Thank you for this post and for taking a clear position with your guidelines.

I agree completely with what you are saying about creativity and too much control. Any decent artist would! Although I am not so sure, how simply respecting copyright would necessarily be a limiting factor. To me, that appears like saying, riding a motorcycle is no fun, when I have to respect traffic rules...

But with all the heated debate, it looks like real progress has been made. We all understand now, that copyright is a serious issue, but like @thermoplastic said on several occasions, it is also extremely complex and often difficult to decide, where the boundaries are. It is commonly acknowledged, that copying is a valid way to develop ones skills as an artist, but there is also nothing wrong with asking users to be open about it and list their sources.

Essentially all the things you say in your post sum up, to what the majority of the artists around here would agree upon. And I am happy to see, that jaguar.force agrees as well. In fact, they might have been the thunderstorm necessary to clean the air after all.