EXISTENCE of Steem and Steemit UNDER THREAT - Hollywood Blockbusters Published by Steemians on Steem and Steemit
CryptoSpace, Blockchains, De-Centralised versus Centralised, Lower need for Authorities, Anonymity. Seems all good, right?
What about abuse of Copyright Laws? Hollywood Movies; Blockbusters?
Recently, I've been zooming in a bit on events at Steemit that may harm the service, maybe even the company - Steemit INC - that launched the blockchain and cryptocoin Steem, as well as the 'owner' of the user interface most of us are using 'Steemit'.
De-Centralised Video Platforms
Now a bit more than one year after the berth of Steemit, de-centralised video platforms are emerging. Outside Steemit, but also several new ones from inside the community. How cool is this, right? No need for YouTube or Vimeo anymore to host our video files, but new de-centralised operated and managed video platforms. No dependences of centralised defined policies.
But something scary is happening as we speak. Whilst the de-centralisation is trying to take the middle man out of the game for artists to offer and sell their work and allow the artist being paid for their content and work directly by the consumer, It doesn't mean the artists content shall not be protected under copyright laws.
The recently launched DTube (here) is a YouTube look alike video platform allowing uploads, storage, and viewing within the DTube platform and direct sharing of these video files directly on Steemit. It is a well integrated service with the Steem Blockchain and the Steemit User Interface. All good, when the videos we upload is original content or carry some indication that it is free to use for commercial application (under the Creative Comms licenses for instance). But what when people start to upload Hollywood movies and series, and share this on the Steem blockchain?
Hollywood Takes De-centralised platform down
Unlike the music industry, the movie industry is fierce with regard to abuse of copyright laws for their products. The fight against piracy is one with lots of powers behind it and has the ability to take down de-centralised networks like the many torrent networks it already took down in varies places of the world. I do not think this will be different to de-centralised networks like Steem with its users interface like Steemit, Busy.org and more.
Uploading and Spreading copyrighted Hollywood movies can become very harmful for the future of Steemit and Steem as a currency! That is my firm believe! And I think we shall prevent this from happening. How de-centralised Steem is; How anonymous we as users may seem to be; The authorities showed in the past they are able to find them, and take them down!
Blockbusters Uploaded to DTube and Published on Steem/Steemit
5 Days ago an Steemit account was create with the name "ipfs-movies" and an initial Hollywood movie was uploaded at DTube and shared as a post on Steemit. Within 30 minutes this account was flagged to a REP below zero, by @dan, the former CTO of Steemit Inc. It is not clear to me what the exact reason was for @dan to flag this post 1) was it the pending rewards that was already at more than 160$, 2) was it the spreading of copyright material on Steemit? No activities on this account anymore.
BUT...
Within 24 hours, a new account was created on the Steem Blockchain with the name "chainflix". Since then, this account is posting more than 5 Hollywood blockbusters per day. Surely, some of those movies are very good ones, but I think this account is bringing the future of Steem and Steemit Inc in danger, in big danger! We do not want the authorities, Hollywood producers and all to come after Steem and Steemit because the platform is actively contributing to violate copyright laws.
Am I Wrong?
Maybe I'm wrong here, therefore I first of all like to get your opinion on uploading copyright materials to platforms like DTube, and sharing that content on the Steem blockchain.
- Do you think DTube and Steem/Steemit can get away with such practises?
- Do you think DTube and Steem/Steemit shall prevent such practises?
@ned? @zurvanic? @andrarchy? @sneak?
And what is your opinion @dan?
I wrote about this very thing a few days ago and the response was both encouraging and discouraging. The people uploading really feel justified in uploading the content and really do not give a shit about the Steem ecosystem, but there were quite a few people who expressed their disapproval of the practice.
We might want to consider getting enough people ona guild of sorts to aggregate enough Steem power to downvote these films into oblivion so the monetary incentive is removed.
Removing the rewards by Steemians is required in my opinion as well, I fully agree with you here. This gives at least some power on Steem/Steemit side to counter any authority claiming Steemit/Steem is infringing copyright laws.
Hollywood movies: @chainflix
Music videos: @musicbox
Animation: @cartoontv
Destroying Steemit just to make a quick buck.
This needs to stop. ASAP.
Musicbox was new to me. Music may not be that a big an issue IMHO.
There is also some account uploading copyright porn.
Thanks for your comment.
I've published a followon post today with how the community is acting wrt these accounts/channels.
Basically all the porn posted is copyrighted.
I posted about considering requiring verification for nsfw posts, because almost none of them are legitimate.
Ok will read your post!
Here is part 1:
Note: it is not an uplifting post. You might want to just skip it, frankly.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@lexiconical/should-nsfw-content-require-verification-for-copyright-plagiarism-and-reposts-in-new-created-part-1-of-2
Some populistic thoughts:
I see the problem and I am on your side, this could (and pobably will) harm steemit.
But really: WHO whould have thought for one second that this kind of things will not happen?
One of the first things I thought was... NICE the big enterprises like paramount, disney and all these Hollywood craps could buy into steemit and flag the sh++t out of these guys while pushing steemprice to the moon ;-)
The next thought was:
Nope. Will not happen. They will probably sue steemit and / or d-tube resulting in a gray zone / legal war like with megaupload several years ago.
A lot of publicity will result... nice (possibly... or not. Megaupload was dead after that)
Actually I think we have to redefine what intellectual property is and how it should/could be monetarized. Steemit is one of the needles in the flesh of the giant, driving this thought process forward.
Your latter thought is exactly what would happen. The blockchain is the enemy of corporatocracy thus far and is undermining regulations already. They'd love an excuse.
Would you like a spatula? For your bunghole?
I do understand your views. What happens here maybe a driver to redefine copyright. But am not sure if it is done at the right time. The movie industry is becoming more fierce in fighting copyright abuse, so as you suggested as well, the movie industry will very likely fight what is now happening here at Steemit through the court system and demand the discontinuation of the service and blockchain.
What I simple do not understand is that fact that DTube and I think also View/ly do not seem to have any T&C stating that uploading and publishing of copyrighted material is not allowed. This is something that IS addressed with a service like LBRY as far as I know. For sure, this may not prevent uploading of copyright materials, but it shall start with telling the uploaders to stick to the existing laws. This is where the harm already starts; Creators and owners of services not thinking what they are doing. Subsequently this leeds to what we are now see happening; Abuse of the law and now in a industry where the 'authorities' have no mercy.
We will see how "strong" the actual decentralizing works against these laws. Imho you are right about that the timing is not really good. Would be some kind of different if there were REAL decentraliziation and millions of users.
When de-centralised would be implemented with many nods running the network, maybe 1.000, across the whole world, and no centralised tools are used to execute the prime services (like the UIs), then it could be something that is very difficult to take down. But then again, the authorities could start by the users, to take them doen one by one when the eg consumer copyrighted material that is uploaded and published outside the law. When that is fought hard, other users may stop such behaviour, or may leave the service and go somewhere else. The later would be the death of Steemit and Steem.
I don't see anyway how can this be prevented. People who would love to see Steem being close would just have to post copyrighted material and then create a law suit.
I don't see it as making Steem liable, maybe dtube could be seen as liable but I don't think so either.
Most of the time torrent websites get closed because they don't comply to taking down some material but dtube can't do this. Dtube could be seen as facilitating piracy but their technology is neutral.
Then again dtube will have to comply to take down notice just like Steemit Inc is meaning they will have to remove certain content from showing on their website if the authorities ask them.
I dont think the authorities will care about the fat it is not possible to remove content from the blockchain to be honest. As you say, maybe they are ok for the blockchain/services to prevent showing copyright material to the user, maybe this shall be build into the blockchain API as well, so that no frontend is able to get to content anymore that is required to be blacklisted/taken-offline by the authorities.
I guess this was bound to happen. From a legal standpoint i'm unsure. It makes me think of how people use apps on Kodi such as Exodus to watch free movies. Kodi simply provides the open source media player. What people do with it is another matter. There has been a recent uproar over Kodi in the UK. But from what I have read it's been very hard to prosecute anyone. It did cause some companies in that area to shut down though.
There are so many ways for people to get free movies now. Hopefully we can make it as unprofitable as possible and they will move on.
The issue to me is - This not what steemit is about. Steemit has always been against plagiarism and the use of copyrighted material. Being decentralized it becomes a community issue to flag these into oblivion. So thanks for the great post.
i think on EU level recently they made some new rules/laws against those services such as Kodi. Even if it is difficult to fight them, in the past networks like Napster was taken down. Taking down a service may not be done through taking down the network itself, but with enough marketing power, the users may simply walk away and causes the service to stop because of the low use of it. When Hollywood wants, it can take down Steemit and Steem as a currency through such approach; In the USA a news network can make and break services, companies and individuals, as proven by past experiences and events.
I was literally writing a thread about this last night that I was going to publish today. There seem to be no end of people publishing licensed content on Dtube and even the big whales seem to be supporting this. I noticed an account on the trending pages that wants to upload a bunch of licensed cartoons and has already uploaded an episode of Rick and Morty. Meanwhile The Matrix and The Dark Knight Rises have already earned someone money.
As much as we are against plagiarized content on Steemit it seems like we are just allowing it on Dtube without even a second thought.
It's harmful for the platform and you're right.... we need to be giving it a second thought and a third thought so that people stop doing it. With the price of Steem not high right now we need to do everything in our power to fix it and fix our platform.
Absolutely we need to think twice before we take rights away from the original content owners and even start earning money while doing so. Luckily some of our Steemians got alerted through this post or in some other way and started flagging the uploads by chainflix. Most of them are now with zero rewards. At least something, and a strong signal to those who want to continue uploading copyright materials to DTube and other video platform closely linked with the Steem blockchain and Steemit service.
you are correct in your analysis of the problem. posting copyrighted material without permission is what finally brought down napster and it won't be any different here. the mpaa is vicious about protecting their members and their product
Thank you for sharing your views, I fully agree with you the MPAA and what they can do against platform like ours when we do not obey their rules.
I've just checked this chainflix blog, despite the flagging, it is still getting support and from whales too! How can steemians support this? This should not be allowed as this is complete plagiarism and can affect the platform one day.
Some have interesting arguments why it is not bad, or at least why this shall not be stopped right now. Just published my followup post in which I go into a bit more details what is done, and how I look at things. As well as update on what I've done last 24 hours and what reactions I got. At least one whales is upvoting of which I know he is generally voting for the right cause, whether this be downvoting or upvoting to counter downvotes; In this case he counters the downvotes as far as I know his work he does in our community.
This is truly remarkable.
I share you the same concer my friend, here is my related story:
https://steemit.com/dtube/@malekalmsaddi/making-fortunes-by-abusing-steemit-through-dtube-video
Most of the reward come from one account, very likely the account owning chainflix. Check steemd from its first entry and also check the ipfs-movies steemd. CartoonTV is not different to that. Maybe other account as well.
chainflix is a fake account, which in my opinion belong to a whale..
my concern is not this account, but it's that this kind of chainflix account will become a phenomena before we know it.
What is fake and what is not, is they question. An individual having two or more accounts is essentially ok for me. It may support separating content, since we cannot create communities, and best is for channels to work is to create verticals per topic. I personally have not problem with someone having multiple accounts. I do have a problem with those who claim they are new, whilst they are not. In case of chainflix there is no hard proof who owns the account, but their is circumstantial evidence though.
Good post @edje. As much as I would love to watch these movies for free, you're completely right that this could ruin the platform. Not only its reputation, but also from attacks from Hollywood. I know a big plus of Steemit is to avoid censorship, but when copyright material is being used, we should have someone able to shut down an account and remove the material.
I absolutely agree. Although shutting down an account, does not prevent things from happening again as shown by ifps-movie being flagged to REP lower than zero and the establishment of the chainflix account just a moment later by the same Steemian, that I'm pretty sure about, although proof is difficult since ANONSTEEM was used. But looking at who upvoted immediately the Matrix movie published with ifps-movie (https://steemd.com/@ipfs-movies) and who plays with its votes with most of the movies published with chainflix https://steemd.com/@chainflix, it seems to be the same Steemit account behind it.
Yeah, that's a tough one. Like flagging all of the spammers and plagiarists, it could simply become "Dweilen met de kraan open"!
That indeed may be the case; Maybe we should stack up on many 'Dweil's' :)
Sounds like a plan! :D