I remember times when new styles of music such as rap, techno, trance, jungle, Drum 'n Bass etc. got popular with the crowd. My point is that everybody copies. Some do it to learn, others do it to grasp a bit of fame in a very challenging environment. It's not just the artists that copy, it's the whole bloody scene. And everyone that makes any form of art.
Artists just get all the crap for it because it's easiest to spot.
As an artist, I have copied from other artists IN THE PAST just to learn to do my own stuff now, here, at Eidos. I wouldn't have been asked to join Eidos and to come up with high quality pictures for marketing purposes for their hit game Tomb Raider 2 if I didn't have what it takes. I wouldn't be at Eidos if I was merely capable of copying other artists as some people in the scene claim. At least in the professional industry artists are being treated as they should be. People know what they are talking about.