RE: How Plagiarism Can End Steemit And What You Can Do About It

[katharsisdrill]

I have some remarks.

1. You have no right to change copyrighted materials without the explicit confirmation from the copyright-holder. Normally you have to pay for adapting others work (samples in hip-hop music for example). The CC-by license gives such a confirmation before-hand, but the rules of mentioning the source always apply. After such an agreement has been reached you have copyright over the added elements. That means that you can not create a new copyright over existing artwork. You will only get copyright over the changes.
   So it is a misunderstanding that you can somehow change things and make a new copyright. The artist that took the Instagram images stole them plain and simple. He did it to get exposure or to open a discussion - probably both.
2. Steemit can not be held liable for the action of it's users, but it is required that it does take down material as soon as it gets to the attention of the responsible parties. (who that is I am not sure). A site like Youtube would have been bankrupt many years ago if they could be held responsible.
3. You can not get in trouble by voting for a plagiarised post, but you will of course undermine the quality of Steemit social network.
4. I have only been here a week, and have already found at least two accounts with with plagiarised material (I even earned a Steem-dollar pointing it out :) The place i crawling with it, and often disguised with photoshop editing. Anyone can see the policing going on in the steemit-chat: steemitabuse-classic. It is a manual labor and everybody should help.
5. It would be great with some tools to help people quote sources. I think it is a very good idea. Maybe there already exist some open-source tool out there that can be implemented.

I have honestly been chocked by the amount of plagiarism here, but my daughter tells me that this is going on everywhere. Instagram for example.

Comments

[kyriacos]

1. Well, how did that guy got away and even sold so many instagram pictures on his own gallery? Also Andy Warhol got away the same way. The guy never got sued though.
2. Steemit is different. it is much like being in a torrent site. We are all shareholders. The blockchain makes us all liable
3. i think you can since you get monetary rewards.

it doesn't matter if its going in other places. no other place earns you money in the way you can earn here. this is why it is so important.

[katharsisdrill]

1. He didn't get away with it. Richard Prince i a provocateur and I guess he had artistic and commercial interests that trumped the expenses from getting in court
2. Steemit is not different. From a legal point of view I guess it is just a website, just like Youtube or Facebook.
3. I think not



But it is true that the money involved here on Steemit does attract this kind of behaviour. It is just naive to belive that there is not any monetary agendas on other media too. Here it is just out in the open.

[kyriacos]

Do you accept the premise that we are all shareholders in here and that we bare direct responsibility?

Nowhere else the profits are tied up to everyone in the network. Again. it is much like the torrent sites.

[katharsisdrill]

If you want to address the risk of lawsuits, you have to see the whole case from a judicial point of view instead of a technical one.