RE: Too Many People Plagarize On Steem, And Make Money On It!
Citing the source does not make things okay legally or ethically. Fair use allows one to use just enough content to give context, and you should never copy and paste things in whole. If you want to quote someone, a small snippet of text, example image, or short video clip and link back to the original is fine. Copying the entire article, image, or video is copyright infringement. Steemit should implement a filter or automated system that compares submitted content to what it can find already existing on the Internet (humans would have to be involved to compare things in print I suppose) and if the Steemit account cannot prove they have license to use the content here, payouts should either not be made at all or to a charity voted on by the witnesses or community as a whole.
well said!
Thanks, flickr creative commons is a good resource for images that people can use in their posts legally so long as they follow the license (usually needs to be attributed to them with a link to the original in the image caption or at least somewhere in the article). Quoting a sentence or three isn't necessarily a problem so long as you cite your sources, but anything beyond that is really pushing the boundaries of IP theft and fair use. And on Steemit it is pretty easy to see how much someone made off of your work if they just copy pasted, so it's not going to be that difficult to decide if it's worth talking to a lawyer and pursuing it... ;-).