[deadbeeves]

>How well the network inside your skull can manipulate your limbs to reproduce good-quality work in some artist's style?

An experienced artist can probably do this in a couple weeks, depending on how complex the style is.

>If I copy a book putting ink on paper letter by letter manually, that's ok, think of those monks in monasteries who do that all the time.

According to copyright, no, that's not okay. Copyright does not care about the method of reproduction, it just distinguishes between authorized and unauthorized reproduction. A copyist copying a book by hand without authorization is just as illegal as doing it with a photocopier. Likewise, if you decide to copy a music CD using a hex editor and lots of patience, at the end of the process you will end up with a perfectly illegal copy of the original CD.

So the question stands. Why is studying artwork with eyeballs and a brain and reproducing the style acceptable, but doing the same with software isn't?