vault."

"Do it," said Nephrite. "I don't even have an account there. What are you gonna do, IP ban me from the website? I'll just spawn a new Wi-Fi box!"

"I'll tell Molly that you used MY Ganondorf without credit!" howled Melvin virtually. "ART THEEEEFT!"

"Molly's not an idiot," said Nephrite. "Don't make me end you."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

Nephrite started to get heated. "No!" he said. "You stole the character from Nintendo! It doesn't matter if you change it up a bit! In fact Nintendo doesn't even allow you to! You're hacking the game illegally!"

"ART THEFT!" Melvin began to spam on three different accounts.

Nephrite had to block them all.


"Hey guys," said Kunzite, sitting down at the Shitennou table. "I just got accused of art theft. Unbelievable."

"What?" said Zoisite. "There's no such thing! Did you actually steal a painting from a museum or something?"

"No," said Kunzite. "Even worse. I stole someone's 2D Fennekin apparently, even though I credited them."

"Why'd you credit them?" demanded Zoisite. "They can't do anything if you don't! Pokemen are owned by Nintendo anyway!"

"That's what I said," said Kunzite. "But she was persistent and then she blocked me."

"Ah!" said Nephrite. "Something similar happened to me today! I got accused of art theft for stealing someone's Ganondorf."

"Nonsense," said Zoisite. "Someone can't have a Ganondorf, even if they did spend the hard work modeling it. They knew that risk when they started the project, and posted it online! Fools!"

"I have an even sadder tale," said Jadeite. "All I did was use sprites from a game, but apparently I needed to ASK for PERMISSION! And not from the game's creators, but some kid who ripped the sprites. Because apparently ripping is some sort of great feat!"

"I hate that!" said Kunzite. "I hate when people put on sprite sheets that you can use it without asking for permission! And they point it out, like they're doing you some kind of great service! The same goes for crediting!"

"I've had enough of this," said Zoisite. "It's time to strike back."

"I agree," said Jed. "But how?"

"We should steal as much art as we can, and accuse everyone else of art theft! And then also post stuff, and bait them into using our stuff, and then accuse them of art theft for that! We'll give them all a taste of their own medicine for being such snarky bastards, with their 2D Fennekins and their 3D Ganondorfs!" exclaimed Zoisite.

Everyone got riled and they all stormed down to the Nega computer lounge.

Beryl was still sitting there.

She heard footsteps, and quickly switched to the Google Chrome homepage.

"Phew," she said. "I'll finish you tomorrow, Clarence my boy."

Beryl left.

The Shitennou sat down on computers, and began typing silently.

Nephrite uploaded a video to YouTube.

It was called, "Ganondorf Pack for Smash," and it was just color swaps of Melvin's model.

Nephrite refreshed the page, and there was already a comment.

"Is this some sort of joke?!" squawked Melvin. "You used MY Ganondorf! 30 times! With this many Ganondorfs, there should be a five minute credit, but there is none to be seen! Not even in the description, which is already considered shameful by modeler standards!"

"Huh?" replied Nephrite. "This is my Ganondorf."

Melvin did not respond for a very very long time.

After 2 hours, he responded with just "No."

"Sadly, it's true," said Nephrite. "I made this Ganondorf myself. It's MY Ganondorf!"

After 2 more hours, Melvin replied with 30 Imgur links.

"These are all my partial saves from while I was constructing the Ganondorf!" he wrote. "This is proof I made it!"

"No," said Nephrite. "Those are my partial saves. You hacked my computer!"

"No," was the only response.

"I've got him on the ropes now, boys!" said Nephrite out loud.

"Good work," said Zoisite.

Jadeite got to work.

He downloaded the Undertale game.

"Let's see how hard it really is to rip a sprite sheet," said Jadeite.

He ripped the sprite sheet.

"Hmm," he said. "These sprites are out of order. Let me put in 10 full minutes of effort putting them in order."

Jed did just that, and put them in order. He finished ahead of time with 2 minutes to spare.

"Alright, done," he said. "Now for the best part," he said getting giddy.

He drew a big box in the corner of the sprite sheet.

He had to stop, because he got so giddy that he had to take several deep breaths to keep from losing control.

Then, he wrote in big letters, "Use: No. Permission: No. Credit: Yes."

Jadeite started having spasms, but he maintained control and uploaded it to Spriters' Resource.

"Don't lose track of who you are," reminded Kunzite. "Don't let yourself become one of them."

Jadeite nodded.

Then he waited.

"Huh," he said. "I guess I have to actively look for people using my sprites. I don't know how people instantly find this stuff. Do they spend all day on YouTube, just searching for someone using their sprites?"

Jadeite checked the YouTube, and sure enough, someone posted an Undertale video using a sprite of Sans.

Jadeite stood up and screamed, and then he sat back down.

He took more deep breaths so he could steady his hands to type.

All he typed was, "I did not give you permission to use my sprites, and you did not credit me either! It's over for you!"

The young child replied soon after. "Sorry, I'll credit you right away."

"Sickening," said Jadeite. "No backbone. They need to understand that I can't do anything about it."

Jadeite pressed on. "That's not good enough. You need to ask permission!"

"May I use your sprites?" asked the person.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Jadeite.

He refreshed the video and it was taken down.

Jadeite just shook his head sadly. "Too bad."

He went back to work.

He went on every single Undertale video ever, including gameplay videos, and accused everyone of art theft.

"I ripped these sprites myself," one defiant boy scoffed.

"No," said Jadeite. "You stole these, and now you're claiming them as yours! That's the worst kind of art theft!"

"Actually," said the boy, who was way smarter than the rest. "These are owned by Tommy Fax, the creator of Undertale."

"No," said Jadeite. "He stole them from me. Let me have a word with this Tommy."

Jadeite went on Tommy Fax's Steam page, and accused him of art theft.

"Those are my ripped sprites," said Jadeite. "I did not give you permission to use them in your game. Don't make me ban you from Steam!"

Jadeite refreshed the page, and the game Undertale was taken down.

Jadeite just shook his head. "No backbone," he said. "Art thieves these days, they're very spineless."

Meanwhile, Zoisite had just finished uploading his YouTube vid.

It was just 20 seconds of a black screen.

The video was called, "Black Screen – Credit if Used."

Then Zoisite went onto every video ever that either had a black background, faded to black at any point in time, or included the color black.

"ART THIEVES!" howled Zoisite.

He created a bot to say this on every single YouTube video ever made, and then considered copyrighting the black screen itself.

"Then it will really be art theft," thought Zoisite. "But nah, let's see where this goes."

He went back on YouTube, and there was not a single video left, except for Nephrite and Kunzite's videos, who refused to give credit to anyone, and would not back down to a threat because they knew no one could do anything.

"Hey, a new vid!" said Zoisite.

"Ah," said Nephrite. "That's a good one."

Zoisite opened it up.

It was called, "Art Thief Steals MY Ganondorf," and it was a video accusing the user Melvin of stealing a Ganondorf.

The only comment belonged to Melvin, who said, "IT'S MYYYYYY GANONDORF! You can't claim it as your own! And you especially can't accuse me of ART THEFT!"

"Hey," said Zoisite to Nephrite. "You used my art."

"Shut up," said Nephrite. "You can't do anything about it."

"Heh," said Zoisite.

Then his eyes widened.

"Guys," he said. "Look at the YouTube home page."

Nephrite typed YouTube into the address bar.

"What the heck?" he said. "It won't load!"

"Yes," said Zoisite. "They took it down. It had black on it."

"Shoot!" said Nephrite. "Hey wait, this page that says the website is down has black on it!"

Suddenly the screen went blank white.

"Ah," said Zoisite. "I'm glad Windows backed down. But it's unfortunate how spineless the company is."

There was a beep on Nephrite's computer, and he checked his email.

"MY Ganondorf!" was the title of a video that was sent to him.

Nephrite opened the video, but it was just Melvin ending his life.

In the background was a poster of Ganondorf.

"Yikes," said Nephrite. "It's okay though, because the internet is gone."

"Hey," said Zoisite, looking over Nephrite's shoulder. "Is that kid using my color?"

"Yes," said Nephrite. "But I don't think he can give you credit where he is."

Zoisite teleported to heaven.

"Wow," said Zoisite. "I've never been here, despite the many times I've died."

He spotted Melvin on the big PC in the sky.

"Hey kid," said Zoisite. "You didn't credit me on your suicide vid."

"Leave me alone," said Melvin. "I'm in a place where my Ganondorf can't get stolen."

Zoisite looked at Melvin's computer. He was modeling a Smash 2 Ganondorf.

"Never give up," said Zoisite.

He left Melvin alone, and instead headed for the higher ups.

"What is this?" he demanded. "You guys have used my color here and there, and you don't have my permission! Art theft!"

"Can I have permission?" asked the Almighty.

Zoisite shook his head.

"Oh," said the Almighty.

He threw a punch, ending heaven, and then took his own life.

"Ah," said Zoisite. "No backbone."

Zoisite teleported back to the Negaverse.

"Oooh," he said. "You used a lot of my color here. I might have to take this up with Beryl."

"Don't push your luck," said Kunzite. "Sit down and tell me what you think of my 4D Fennekin."

"Nice," said Zoisite. "I'm gonna use it."

"You better credit me," said Kunzite.

"Heh heh," said Zoisite.

"I'm not joking," said Kunzite. "I spent many long hours on my Fennekin."

Meanwhile, Jadeite was working on his own project.

He uploaded his custom sprite rip.

"Hmm," he said, getting giddy. "Now to wait for someone to use it without crediting me."

Someone used it, without crediting him, and Jadeite went out for blood.

Jadeite teleported to the thief's home.

"Ah, Motoki," said Jadeite. "Been using a lot of sprites lately?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Motoki's forehead.

He tried to run, but Jadeite threw a kick.

Motoki was still clinging to life, so Jadeite gave him a beating he would never forget.

He fired lightning out of his palms, roasting Motoki to death.

Motoki had nowhere to ascend to, so he descended to hell.

"Noooooooooooooo!" yelled Motoki, as he was taken in a beam to hell.

"Heh," said Jed. "Don't steal art. Sprite thief."

That's when Jadeite spotted Motoki's computer, where the criminal YouTube vid he had made was still playing.

The video reached its final second.

"Sprites ripped by Jadeite," it concluded.

"Oh," said Jadeite. "He did credit me. D'ah. He didn't ask for permission, so I guess it's okay to murder him."

FIN