Is Shia LaBeouf’s relatively short film career already over? If you can take the star of such films as the Transformer’s franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Disturbia and Lawless at his Twitter word; then his career is done with a Capital D.

LaBeouf posted to his Twitter account that he was “retiring from all public life.” He told his fans that, “My love goes out to those who have supported me,” and closed with hashtag “stopcreating.”

Many are left wondering why he is calling it quits at the young age of 27 when his career seems to have just started breaking out from his more familiar youngish sci-fi roles into more adult medium like Lawless, Nymphomaniac and the upcoming, untitled WWII Brad Pitt epic. It might stem from some rather sticky legal action being taken against LaBeouf by graphic novelist Daniel Clowes. It appears, according to Clowes, that LaBeouf may have lifted some dialogue from a Clowes novel for the actor’s directed film HowardCantor.com without receiving permission from the author. Clowes has accused LaBeouf of plagiarism. Even though LaBeouf basically admitted the crime by offering several online public apologies to Clowes the author questions the sincerity of those laments.

LaBeouf further caused Clowes and others to question the apology when the actor went back online and posted that when it comes to intellectual property in the computer online age “appropriation has been the most influential theme in art since the 70’s.” He further may have damaged his position by adding, “It’s not plagiarism in the digital age – it’s repurposing.” These kinds of statements are sure to land the case in court and could possibly set new precedents for future cases of plagiarism as it relates to non-internet material being “re-purposed” for online expression.

Other entertainers have made such bold career ending announcements in the past (Joaquin Phoenix, Justin Bieber, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, etc.). Most returned in some capacity to their chosen careers. Question is: Will Shia LaBeouf follow suit?