I want to use BYOND. I also want to hang out at another community.
I cannot due to the negative image BYOND has.
I'm sure that negative image has everything to do with people creating fan-games based off anime and manga.
I bet it has nothing to do with people betraying their project teams by being spiteful and spreading sources to get back at the people who pissed them off, or the countless people who steal art for various reasons. It also probably has nothing to do with people settling their differences by flaming each other on forums when they disagree with that person's opinions, or spamming the chat of a game because they dislike the owner for whatever reason. And I'm willing to bet my life that BYOND's negative image has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that people don't even have to hide or cover-up theft because the higher-ups aren't willing to take any real action against it.
No, BYOND's negative image clearly has to do with the preferred choice of gaming by a group of members who like anime. It couldn't possibly be because the majority of BYOND's population openly act like immature toddlers.
Actually, most (if not all) manga takes inspiration from Asian and Indian religions as well as mythology.
King Yemma (Dragon Ball Z) and King Enma (Yu Yu Hakusho) are both based off Yama, a God of the dead.
Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/88/Enma.jpg
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enma
Other examples could be seen in Itachi's (Naruto) 3 eye techniques which are based off 3 Gods in Shinto and Japanese mythology, Tsukuyomi, Ameterasu, and Susanoo
To think Dragon Ball Z was a completely original work with a completely original concept and to claim all other manga with similar concepts and characters are merely rip-offs of Dragon Ball Z is to be completely ignorant of Japanese mythology and history.
The Magic Man wrote:
I can steal cars, burgle houses, shoplift and more, so long as I do not make money off of it?
Taking someone else's work, making minor changes, claiming it as your own work.
So what you're saying is stealing physical property in which you prevent someone from having something because you took it from them is equivalent to creating a non-profit online fan-game as a hobby?
Or, even better, that tracing someone's art with every intention of reselling it to make money is equivalent to creating a free online world based off the concepts of a cartoon or comic you're a fan of? I fail to see the logic in that.
*Edit
On a side-note, while I don't condone theft or plagiarism, I do find it amusing how everyone wants someone to die because he copied the artwork of a manga they enjoy. I like and follow the Bleach manga, but someone tracing art and trying to make money off of it isn't a crime worthy of death and it just makes everyone look like immature nerds for wishing death upon Nick Simmons. But it is extremely hilarious to read posts by people on deviantART.com saying they hope he gets raped, killed, etc. It's just a comic, and I highly doubt Nick Simmons' plagiarism of Tite Kubo's (among others he plagiarized) art has effected the lives of any of the millions of Bleach fans who now want him dead, nor has it effected the release of Bleach manga chapters. I don't see why anyone is so overly enraged or want to see this guy physically (or sexually) harmed and/or killed.