The Biggest Threat to Steemit - I hope @Ned and @Dan are paying attention

The Problem

In my opinion the biggest threat that Steemit faces currently is not from any other social network or other cyptocurrency.  It doesn't from come the voting process or the distribution of STEEM.  It comes from the users themselves. 

I hope @ned and @dan read and pay attention to this.

How?

Simply due to the rampant plagiarism and copyright theft which is going on.  (I have remarked on previous posts about these see here as have others such as @corinnestokes here and @c082832 here.)  People are simply copying articles from blogs, newsites etc and posting them here.  Others are taking photographs from competitions and the like and posting them here as is.  It seem that there is a prevailing attitude that this is "fair use".

Fair Use

This article from Rich Stim at the Stanford University Library sums up fair use very well and is well worth a read.  Here is an excerpt:

In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work.

He goes on to describe:

If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work — for instance, writing a book review — fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes.

Note the fact that he says "some" - if you copy an entire work for critical or commentary purposes then it may not qualify as fair use - for example taking the entire lyrics from a song or if I simply took the entirety of Rich's article and just reposted it.  That would be un-necessary for my commentary and would not be transformative.

It is clear that simply copying another post does not fall under any of these categories.  Neither does simply giving accreditation.

But a lot of this work is freely available on the internet

Just because it is available online does not make the work free to use.  That is like saying if somebody's front door is open and you can see inside their house then it is OK to take their possessions and do as you please.

But lot's of other sites do it so it must be ok right?

Wrong.  Yes there is a lot of infringement of work and illegal use going on but Steemit is different due to it's direct monetisation of content.  You can directly see what other people are making from each post.

But Steemit runs on a blockchain and doesn't host any work

In the last few days one of the major torrenting sites was taken down along with the owner (CNN article).  Although it didn't host any content the authorities didn't see it that way.  Torrents are also decentralised and don't host content themselves.  

That does not protect them from the law.  @Ned and the rest of the steemit team are publicly known and could also be held accountable just as the torrent site owner was.

The way images and media are displayed on Steemit means that there is no material difference to the end user from them being hosted on the blockchain or not.  They look the same as they would if they were copy and pasted.

$400 Million is a massive bullseye for the authorities and copyright organisations

The major copyright organisations have a lot of resources and a lot of lobbying power.  STEEM is already valued at $400 million dollars and growing.  Who knows how much Steemit could be worth.  Copyright organisations might decide that they want a piece of the pie.  This might also provide fodder for the existing social networks who have to comply with laws such as the DMCA.  They might also see it as tangential way to deal with the competition.

So what can be done?

That is the difficult part.  There is no easy solution but here are some things that might help:

1. Some clear, official guidance from the Steemit team on what IS and ISN'T acceptable.
2. A content flagging mechanism in addition to a verification mechanism for disputed content - should also have an appeal process.
3. Proper sanctions for repeat abusers along with.

Now I'm not sure how viable any of the above are for content on Steemit.  These things are difficult to do with giant organisations such as Google/Youtube.  Steemit has (I suspect) limited human staff to take care of these sorts of things being a blockchain organisation.  

In Conclusion

The most important thing is for people to make themselves aware of copyright and be careful with what they post - however this is unlikely to stop those who don't care about ownership and are just out to make a quick buck.  

It would be a shame for this fantastic experiment to fail or run aground due to these issues.  Dealing with these issues early on will help to save a lot of pain in the future.

I am sure that we as a community can come up with workable solutions though.  Some of the most intelligent people I know are part of this community and that gives me optimism for the future.

Please have your say in the contents section below.

(Apologies for any errors or spelling mistakes.  Note I have deliberately NOT named any posters who I think are posting infringing content so as not to single them out. Brick wall photo is public domain and taken from here: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=7483&picture=brick-wall-with-painted-sign)