When people are strict about plagiarism, they tend to use the argument that people should be original and not copy another person's work. And people should certainly be original, and I certainly don't believe that art using copyrighted characters should be sold (this excludes parody, of course).
However, the idea that it is plagiarism to simply draw a copyrighted character and post it on the internet for noncommercial purposes, or to use a photo reference for part of an art project you're not planning on selling, or write fanfiction for noncommercial purposes is ridiculous. Next thing we know, it will be illegal to draw pictures of trees because God created them!!
But seriously, extreme copyright laws kill creativity. Let's face it: no idea is truly original because at some point someone else thought of it, and because we are inspired by things we encounter. Even Shakespeare copied the ideas of other writers! Works that we call original are really just a bunch of unoriginal things mixed together to create something new. Furthermore, if someone has made something that uses elements of another person's work and isn't trying to sell it, the creator should be flattered in most cases!*
So... if you've created something, and people are drawing pictures or writing fanfiction about it for noncommercial purposes, LEAVE THEM THE EFF ALONE!
*Note: I understand that the creator won't always be flattered, nor should they be, but imagine taking someone to court and saying "I'm suing because this person wrote crappy fanfiction about my characters." That's stupid. Especially considering that there is an extremely popular book that started out as crappy fanfiction, and continues to be crappy. If someone took my original characters and did that, I'd be pissed off, but I wouldn't sue them unless I had a good reason.
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