Is your argument that the lawsuit shouldn’t move forward because individuals copy styles all of the time?
That is the equivalent of saying the IRS shouldn’t go after a billionaire that isn’t paying their taxes because a bunch of food servers aren’t reporting cash tips
Meanwhile deviantart is full of humans copying Ghibli’s style, and every other style that exists, and even taking paid commissions to do so.
Is your argument that the lawsuit shouldn’t move forward because individuals copy styles all of the time?
That is the equivalent of saying the IRS shouldn’t go after a billionaire that isn’t paying their taxes because a bunch of food servers aren’t reporting cash tips
The difference is the scale of the for profit operation.
Some person doing commissioned (or free) art in another’s style isn’t unheard of and generally accepted.
A massive company doing this for profit is not.