The very nature of Steemit encourages those of low moral fiber and ethics to try to cheat, cut corners, and abuse intellectual property.
The vast expanse of the internet, a bit of anonymity, and the protection of being behind a computer screen lost in space seems to make these types of people feel that the rules do not apply to them, and if there is a chance they can get away with it, they should, to benefit themselves.
This is not something wrong with Steemit. It is something wrong with people.
We see this everywhere, from bankers to politicians, and stock-brokers on Wallstreet, and even street-vendors and taxi drivers in third world countries. The sad fact is there are many people of low moral fiber that seek to take advantage in any way they can.
Thankfully on Steemit there are great initiatives by @steemcleaners and @cheetah and our many members that have high moral fiber and ethics.
These initiatives and individuals do a great job of trying to protect intellectual property and demand only quality original content to be shared to help make Steemit a better place.
Unfortunately, these initiatives can only do so much
Those abusing the system for themselves outweighs the amount that can be done, a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless. Hopefully as Steemit continues to mature, we will see these initiatives and individuals on the look-out grow and do a better and better job of making Steemit a place not only to earn money for making posts, but one of original quality content, one of the best on the internet.
Recently, my wife was a victim of one of these such people, disappointingly enough by one of the very people within the community she is bending over backwards trying to help, #teamphilippines.
Many of you, if you regularly read my posts, my wife @haleyaerith 's post, or know us from the #teamphilippines chat on PAL, know that the two of us are relatively new to steemit, compared to many of you, and are 2 of the many people behind @teamphilippines and the mission to spread Steemit throughout the Philippines, and teach those new to steemit within the Philippines about the rules, expected etiquette, how everything works etc.
In addition to those basic duties, the objective of #teamphilippines @teamphilippines aside from spreading and educating people throughout the Philippines about Steemit, is to help leverage Steemit to reduce poverty, increase education, and spread the understanding that original quality content is king throughout the Philippines.
Through her tireless efforts, @haleyaerith, myself, and many others put on the first official Steemfest TeamPhilippines event over a month ago as seen in this post here: SteemFest TeamPhilippines Event 1 - What is Steemit, What is the Blockchain, Q&A, Hula Hoop, Cake, Clubbing and Korean Food!
Before that we announced the official @teamphilippines logo that @haleyaerith, and I worked tirelessly on with input from @lemonchum and @descterity. The announcement and official debut of the logo as well as the t-shirt designs was shown in this post, also over a month ago: TeamPhilippines - Steemit Is about to blow up here!
Around the same time @haleaerith also posted her FIRST announcement of the shirts going on sale and accepting orders in this post here Buy a Shirt?
With her ambitious aspirations of getting everybody in the Philippines to be on Steemit and a part of #teamphilippines she went into another chatroom that, at the time, had around 25 (total not active) Filipinos in it. She showed them the link and talked about the shirt and the price and the design. A few people Direct Messaged her and told her they wanted to buy one. In the main area of this chat room however, (note this is NOT the official teamphilippines chat just another chat room that happened to have filipinos in it), the responses were fairly negative.
People complained that they did not like the design and suggested instead using another out-dated design that was made by one of their cronies, attempted to tear @haleyaerith down and elevate themselves in the process. She took it in stride of course and listened to them humbly and politely no matter how irritated she was at the attacks. That was the last time that she attempted to talk to those users about the shirts in that chat, however a few of them did come over to the Official TeamPhilippines Chat and requested shirts, talked about how much they liked the design etc. much to her pleasure.
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So why have I told you all about this and what's the point? How does it relate to the title and opening paragraphs of this post?
Yesterday, one of the VERY SAME individuals that had been in the chat over a month ago, putting down the design, made a post.
They were a *DIRECT rip-off of the very same design that had previously been presented, only lower quality. I can only assume that what this person did, was found a low resolution version of the logo, such as that seen as the avatar used on @teamphilippines, scaled it up, and had it printed.
There was no thanks sent to @haleyaerith, @sasha.shade, @descterity, or @lemonchum. There was no credit given, no permission asked, just PURE THEFT.
Here are the screenshots of the post with the obvious infringement of intellectual property at the time of writing this post:
.
Face and Names, etc. blurred to show the infringement without the identity of the perpetrator in a show of good faith hoping that this person will rectify what they have done
These are meant to be distributed at the VERY SAME event that @haleyaerith has been taking orders for t-shirts for, over the past month in the chat, on facebook, and on steemit. They are lower quality, they are a theft of IP, and the person guilty of it originally insulted the designs, only to steal them later.
We should be helping each other people. Not stealing and attacking each other. Particularly those pushing for the same initiative and the same cause. The fact that people like this continue to have the audacity to do things so obvious and appalling saddens me greatly.
I hope that sooner rather than later, we can all focus more on original quality, support the authors and creators of said content instead of stealing, and start to uplift one another instead of it being such a common occurrence for users to cut corners, copypasta, and outright infringe.
not my design and i had no intentions of stealling the design.
Heres how it all happened.
exported file of conversation.
Im giving those shirts for free in an event where me and the author of this post will both speak.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IXyUmLle-sC4fjXhE-en5zTi0uHRugSvFBH8dJac2Sk/edit?usp=sharing
There may be stuff writen in Filipino you wont understand and but you can ask other pinoys here to translate it for you.
Comment removed
This post doesn't accomplish much and if you have been here on steemit for longer, you will understand this. If its about the Philippines, then this can be settled in the chats and amicably because it can. And i wonder what chat on discord you talk of but if it the only other chat i know, you should find out what the history is, of that seemingly inactive chat and how it began. Speaking of official, you guys should team up and be one. The first steem meetup ph, was sponsored by Ned himself. There things called pacing. When you get to a queue, it is good to find out what the queue is about. Everyone can bring up stuff and says its official. If its one Philippines afterall, then this serves no purpose. It happened in the chats; settle amicably in the chats. There a ton of things that go on in chats, that are never heard outside. That is why there are chats, among other things and there are bigger issues that have been settled amicably especially if it is one Philippines in this case. Visit #kr or #cn
I hope we can sort this out properly. The shirts printed are to be given away as prizes tomorrow, not sold. The intent on using the same logo is for SOLIDARITY as team philippines, not because he was stealing it. The act was done with the best intentions.
We are all meeting tomorrow, please clear up this misunderstanding so newbies will be comfortable joining us.
Comment removed in a show of good faith and in the spirt of mending broken fences, re-building bridges and solidarity for #teamphilippines at the event today
I am sure he made an honest mistake, and intended no harm.
Definitely shouldn't shame someone so publicly on Steemit.
_Rob
Comment removed in a show of good faith and in the spirt of mending broken fences, re-building bridges and solidarity for #teamphilippines at the event today
Thanks @sasha.shade.
As an artist and designer myself, it's upsetting to see this. Regardless if it's being given away, only the creator has a right to it, otherwise it's STILL THEFT. Unless, the artist specifically states it's a free for all, which I'm reading in this post it's CLEARLY NOT the case. This post did need to be clarified PUBLICLY; that it was not a mutual agreement of some designed shirts being sold and other shirts being given for free (by someone without the right's to take such liberty).
Everyone wants to earn money that's why they are posting duplicate content again and again over steemit. Negligence of whales and the other steemit members are degrading this awesome initiative. Members of steemit are not ready to help someone who want to make it a more engaging, more awesome place to interact.
I posted a blog post regarding help, I searched everything but didn't found any answer. So I posted, no one came to help me.
Few people commented, not with the solution but with their opinion that you have to find the solution all by yourself.
Lol !!! In such way it will beat facebook ..
Incentivized and in some cases very fake "niceness", until I see ethics and morals and ACTION taken I don't see it going to "the moon", it's very sad some don't have the balls to stick up for others and let them get attacked or in your case totally ignored......anyways, thoughful comment
Really this is entirely based on money people cheating each other.that bad
This is quite upsetting @sasha.shade thank you for bringing it to our attention. Some of us were unaware that they were rip-offs and even thought that they were purchased from @haleyaerith as originals.
@teamphilippines does not support plagiarism or theft of intellectual property.
We appreciate the support for the event that they were showing with the shirts, but do not support the way in which it was done. Permission and rights should have been requested, or purchased from the original designer(s) and/or copyright owner.
This is illegal according to both Philippines and International law.
Thank you for reporting this so that we all go forward with our eyes wide open and can focus further on uplifting original quality content only.
not my design and i had no intentions of stealling the design.
Heres how it all happened.
exported file of conversation.
Im giving those shirts for free in an event where me and the author of this post will both speak.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IXyUmLle-sC4fjXhE-en5zTi0uHRugSvFBH8dJac2Sk/edit?usp=sharing
If you want to see the truth, pls click the link.
There may be stuff writen in Filipino you wont understand and but you can ask other pinoys here to translate it for you.
i'd like to thank all dolphins and whales who asked first before coming up with a judgement.
Hectic stuff.. Well, let's just chill :)
Nice shirt! Well done to all you guys who put in the hours to make the design. Take it as a compliment :D They couldn't make their own shirt, and had no choice by to 'plagiarize' :P
Nice, in-detail post! Keep them coming my dude!
I gave you a follow. Talk soon.
And here I am sitting in the corner and still in shocked.
Just take it easy my friend :) Don't beat yourself up..
Think about how amazing your design was that they couldn't do it themselves! :) Remember, Karma will always return 10-fold on the situation. Both, good and bad! If they were wrong, life with punish them. Same, but the opposite for you. You put-in the hours into making that design, you will be rewarded for your efforts!
Just be happy and let life play it's course :) Talk soon.
speaking of karma. Listen to the song Karma by kimi veraste. I like that
Listening now :) It's pretty decent!
I
everything is ok now .great that all is doing fine.
This is a really important issue, I mean come on people, be original for once and give a proper credit.
However @sasha.shade, they're just a cent's lover with a quick buck scheme in mind. here's my thing for copy pasta lover :D
haha love the image @macchiata that's classic! Have you posted that elsewhere?
Yeah, I created that image 2 days ago while I was posting about Copy Pasta
I totally understand.. The platform is chaos right now. I always try to pour my heart out in my content but the lack of visibility discourages people all around.
Good people are leaving and newborn spammers are emerging to take over.
It's going to get even harder :/
Very true, but hopefully with initiatives like @steamcleaners, @cheetah, and the good folks that are reporting stuff like this, the good will prevail. I believe Steemit can overcome all of this, we're still a young community and many are still pushing the boundaries to see what they can get away with.
Oh wow. That's just awful. So far, I haven't suffered that same fate with my content, but in looking at the numbers of offenders posted by the bots, it's somewhat staggering how many people are involved in IP appropriation to one degree or another. I have no idea how you could completely solve this problem, but perhaps just continuing to make the community as a whole aware of the situation like you did with this post will help direct steer more potential sales back to you. Good luck with your event!
I am dumbfounded by the excuses given to someone who stole someones work. Then to pass it off as their own. It is theft plain and simple and there is no excuse for it period.
yo quieri una camisa de esas
Thanks for sharing..
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Really i read about it very bad with you