An Open Letter to Those Making Money With Stock Photos on Steemit

in steemit •  7 years ago 

To those that are being rewarded by copy and pasting stock photos in “photography” and all other related tags,

It is rather obvious that some of you here are literally searching pictures on google and posting them with simple captions, making profit off the works of others by claiming it as your own. I have been a “Steemian” for only a week now, and during that time I have seen dozens upon dozens of photos that were easily searchable and being the property of others, yet posted here as “original” content.

Not only is this illegal, but also is contrary to the entire purpose of Steemit.

I debated a bit about posting the images I have found “stolen” in this letter and tying it to the respective user name, but I thought it may be best to try this tactic first and not make a bunch of enemies here my first week.

These actions are manipulative and damaging to those that are true photographers here on Steemit. Many are contributing their hard work and their skills to generate revenue and contribute original, quality content here on steemit.

Seeing stock photos generating hundreds of SBD, yet original, quality photography is earning close to nothing is not only frustrating, but discouraging and unfair.

As a community, I feel like quality content must be maintained and those whom put in the effort should be rewarded. I ask all that read this please resteem and spread awareness to this issue. I am sure I am not the only person who has seen this!

In closing, I request these practices be stopped immediately. If not I'm entertaining the idea of starting a project in which combats these abusive practices, keeping our community values alive with original, quality content.

I ask that those who read this to please resteem to spread awareness, let's protect this amazing ecosystem in which has been built.

Regards,

Jacob Billett M.B.A.,
CEO Billett Enterprises, Inc.

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I just joined almost 25 minutes ago. This is something worrying. :(

It'll be okay. This community will band together and protect this project. This is an amazing place, with amazing potential to all that contribute. Welcome by the way!

The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @entrepreneur916 to be original material and upvoted it!

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To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!

There are a few cleaning bots that are looking for this very thing. I imagine as Steemit continues to grow, there will be even more bots and tighter control over content. While this trend may be disturbing, it won't be the end to your frustration here on Steemit! Haha.

Soon you will become privy to last minute voting tricks, Whales putting out just garbage and upvoting their own posts and cashing out, people posting movie trailers and making a ton, the list is pretty much endless. So long as there exists a way to make a quick buck, people will take advantage of it.

My way of combating it is to try to focus as much as possible on those with undervalued content. I want my time on Steemit to be as meaningful as possible, and I feel like it's the best use of it. If you see flagrant abuse of Steemit however you can call a few of the cleaning bots to the post in question, or you can flag it as well.

Hope you are enjoying the better, higher quality parts of Steemit at least! 46 is a great start for having only been here a week! :)

I really appreciate the response @bethwheatcraft . The whole reason I am so pro-Steemit is that the other social media sites turned into garbage. There is no intellectual communication anymore. There is no substance anymore. It is like everything has been "dumbed" down.

So much "information" yet zero knowledge. I really don't want this to go down same path.

I totally get it! I write about this all the time! I don't think this will happen here though, even with some of the posts getting paid stupid amounts for being terrible. Too many people are invested and want this to work, and want this to grow as an intellectual community! As I said, flag posts that you see are abusing the system, but more importantly, really support those that are putting out good content. If we use all of our energy policing the shit posts, and the good posts are going unnoticed, then those authors will get discouraged and eventually leave. Whereas the people who are using the system will just keep popping up no matter how many times they have been warned/flagged.

I am also new in steemit, just had my first post few hours ago...however, your article is worth re-steeming and is true. Kudos to those who are exerting efforts and investing time to create their original photographies..

I appreciate the resteem. This is an amazing community, and I would love to see it stay that way.