Ive been reading several articles after she confessed. In many they mention: "she copy a work she saw years ago and she does not remember from where" "she had no way of contacting the real author , therefore couldnt ask for permittion or give her credit"

Both casey bowman and yummei (real author of the work) have accounts on the same art website.
This is the real authors artsite - http://yuumei.deviantart.com/
And this is Kasey Bowman -http://coyotebrutal.deviantart.com/

Kasey Bowman at yummei add as a friend or watch (term used at that site).
So she lied when she said she had no way on contacting her and had no idea where the work was located.

Back to the subject.
The only "punishment" Kasey Bowman recieved was had the prizes removed.. wich i dont think is a punishment.. how can it be punishment if she didnt deserved them?
she commited what might even be considered a crime and shes not a little girl. these days if someone steals or makes profit with something that was taken without permittion, even with an apology they have to pay for it..
in a way shes kinda lucky that shes only getting internet mean comments from completly extrangers. ( She can always close her internet accounts, change nicknames and start over.)

Punished Enough?
She was not sued, she was not expelled from her school, no one is throwing her tomatoes . All shes getting is complains and mean comments on her myspace and other websites.. she can just turn off her computer and pretend nothing happened. Its just computer text.

Shes not some 12-15 year old that entered her local art contest to win a ribbon. Shes an 18 year old adult (according to her myspace) and was awared that she was entering a serious national art contest using a work that belonged to another art student.
She accepted the $10,000.00 prize , the 2 gold medals in Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition, agree to do the interviews, agree to go have the works published and exposed at museums, she was even going to travel to new york to accept the awards..
My question is.. didnt she felt a bit guilty? she was becoming famous using a recoloured version of another persons hard work/idea/dream.

It was only until the real owner found out and got in contact with the contest people. That she was asked if it was her original work or not. She was caught.. and ended up admining eveything..