Are you in the Plagiarism Zone?!
I'm a passionate food blogger and I've spent thousands of dollars on equipment, locations, ingredients, tools and not to mention countless hours behind the camera and in photoshop to make nice photos. I've never charged money or made any money for my work. I'm a passionate Vegan and I simply like to share my creations to everyone for free.
So is it ok for others to steal your work and make money with it right here on Steemit!?
Well the answer to that would be a simple NO!
It's illegal to use other peoples material without their consent, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE MAKING BANK and earning money with it! That will get you in to serious trouble and could get you a criminal record and cost you a truck load of money!!!
So I found this recipe today, hint hint @steemcleaners, it looked delicious and I asked the person out of interest if it was his recipe and photo. He replied that it wasn't his photo, but it was his recipe.
A quick search bought me to the owner of the recipe and the photo. I was lied too. Both the recipe and the photo were stolen.
I couldn't help think what I'd do if that was my work! I once had Wholefoods USA use one of my photos for their website. They'd used the photo and then asked me. Assuming I would say yeah sure because I mean duh they do have 1 million followers on Instagram, I still said no and asked them to take it down! Sure I would have said yes, but when you've already stole my work, then I don't care who you are, first you ask and I'll decide what I want to do.
The guy I was talking to this evening was obviously young and kinda laughed at me, and said that nobody is going to jail him for stealing a photo. He also went on to say that steemit claims all you need to do is write the source of the photo.
So I checked. I mean, hey, I can make the worlds best recipe book in just hours if all I need to do is write underneath where I stole the recipe and the photos from. That would be an easy way to make some serious money, heck I'd be writing copying recipes and making books all day!
For those few who steal and think it's ok beware as your footprints might be found in years from now!
Before you steal the hard work from someone else, take a minute to think why? Why do you deserve to earn the money? Answer yourself honestly like a grown man or woman would. The truth is there is no reason. But there are plenty of reasons why the owners of the work should sue you. More importantly to the young ones out there with a big smile wearing a 'I don't give a shit' shirt. You might not give a shit now, but what are you going to think when in 6 years from now, you've forgotten all about your steemit experience and a letter from a lawyer arrives in your mailbox with a fine. What are you going to think when they ask for $20k. Now you might not have a job, but in 6 years from now, you might be earning good, have grown up a little and see things in life quite differently.
Don't let the past haunt you, so don't steal in the first place!
Guys it's awesome to use Steemit as a platform to express yourselves. I have quite a controversial name, I mean it has the word Vegan in it! Just the name already shall get me a lot of haters and a ton less views about what I have to say. But Steemit gives me the opportunity to be myself, and I encourage you all to be yourselves. It's fine to be hated by some and loved by others. But don't steal!
If you're genuinely interested in the topic you're blogging about make the recipe or make your own photos of the project your working on! They don't have to be professional, content usually trumps perfection in my opinion.
Let me know if you agree or disagree and why below
If you liked my photos by the way (yes they're always mine) you're going to love my future recipes so if you're interested in healthy food whether you're vegan or not then hit the follow button. I don't preach Veganism, it's a fact that everyone has a choice, I really just like making plant based food and showing others how easy it is to make :)
Can someone explain to me why the idea that as long as you source your image/work on Steemit, it's suddenly okay to post? I wouldn't be okay with anyone making money off my content even if they linked back to me. The ONLY way I would be okay with it is if they talked to me beforehand and offered to share profits.
I don't think anyone is going to jail over a Steemit post, but you can certainly get sued over it. I'm not sure why this is a difficult concept for people. I guess they don't care because they have a "that will never happen to me" attitude?
I know I'm terrible, I don't stop to think, I just type type type. :) Thanks though!
:)) And even though corrected and written beautifully, I think this would still be classed as plagiarism. If however it was changed around a bit, well that's where the border is. That said I'm sure it's a case to case judgement. I've read stories of people getting $20k for stealing a photo and I've seen examples of supermarkets in the east using a family photo found on FB with the kids, mama and the dog being used for the shop front! They got no compensation and the shop owner was allowed to keep the storefront picture up.
Hello, I´ve been wanting to reply on this beautiful content of yours... Yes, I am with your journey on plegiarism... I think, it´s the mentality of some people stealing works of others especially those intellectual properties and post them publicly as their own and profit from it. I mean, what kind of conscience do these people have... that´s evil!
That´s why I watermark my photos... and even then, there are softwares that remove these copyright icons ... so you can´t really do anything except if you discover by accident that someone is using your photos and post them publicly as their own. Then you can sue... but the thing is, do we really want to get them to court and pour our energy for all these legal process??? Upvoted
I love the story of your dying friend... glad he recovered!
So true, for me however without making it official, my quest is just to share and help others. So as long as I put more material out there and it reaches the eyes of others, I'm happy. If I have a success rate of 1 in 100k, I'm happy :)
Keep on steeming my dear!
I totally agree with you!
I'm a food blogger, too and I'm putting all of my time and effort into creating recipes and helpful content for others. And it's definitely not okay for someone to copy my stuff and make money with that.
What I find okay is, if someone gets inspired by one of my posts or recipes and writes a comment or a review about it and shares the link to my original content ♥
If done correctly we might get to travel but we're still stuck to the laptop daily and have to think constantly about new material etc. I have a whole storage in USA that I have all my plates, antiques, bottles, old cinnamon pots etc etc in. When I'm in USA I use that. I also have a bag that I take to America when traveling, America as in central and south. In Spain I have a collection and also in Italy. Backdrops, cutlery etc. That's work nobody even notices, I might hardly use them, but I need them just in case. As a vegan I can say I go through all this without earning anything simply because I want to spread the word. Yep strangely it's that important! I wrote a post the other day on my Instagram, I had an old school friend and he was told that he had another 3 months to live. So he went out and celebrated with some old friends, I was in Costa Rica at the time so I didn't go. Anyway after being vegan for 4 years, I've learned not to force veganism on others as they hate it. But I couldn't resist, I mean this guy had a few months left. So I wrote him a mail, sent him references, links, juice recipes. He answered "Thanks, I'll look in to it". I never heard anything more and then one day he pops up on my feed when in reality he should be dead! (sorry to be blunt). He wrote "it's so much fun being Vegan!". This guy had weeks to live, and he went for it, he opened his mind and blocked out the noise. He now has zero traces of cancer, he's the fittest he's ever been and is happy!!! That is the main reason why I do this. Yes sure in the future I shall be making money, but that is an exchange from the universe for doing good work. So if you are vegan do everyone a favour, promote it, promote the recipes, promote the good guys (Sorry #durian) and let's think as a team yes and spread the word. For every person saved through a vegan diet, whether they just have eczema or a bloated belly, it's a few animals more saved. Less animal flesh sold, less animals being raped. And when a few million are spreading the word, and bloggers like yourself are preparing nice meals for others to promote, then we shall gain momentum. Success is always the same, you have to imagine it as a concrete wheel. It's really frikkin difficult to get it moving, you have to put a ton of force in to it. But once it's rolling it's difficult to stop! A bit off topic but who cares #veganpower
You can resteem my food @govegan
I've followed you grazie!
So glad to hear that #govegan do you like my food?
Plagiarism is definitely a lazy route that many people are taking here. It's unfortunate because not only is plagiarism discouraging and insulting to the person who originally created the content, it is also is making Steemit a place of reposted content, stolen work, and spam. On top of that, some people are actually making money from this practice.
Thanks for sharing your opinion and story. I'm in the process of going vegan, so I'll be following you. I appreciate your effort in sharing recipes and making it easier for people like me to begin this journey.
Maybe they should introduce a steemit license. Meaning that the user goes through a schooling so they understand what plagiarism even is and why it's not cool and also why it's not wanted here. I think just like someones health we need to make sure that steemit is eating the right veggies and not making itself sick. If they had a short test that everyone had to take and agree upon, things might be different. They could also reward people in steem power if they catch others. That's awesome that you're going Vegan, if you take your time and make a slow transition you'll hardly notice a difference. Plus it's great fun!
Thank you this post, i agree with you on everything except when you criticize others for taking other peoples recipes. How else do you learn in cooking if you don't follow recipes. Of course the problem comes when you take a recipe and like you said a put a picture up that is not yours.
Atleast give the recipe a try and take a picture of your version of it but i guess some people just want an easy buck. I hope they do find out the hard way a few years down the line.
Again thanks for the post i will follow as i really want to stop eating meat. :) Peace and love! If you can follow back i will post food post in the near future!
It's like when you sing a famous song on these pop star shows. The best way to do it, is to make it yours, the recipe might be the same but if you give it a little twist here and there it gets a more personal touch. In my example the guy copied 100% the recipe word for word. Copy and paste. I always have a story to tell when I post a recipe, my thought of the day, maybe the reason why I made the recipe. It's easy to give your work character and fun! :) Thanks for your reply, I'll be sure to follow!
I think the answer is simple...follow the copyright laws of where you live and also follow your conscience! I find good articles that I reference in Steemit. You can legally post a snippet and reference it with the source URL and add your own copy explaining it. Like Govegan says...make it your own. Your conscience should tell you to credit the original author too!
It is only okay if you got the consent! That's the way it is.
Look...if someone steals your recipes and photos and posts them, it's wrong and you may report. But how sad for them. Originality is what makes us unique and someone who copies is just sad!
I personally have used two photos from google and have not mentioned it's source, it's just to show the place i ate in, and i didn't have taken a photo teh day i ate there. But for me this is okay, what do you think? I n the end the pictures of their food were mine and i was making advertisment for that eating place.