Topic: What's the stigma behind using another person's fursona/OC?

I always liked furry character design and always used them for profile pictures, but lately I've been liking some artwork featuring fursonas that belong to someone else: Is there a stigma around it? What do people and artist believe? Me personally have always avoided using characters from people because I find it disrespectful.

Liscenced Characters

Characters to belong to an IP and publicly recognizable characters I have no issue using. Most of the time they're design for massive exposure and I doubt companies have any issues with fans using them, for anything non-profitable atleast, right?

Artists' Characters

I believe most artist are cool with people using them as their profile pictures, but I'd still ask for their permission just to make sure.

One-off characters

This is rare but I've seen character designs, mostly from eastern artists, use characters that don't seem to be recurring for their works and mostly appear in a single one.

YCH and fursonas

This is where I draw the line. Like I was saying, I just feel weird using someone else's character for my socials but I'd still like to use them.

My unofficial policy:
Artist's OC - Do not use as avatar. It's likely a character they use to represent themself, so they may not want it representing someone else too.
Commissioned art - Do not use as avatar out of concern that the commissioner might not like it.
Has a signature - Do not use as avatar. A signature might indicate that the artist wants control over where the artwork is used.
Uploaded by the artist - Do not use as avatar. They may notice you using their art and not like that.
One-off characters - fine to use
Licensed Characters - fine to use
Of course, permission from the artist/character owner/commissioner overrides any of these concerns.

Due to these strict self-imposed rules, if I ever change avatars, there's a good chance it will be art I made myself specifically for that purpose.

I don’t mind people using my art of my sona as an avatar as long as they aren’t pretending to be me, although I did do a double take once when someone did lol

I was like I can’t remember commenting on this, before I saw the username

I like using stuff I made myself.
Whether or not I care about someone using my sona as an avatar depends on the place and the culture there. E6 has a large base of non-artists and even non-furries and avatar selection tends to reflect that. It's pretty much "Yeah I like this image/think it's funny" and the avatar links directly to a page where the artist and characters are credited so it's like. A total non-issue.
F-List I would not be happy about. Furaffinity I'd be less unhappy, but still unhappy about.
Discord or forums or whatever other private-ish place? Idgaf. I'm probably never going to see it.

I've had an odd encounter where someone 'recognized' me, and I suspect that they encountered someone using a former abandoned sona design. It was odd, but bothered me less than I expected.

as a commissoner who posts the art I comm, I don't care its public, the artists tos allows me to post it here dw

I suppose it's mainly a matter of identification and the implications behind using an avatar.

There are places like art websites where you're generally expected to be using what you drew or commissioned. So when you're using a drawing as an avatar, it's basically saying "I made this" or "I am the character owner." And of course, there's also the matter of simply wanting control over who uses your art.
Then there are places like forums and social media where such implications don't exist. Naturally it's more "anything goes".

The way I see things, anything inherently intended for public consumption like a video game, tv show, webcomic, etc is fair game.
I haven't really felt the need to make anyone's art or OC my avatar outside of e621. I can't really see myself doing so either. I think it'd feel wrong. I tend to go for licensed stuff.

arleneexcalibur said:
I always liked furry character design and always used them for profile pictures, but lately I've been liking some artwork featuring fursonas that belong to someone else: Is there a stigma around it? What do people and artist believe? Me personally have always avoided using characters from people because I find it disrespectful.

Liscenced Characters

Characters to belong to an IP and publicly recognizable characters I have no issue using. Most of the time they're design for massive exposure and I doubt companies have any issues with fans using them, for anything non-profitable atleast, right?

Artists' Characters

I believe most artist are cool with people using them as their profile pictures, but I'd still ask for their permission just to make sure.

One-off characters

This is rare but I've seen character designs, mostly from eastern artists, use characters that don't seem to be recurring for their works and mostly appear in a single one.

YCH and fursonas

This is where I draw the line. Like I was saying, I just feel weird using someone else's character for my socials but I'd still like to use them.

it is proper courtesy to not use someone elses character by default
note that there is a difference between someone elses character and art that someone else made (think generic pokemon drawings)
if it is art that you did not create but do want to use, it is also proper etiquette to cite the creator and source(if applicable) preferably with a link to the artist just like we have sources for each post on this site
transparency is key unless the artist does not want to be publicly connected to the art in question
i would also say to not have the "better sorry, than safe" approach that most uploaders (plausibly) use when bulk uploading to this site, you should always ask first if its someones character

that said:
franchise characters are free game, still try to have the courtesy citation if it was made by an individual you got it from (link not necessary depending on the source)
artist characters are always ask first (treat artists having disclaimers about the go-ahead like Manitka here as the preemptive answer to you asking)
one-offs are most often free game, but respecting the artists wishes should they come to you is proper manners (not strictly required but try to be nice about it)
ych and fursonas are do not touch unless given express permission (see the above disclaimer for artist characters)

_{this is not legal advice}

aside from any moral issues I or others might have with it, using other people's 'sonas as an avatar just feels like it kinda defeats the main point of an avatar. it's supposed to be an at least vaguely unique image that is used to help identify you specifically as a user, using someone else's 'sona/mascot/whatever, especially if someone uses the site you're on, contradicts that purpose.