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Of course, it's hard to explain my position to those who don't see things in the same way I do. Meaning, that someone might understand my words, my concerns, but feel little to no sympathy for my sense of ethics. That is something I've learnt to accept, as much as it feels like a rock in my shoe.
You might be surprised to learn that some prominent steemians believe that as long as the content is valuable, it really does not matter who the original author is. They have a simplistic view that I have a hard time subscribing to: "If it's good, that's all that matters" - It's obvious that I have a problem with that, and have expressed my point of view on this matter, even when it was a whale defending the simplistic position.
But... I guess if we think of Steemit, as social media, as strictly social media, then it makes sense that plagiarism is irrelevant. After all, I don't remember grandma getting dislikes for sharing her favorite prayers, and that is probably her favorite thing to do.
In my view what makes things different here is the monetization aspect of it all, and possibly nothing else. Because lets face it, if I was to go to Peter's job and collect his paycheck for the work he did all week, there would be absolutely no one defending my strategy.
I am however fascinated by the elasticity, the moral contortionism that some of the plagiarists seem to have on this platform. In other words, they not only feel it's ok to plagiarise, they feel they are owed money for doing so, even if they have little to no investment on the platform. This, of course, is quite different from the whales that oppose my worldview since we at least can agree that their stake gives them a power to decide where the rewards should go.
Just today I found one of those little gems on the @buildawhale discord, one of those accounts who feels like plagiarism is completely OK. This account demanded that it got the STEEM transfer back, because all the other promotional services that had blacklisted it for plagiarism had the decency to do so.
Strawman moment
Your honor, the last two times I killed a man, I was caught and exiled, but they gave me back my knife. I demand that the officer has the decency to at least return the knife to me, it's mine after all.
I'm sure that @themarkymark got a kick out of that distorted logic, because I sure did. However, I'm convinced that the little fellow of this story has a clear conscience, I would even bet money on it.
This strange ideas on plagiarism really bother me at the core. Being someone who has spent countless hours writing songs and producing albums, the thought of someone taking my work and claiming it as their own feels like a kick in the gonads of newtonic measurements I'm not willing to accept.
About a week ago now, a ring of musical plagiarists was disbanded. I won't list them all, as this has already been taken care of, but it all started when @shadesofblack was ousted as a fraud and it lead to us finding more than twenty accounts from indonesia using the same bittrex address to cash out, using @dsound as their little cash cow. Needless to say, it made me sick to the core, it still angers me.
But maybe, just maybe, I'm wrong. Maybe it doesn't matter, maybe my biases are getting the best of me and I should find a way to not be annoyed by it, to not be so upset when I find them. Why does this bother me so? All this writing and I still don't know.
The self exploration continues I guess...
• What are you working on?
• Junking muh car....
• Dipped my toes on EOS/Trybe and I think I lost a pinky
• Thoughts on Boxology
• Openmic Week 99 Top 5 and Honorable Mentions
Oh gosh, I remember that guy. It was the most laughable comment I have read to date in the @buildawhale Discord.
We have a lot of great moments on the Buildawhale Discord.
I'm trying to figure out the Inception-level thing going on here where you copied a comic about copying from a site that writes academic papers for students to submit under their own names so that you could illustrate a post that's against plagiarism.
Be honest like other boats, Meno.
Be honest like other boats.
(It's a freely shareable image from the comic Mimi and Eunice.)
shots fired...
/me gets in his bunker...
Ooooo busted. quick diversionary
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I'm so confused.
E assim mesmo meu amigo, mas fica frio, sempre vai ter pessoas assim
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I don't think plagiarism is even acceptable where money is not on the line. Social credibility, people will call you out if you take things and share them without autocorrect. Sure there's a lot of copy pasting going on, but those are just cases where not enough people care enough to call them out on it.
So I suppose when there's something on the line, it's important not to steal. Money. Or social points.
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I see what you mean... well, if you are saying.. I SAID THIS ME... I SAID.. DO ONTO OTHERS yada yada..
then for sure, you are a disgusting poser money or no money.
no, serious? wow logic is highly under-rated.
with music, art and writing, nothing is ever truly original; we are sponges, influenced by who we like and what we have heard. there are only so many ways to pleasingly combine notes. but at some point a piece becomes original.
for instance anyone who writes on the taj mahal and uses facts, that writing is not original. its just a fact written in a slightly different way. it becomes original when the writer puts their unique perspective in there.
however plagiarism has a specific definition, and whether you accept it or not, if someone chooses to vote based on it, well, thats their choice.
i blame the advent of fake news, where its ok to be biased and make up your own truth, because there is no such thing as pure truth or some such idiocy. if we lose our values, then we might as well go anarchist
funny you say that, because that is probably what they've use to excuse it... meaning, they invoke anarchism.
possibly. probably. while im no fan of big government, there are certain principles i hold true. without these, people are free to be assholes - to lie, cheat, steal, hurt, manipulate. and im not sure that i want to live in that world.
Yeah the money aspect changes things... I have always written original content however I have in the past used pics without people's permission.
I don't do it anymore because of the money aspect, even though the money I was receiving wasn't for the pic, it was for the words, I still felt like I shouldn't be doing it.
The fact is thieves justify theft, they are stinking hypocrites who would cry like babies if anyone ever stole from them. Luckily though we are operating in an environment where most people have integrity and so call out sheisters like the ones you mention above.
Cg
Yes, and honestly I can't feel bad for dude who got his money taken from @buildawhale specially after he got blacklisted from everywhere else, meaning that he is the epitome of "recalcitrant".
One must laugh in order not to cry.... because it's so pathetic.
I've encountered plenty of folk here who think it's fine to just take a photo or text from elsewhere and get paid for it. It's bad because they are not adding any value and it harms the reputation of Steemit as well as ripping off whoever created it. I've not found anyone using my music yet.
I'm sure it's probably happened but it's passed under the radar... i've not found someone using mine either, but it's just a matter of time before it does.
It really does. I tackled also this topic about three months ago and I went even further and talked about "grey plagiarism" which is not copy pasting someones work, but rewriting it without even quoting a reference. This type of posts I saw even at people with close to 70 rep and really felt like shit when I knew I spent hours a day writing about different topics and would only get 0.20 or so per post.
In the case of news types of posts I agree that the only thing I could do is to gather info from other people's articles write the post in my own way, add personal opinions, and of course link references at the bottom of the post and that's it.
However when one makes a "scientific post" with all sort of data presented in it without him being the researcher and he doesn't even link some references to the "real author" or collector of that data used in the post for me is just a grey plagiarist, no matter the rep, and I feel pity for such person.
I don't subscribe to that idea... i know friends with a lot of stake who don't either... but i can think of a huge whale who disagrees with our point of view.
"Why does this bother me so?"
Because you're an artist, who has written songs, and you know the effort it takes, and you know that without a prospect of reward (which plagiarism destroys), you won't be able to continue making art.
Things are better than they used to be. When Shakespeare wrote his plays, there was no copyright, so he had to rush and put on a few shows asap to grab a little cash before everybody else just put the show on, without paying him, or just copied and read it.
Today, if you write a post, it is automatically copyrighted under the law, assuming it is long enough to be "an expression of ideas" rather than merely "ideas," and the time-stamped blockchain itself will be proof of the fact you wrote it. :)
This is awesome Rodney, this means I already copyrighted a bunch of made up words... Like prevenge - which is basically when you take revenge against someone before they even hurt you, because you know they will.
Prevenge ™
Should definitely watch out for these guys then.
what is this???
/me calls his lawyer!
Sorry, @meno, you can't copyright a word, only an expression of ideas.
To protect a word, you must trademark it, and that's costs serious money in every jurisdiction you want to protect it in. Further, the word must not be trademarked by anyone else, and it cannot be generic, like say "restaurant." It has to be unique, like "McDonald's" And lastly, it has to be trademarked for a field, say "entertainment." So someone else can trademark the same word for another use that is outside of the scope of the use you trademarked the word for.
So no, you didn't trademark or copyright that word. Sorry dude. :)
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