Slightly rephrased question: Is there "an original" of a digital work of art?
1142 votes
Yes. If the artist makes one print of the work and destroys the file then that print is the original.
Yes. The original is the digital file the artist initially makes. Any print or copy of it is a copy, but that initial file on the artist's computer is the original.
Kind of. Because the original form is digital you can't really own it if you aren't the artist, but if you have the only print of it then it's LIKE owning the original.
You can own digital art, but the concept of 'original' vs 'copy' doesn't really exist since each instance of the work is exactly identical.
No. No matter how you slice it, you can't own the original of a digital work in the same way as traditional media.
I have a different opinion than those listed here, and I will state it in my comments.

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Deboir's avatar
there are a lot of descriptions about digital art and if its original or not. 

i will describe it with prints:

Digital prints are generally printed using the highest quality giclee processes. if you print art from another medium (real painting, oil on canvas, real watercolor, photography of an traditional artwork) it is not original. if you create digital watercolor which looks like real and create a limited print or just one print and destroy the mainfile.... its an original and not a reproduction of another medium.

i am trying to create digital art which looks like traditional one without using scans of real brushstrokes... create a few number of prints and delete the mainfiles so i could sell the prints as original throug auctions like paddle8, bloomsbury etc. :D they sold prints last year and some of them with a value of 50,000,-
i will explain that i create my digital art for print them in limited editions or just one print. and this print is an original handsigned artwork. no one could reproduce it in same quality because
i will print it on structured canvas. if you scan it and trying to print it again... you will have a bad quality. so only my own print will be the original one

(www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/art…)

this is also a good article about prints:
www.artbusiness.com/reproprint…