Originality?

Copycats are bad news bears.But there are differences between copying and adapting. Say for instance, I had my own little eccentric style going on, and someone took it and said it was theirs. Copying. BUT, on the internet. There are numerous ideas floating around. Sure, it's always better to come up with something. But if you find something, and want to interpret it in your own way? All power to you! That's what art is. Taking a subject, or an idea and interpreting it into what it means from your mind. But there are definitely fine lines. And you have to know when things are a joke. (I remade a picture of mine to look exactly like someone else's, but that was a joke and I told them about it) Anyway, there are things on the internet that aren't really anyone's idea even f you did them before someone, and then they did it too. Like for example, if someone threw up a peace sign in their profile picture, and then you had one where you were throwing up one, it'd be ridiculous to even call that copying. There are so many 'picture ideas' that no one can even say "COPIER!" It's a general idea that everyone knows about, and chances are, the person who did it 'first' saw it somewhere else, also. How do you think the peace-love-happiness things got around? Those pictures are as common as divorce in the U.S.