Question that's been in my head...if copyrighted content is published, and it's text based copyright violation, any thoughts on how this might implicate Steem Inc? Or implicate the blockchain itself, as it is storing said work? To whom would a takedown notice be posted? If the creator of said content is "unknown", an anonymous account, then would it be necessary to perform a hard fork to remove the content?
Hey @gyrosean, this was one of the first things that we have found troublesome as well. We find it a problematic topic and quite difficult one to answer. There are several factors that makes this difficult. Steemit is a platform where it allows its users to publish any kind of content. While this might be seen as a service provided by Steemit, it's not. Steemit only translates transactions where users/visitors can see what transactions 'we' have stored in the blockchain. Since most users do not go by their own name and are hard to trace, it is hard to hold that user accountable for plagiarism, while they should be held accountable. However, the work is stored on 3rd party hosting servers that make a 'transaction' as well, translated into our blog posts. Those parties can take down the plagiarized content since they store plagiarized content without permission.