scenario : DMCA takedown of STEEM blockchain
(News : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42808521 )
1. What is DMCA ?
DMCA is the short of the all powerful Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The act is used by genuine content owners to appeal and protect take down unauthorized content. The act is needless to say controversial and ThePiratebay [1] saga and the "Kim Dotcom" [2] incident are the most popular use cases of DMCA take downs.
A DMCA Take-down is:
When content is removed from a website at the request of the owner of the content or the owner of the copyright of the content. It is a well established, accepted, internet standard followed by website owners and internet service providers.
Your right to process. Any owner of content has the right to process a take down notice against a website owner and/or an Online Service Provider (e.g. ISP, hosting company etc.) if the content owner's property is found online without their permission.
2. How is DMCA applicable to STEEM blockchain ?
As we know, we have too much of plagiarism, usage of article spinners, videos and photos used without permission etc going on. Now where does this content gets stored ?
The content is getting stored in the witness servers operated by individuals.
This makes the portals like steemit.com, busy.org and every other interface to STEEM blockchain similar to The Pirate Bay. None of this portals store any content but the objectionable content is stored by some 300+ individual who are proud of being part of the decentralized revolution. (And storing SPAM, Plagiarized content and what not!)
Now, I don't personally agree with copyrights, but I believe in free knowledge sharing. I have release most of work in under various public domain or creative common licenses, GPL, MIT licenses etc depending upon the circumstance. Personally my content is heavily plagiarized but rather than the monetary compensation I have just asked for the attribution. (bi-line).
3. How will DMCA move ?
Though I am no expert or in favor of DMCA, If someone ask me, this is how I will move : use DMCA to threaten individual witnesses as opposed to the company.
Now, if a competing blockchain or few individuals who are pissed by seeing people making money via article spinners and stolen content can approach DMCA and request for a take down.
Portals like Youtube has a mechanism to submit DMCA take down notices. We, STEEM blockchain being censorship resistant & 'decentralized' (except for the @grumpycat & @madpuppy controlling everything) etc, will not agree for a take down.
So what will do ?
As a community, we will resist any take down attempt.
What will be the action of DMCA ?
Its going to be very simple, go after all the witnesses, send them a notice or do a simple DDoS against the full RPC nodes. Sure, we will all resist, but is that we are supposed to do ?
- We already want to work on the blockchain and make sure that the prices increases
- We have to launch Hive [3] - the communities
- we have to launch SMT [4]
Do we stand a chance against DMCA take down ?
I believe with the collective expertise, we will be able to do that, but the question is, whether is that something we should be doing or not. As we are crying out about bid bots and various other silly things, the existence of the STEEM blockchain itself is in question.
4. What can we do ?
For, the sake of basic common sense, stop fighting and prevent people from using article spinners, plagiarized content, plagiarized videos etc. The D-* platforms, steepshot etc are requested to take a tough stand against piracy. The witnesses and those who are running full nodes are the ones who is under pressure due increased CPU - RAM requirements already and we are looking at DMCA soon.
Initiatives like @steemcleaners are the only hope and we need to join hands with them.
#5. To @grumpycat & @madpuppy
Before you downvote me to oblivion, May I ask you a question ?
The grumpycat image that you are using, is it bought or downloaded ?
Why don't you join an initiative like @steemcleaners first cleanup the existential threat to this blockchain and then go after the challenges ?
References:
Kim Dotcom : https://www.wired.com/2012/10/ff-kim-dotcom/
Hivemind : https://github.com/steemit/hivemind
SMT :https://steemit.com/smt/@steemitblog/smart-media-token-development
Special requests for Martyrdom
- (1) BEGIN : Meawoooo & bow-bow {
Now, if I have got your attention and tickled the wrong nerve instead of the right one your tail, use the FLAG on the right top to down vote. !
} END : Meawoooo & bow-bow
- (2) If you are one of those running multiple accounts and up voting each other with fake accounts, do upvote me as I upvote all your posts !!!!
Did you come to Steem's blockchain from the internet or straight from underneath a bureaucrat's desk?
WE ARE THE RESISTANCE!
@GrumpyCat
Your self upvote is flagged by The-Resistance team using the WE-RESIST bot.
We will be resisting with a team, stronger each day, unless you stop downvoting innocent people.
To your tyranny WE-RESIST
The Resistance
Discord: https://discord.gg/qMWCbWR
You realize your bot interject itself in the middle of conversations?
@steemcleaners
You realize this only happens as a protest when you upvote yourself and downvote innocent people.
You, not being a bot, interject you message on completely non-relevant posts.
@steemcleaners
@the-resistance
Amazed by the ability of your bot to verify who is innocent.
I am too. The AI is total amazeballs. We should convert it to self-driving tech or something. Maybe have it face off against the mind-gem. What do you think? Oh and BTW, it finds the word "bot" offensive and prefers "automata".
It is a bot after all...what is your excuse?
@the-resistance
From the real world where lot of people have abused artists of their work & the same world where corporates have misused copy rights to crush artists. I am not really bothered about the poor animal, but plagiarism, if it is, is a bad thing. Personally I am against any form of copy rights as well.
But since I have your attention now, in the good way, my humble request is to do something about the abuse of the content and the blockchain as well. Will you ? :-)
?
More details : https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@smitop/steemit-dmca-analysis
I am still a bit confused that on what basis the users like @grumpycat are down voting people's. A clear guideline is needed just like steemit white paper.
it looks an initiative to balance out the usage of bots. But the biggest issue as I have outlined in this post is still lurking at large.
was very sad before when grumpycat downvoted one of my posts when they had just newly implemented their rule of 3.5 days maximum for upvoting bots. At that point I had yet to read their notice that they will downvoting posts, and I felt it was unfair of them, like even schools have that "1st offense = reprimand" thing.
I do agree though that probably the best way to go about it is by filtering the plagiarism first instead of just mass-downvoting everyone who tried to use upvoting services during the last few days. It could've been a good post for all they know. Good post. ^^
Thanks for the inputs ..
That ought to shut him up!
well, I think we need conversations and action as opposed to shutting anyone ... we need to sit together and discuss what is the logical and best way for the platform, prioritize and do it ... IMHO we can all can contribute and @grumpycat can too. Lets reason together!
I thought his answer to your question spoke volumes about him.
hmm ...
An alternate title for this post is,
"Some rotten fish for the @grumpycat" & plagiarists
It's a real serious issue, I don't know how would I help but I'll make sure that at least I would post only my own "original" content and would influence other new minnows also to make their own "Original" content.
I hope people like you and other big whales would plan something for those big accounts who are using article spinner and other tools for their loot.
I am there for you till my last reputation 🤘
I am not politically inclined but Inquilab Zindabad.I am with you😄
Hope that grumpy kitty doesn't come after me 😄
I am not politically inclined and not just that I hate politicans.
But yea! Inquilab Zindabad!
@silenteyes - but I must say that you might be the first person to start Inquilab on a blockchain ! In the true Kannur spirit !!!!!!
Mallus are too good at this irrespective of whether we are on blockchain or moon.
Aiyyoo!! Hahaha . Being from Kannur even I hate politics. 😂
@bobinson This is a very important question and discussion you have started here and I think the question should be directed towards the witness community. They need to take notice and start a wider conversation around how to address/tackle this. At the same time, user awareness needs to be increased so that people understand the repercussions of stolen content.
unfortunately in here priorities are not based on real world situations .. !
I know, the entire crypto world including Steem is going crazy over the idea of decentralisation finally being able to show middle finger to the world governments, banks and corporates and bring in plentifulness for everyone but people don't seem to bother about the difficulties and roadblocks which need to be navigated first in order to be even anywhere near the probable path to such a future, let alone being able to achieve it some day.
well said. decentralization is used more like a buzzword as opposed to being a reality. IOTA is another centralized-decentalized coin ...
There are others like ripple which are centralised
Apparently there is a list which maintains DMCA requests : https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@smitop/steemit-dmca-analysis
Just think how much plaigerized material passes through Facebook everyday. It doesn't matter to a website that's as big as Google.
It's better to deal with these issues now, and not be a contributor to their growth.
Yes, Right now its quite easy to handle to integrate logic to check plagiarism, things that can lead of DMCA issues etc. Its not professional approach to leave these major issues and try to address smaller matters.
Thanks @bobinson for bringing up this issue, I had no idea that anything has been going on. Given how difficult it is to create original quality content consistently I certainly wish Steemit to have much less plagiarism etc. going on, as it hinders the growth and wellbeing of Platform in my opinion.
All the best,
Klaudia
Same feelings here ... original content should be promoted and spammers/plagiarists MUST be taken out of the system!