Steem can land you in jail and it's not FUD
I am not spreading meaningless FUD
Blockchain can lead to jail, it's not a certainty but a possibility which needs to be addressed.
Don't straight away discard this post as shit or blame me for spreading FUD. Raising uncomfortable questions which provide insightful answers is very important. I am a pragmatist, to an extent you can call me a stoic as I like to think about both sides of things. I am very unlike the naysayers and do not completely agree with the blind flagbearers who don't see any problems or issues.
We need to ask ourselves uncomfortable questions to figure out if something is wrong with us, the same is true for other things in life including Steem, or for that matter the blockchain technology as a whole including the likes of Bitcoin.
Nothing in life is perfect. Same with blockchain. Even though the founding principles of this technology is based on universal ideals of the betterment of humanity, we the users are not always so perfect.
Think deeply and do some of your own research on the below two scenarios. I think you will understand how it can really put you behind bars or at least create legal hassles for you.
I am not even talking about you partaking in illegal trade using Bitcoin or Steem. You don't need to do anything other than just downloading blockchain into your computer.
Piracy and Plagiarism
I had some concerns about this but a brilliant post by @bobinson really drove home the risks of the rampant plagiarism (and perhaps piracy of content on @dtube and other media platforms) on the Steem blockchain.
He raises a very valid point. I agree with him and I think that just flagging by @steemcleaners may not be enough as anti-piracy and anti-plagiarism laws might not be complied with just by making the information invisible at first glance. The immutable nature of blockchain technology means all such information gets stored in the blockchain itself and can be accessed by anyone if they care to write the necessary code.
I don't think @dtube saves the uploaded videos on the blockchain itself but I also do not know if there is a takedown policy which will comply with legal notices as and when they arrive. The DMCA and other authorities across the globe will not be very happy to have a piracy problem similar to what we have seen with torrents even though the nature of it is somewhat different.
Anyone who has the blockchain downloaded (acting as nodes for information transfer) becomes automatically complicit in the transfer of pirated or stolen media and text content. Maybe the blockchain itself cannot be taken down because one node will be replaced by another, a thousand by a thousand other but what about the individuals who find themselves facing the law? What happens to them?
Child porn
In my opinion, a more severe issue is the propagation of child porn through blockchain. A research has found that about 1.4% of the Bitcoin blockchain's transactions contain arbitrary data and this data contains, along with many other things, links to child sexual abuse images.
It does not need to be elaborated that even by downloading the blockchain into your laptop, you may break several very stringent laws in almost any country on this planet.
Counter points like anonymity, "will not be able to track" are secondary as in principle doing something like this is actually breaking laws which keep our society safe.
Think about it.
Something needs to be done soon
There is a reason why I am not a blind supporter of the "no-censorship" bandwagon. I do believe, some kind of information control is required, even though I do not know how and what that should be. I do not know how to arrive at the perfect balance to allow "freedom of speech" and yet not allow things which are detrimental to society at large.
There are multiple aspects to this question, like who decides what is detrimental to society and who decides what to allow or censor. I know it's complicated and I do not have an answer. The community as a whole will have to figure this out.
Hope the law does not catch up before that.
Reference
- https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/03/21/bitcoins-blockchain-content-land-in-jail/
- https://fc18.ifca.ai/preproceedings/6.pdf
- https://steemit.com/steemcleaners/@bobinson/scenario-dmca-takedown-of-steem-blockchain
Goodies: Benefits for You (Referral Links)
Sell Votes on SmartSteem
Get Followers and Upvotes on SteemFollower
Get Free Crypto Coins
Click on the banners to learn more about each community
That's the problem being decentralised setups. We are talking about setting up rules to control when the scope itself is not defined.
It becomes the responsibility of the service provider (in this case steemit) to have monitor and regulate flow of contents.. which can be done by building countermeasures or hiring a top class system dedicated only for this purpose. Like you said it need sto take down the content Which are flagged till the creators provides justification. Same goes for the very unfortunate second case.
All i wanns say is freedom too can be really ugly sometimes.
Another solution is use this decentralised system against such thing.
Pretty timely topic, what with FakeBook having a live-stream of a 17 yo girl being raped. The moron actually broadcasting it was one of the rapists too, and the smart thing is that the girl called it in immediately.
Illegal acts and materials should be removed ASAP, and the authorities contacted.
yes, I keep coming back to this topic of censorship... I guess this topic resonates with me... I don't think I am the anarchist types who are aplenty in the crypto-world
I guess this is why govt's oppose this and are ready to bring about measures to regulate. It does scare me now that you mention it. I was also put off yesterday when I saw a porn post in the anime caregory, being awarded huge votes. My son watches anime and I certainly don't want children like him to watch or read such stuff. I can never understand why people misuse children, sex trade and so on. Oh dear
Interesting. Although I understand why you included some of the hedges in your intro, I don't think they are necessary because this is obviously a great question to ask, even if there are possibly good answers. Good for you to go there.
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue # 89 (3/30/18)
The STEEM Engine is an initiative dedicated to promoting meaningful engagement across Steemit. Find out more about us and join us today!
This post has been rewarded with 100 % upvote from @indiaunited bot.
You hit home with a couple of very solid points. I agree that Piracy and Plagiarism are the main concern for anybody who is taking part in the blockchain movement as of now. This goes for images, text bodies, and videos. We have all had slip-ups on the blockchain, if you don't think you have, you are being ignorant to the fact. Just start to learn and change your ways.
The concern about, to be frank, vile videos and disturbing content is also very important to understand. With the blockchains being downloadable to hold your coins, there is potential for sentencing with that. I would say though that, just like the internet today, there is problems and issues surrounding it as a whole. We are very early doors here so I can suspect much more to come. We can only be vigilant and conscious of the risks. We need to keep on learning more.
Thanks for the shock at the start, I felt like there was something seriously wrong with just using the blockchain. You gave me shivers, to say the least haha. But yes, back on a serious note, you are totally right. I think people need to take plagirism seriously and understand that they will be the first people in the firing line. It's easy to prosecute a percentage of wrong doers on a platform that is in it's infancy. It's harder to do that when you're a network with millions upon millions.
Be smart guys, stay cautious. It's your responsibility.
It's called the art of "click-bait" lolz...
on a serious note, yes you make a few very good points... of being vigilant and conscious about the risks... yes that is a very important point
This is a very big topic and hard to isolate a solution on. While I do not believe in the censorship of content, I do believe in the monitoring of content. The problem arises with who will monitor the content.
You also have to take into consideration on this matter the use of bots. Mis-labelled content such as NSFW content not being labelled as such gets past screening too easy, Should a vote bot now vote on this blog are they promoting porn imagery to the younger users of Steemit?
The doors to legal requirement and responsibility are beginning to be opened.
Monitoring leads to censoring... that's for sure and as I said, some level of censoring is required... the NSFW mechanism in itself is a censoring mechanism... so is the downvote system... nothing against you personally, but the anarcho-theorists out here who talk about no censorship are often the first ones to start flagging people's content
it's complicated to say the least
Then an agreement between people needs to be established in some form. There is a need for rules or guides and when these are dismissed by a user, there should be a method in place to counter their actions. The abuse of a power given to someone in this position is not the same as the position been there. When a power abuses the position we as the user should have control to remove and replace that person.
I definitely agree with the plagiarism, there's nothing we can do that can stop this at the moment.
I do agree with the no-censorship policies and it's not because I support piracy or any of the other negative consequences. Once you decide to censor, you allow for the technologies and the power to censor to exist, and these can and will be used to shut people down when considered "necessary".
This is precisely the reason why I'm partially anonymous. I know that whatever I say gets recorded, forever on the blockchain or temporarily on someone's server. I know that I will want to be free, regardless of what I actually intend to say (let's not fall into the "I have nothing to hide" argument). Therefore I must contain my speech in separate identities. This gives me freedom, and in an uncensorable environment, even more freedom.
But once you take the road of censorship, beside actually shaving off the weeds of piracy and other illegal content, you are being complicit to taking away people's freedom of speech (by supporting the creation and usage of tools to delete/hide people's content)
I understand where you are coming from but I must say that you are perhaps looking at the problem from a fixed vantage point. Censorship is not good and not desirable. There's no argument to that. But there are reasons why it becomes necessary sometimes. My above post talks about some reasons. There are others I have written about before, like instigating religious riots through malcontent in social media. Do you really believe that the right to spread whatever one wants to is more important than people's lives? Do you believe live streaming of a murder or a rape should be allowed? No censorship can work in an ideal world with everyone being ideal citizens. In the real world, compromises are needed. The real question, I believe, is not if but how.