there's a point...

Where I think the 'original species' community needs to step down a bit and take a step back to really examine their creation.

This is directed at individuals that badger other users to take down designs that they deem too similar to their own character/creation, or come up with really strict and absurd policies regarding 'plagiarism' with little to no room for explanation or hiccups.

I'll state this again and again, but all creative works are 'remixes' of something else. Whether you want to admit it or not, even your most original work has been done before in some way- what makes it unique is application and execution. 

Look at your species and go back to fantasy creatures (namely popular ones in pop culture), and ask yourself if it already exists. Could people potentially 'plagiarizing' it be inspired by an outside source? Could they be creating a character literally from that outside source? These are all possibilities. 

I'll tell you- I recently started playing DnD with my friends (Well, I have my character made- but, alas- we're making a slow progress to getting things set up!), and after looking at the bestiary whatnots online and just sticking my nose in different tid-bits of info I'm afraid to create characters existing in this universe and post them publicly because of this community. I've seen many creatures that I adore, and would love to create some form of character out of, but it's disheartening that I might not be able to share my FAN characters from something dating back as far as 1975. There are beasts that look strikingly similar to species that have been created among the deviantart community, and that's fine, but these guys are a lot older- and I should be able to create something from this bestiary without being terrified of harassment. 

And before I get bitched out- I'm completely acknowledging that people do blatantly rip-off characters, but a lot of creatures that are created have already been created elsewhere, and you need to hear people out before jumping to the conclusion that it's just a complete knock-off of what you made. 

Again I'll post this