Copy, Paste, STEEMIT! Making Money Off Of Other People’s Content?
It is my first day on Steemit and I have noticed that some people on this platform like to copy and paste other people’s content from websites such as YouTube and post it onto Steemit with minimal explanation (if any) as to why they decided to post it.
When I see these kinds of posts, I don’t know what to do. Do I up vote the content and encourage more of this behavior or down vote because its plagiarism and I should discourage them from doing it again? Maybe the best thing to do is… nothing.
You see… the issue that I have is that I don’t want to reward anybody for simply copying and pasting someone else’s content onto Steemit and have them earn money off of it. It just seems wrong. At the same time, some of these posts are directing me to some interesting content that I would’t have found any other way. So because some of these posts provide me with value, that means its worth something and the post should be rewarded… right?…RIGHT!?
I mean is it really such a bad thing for these posts to earn some money? If anything they serve as free advertisement for the original content creator. Only…It becomes a bit of a moral issue when the original content creator is not able to monetize their content on the platform they originally posted it on but the ‘advertiser’ over here on Steemit is.
Intention seems to be the key when it comes to these copy and paste posts. A part of me believes that there are people who aren’t focused on monetary gain and are simply trying to get the word out about their favorite content they want to introduce to the steemit community BUT… another part of me believes that they are being posted purely for monetary reasons. Copy paste, copy paste, copy paste, copy paste, hoping one of them is a hit and the money starts rolling in.
Either way, I don’t think a short summary or review along with links directing to the original content creator (not just the content itself) is too much to ask for. Without it, it becomes hard to decide what kind of action to take towards the post because the intent of it is unclear.
Before I conclude, let me just say steemit is a new ‘thing’ that has tremendous potential for redefining social networking. The fact that this platform brings up issues like the one that I explained in this post is an indication that this is revolutionary. I mean… have you ever earned money just for being a part of Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or any of these other social networks that exist today? Just for doing the minimum of what a social network has to offer (liking and commenting)? For most people, the answer is no. This copy and paste plagiarism thing isn’t a very big deal for most people on other platforms but here on steemit (where anything that anyone does seems to have a monetary effect) it is something that everyone should at least be thinking about.
Original content is important to steem. This is how Google will index us. If we just duplicate the web, Google will start filtering out steem results, which means we slowly die.
These greedy buggers who keep copying pieces of the internet and reposting it to earn a few cents, are doing it at the expense of hurting steem in the short term.
We, as a community, should be flagging these posts (downvote) in the top right corner. If they are clearly junk copy/paste content, they should not be rewarded for it.
Steem is still so new. I understand greed comes first, and intelligent decisions come second.
Over time, you will see that intelligent decisions come first, and greed, well, will still be there. People will learn how quality unique content actually makes them a lot more money than cut/paste posts.
Do the math: You can make 50,000 posts on steem it by cutting pasting for 1 cent, to earn $500
Or you can make 1 single post, with your brain, and writing something unique and interesting that gets popular, and still earn that $500
These other people would rather spam the steem network with junk, than use their brain. What can we really say about that?
Punishing users for sharing behavior that is normal on every other network will not work or make this place popular. Downvoting for SEO reasons is a bad strategy. Normal reddit and facebook users won't understand it.
If you want to go on a crusade, post what you explained here in their posts comments.
I don't want to go on a "crusade", and when I do downvote, I post a comment as to why I have done that, I will say things like "article appears to be stolen from http://xyz/0/sfs/xyx.html
Sometimes the author will say "so, whats wrong with stealing content?" ...and I will explain. Look at my replies.. I'm constantly commenting. I'm doing it again, right now. :)
The crusade comment was directed more at the abuse brigade police force that is forming.
That's the way to do it. Inform instead of attack. It will only take a few comments like yours to get people to add commentary.
I think that would be the best way, post a commentary (doesn't have to be long) about the link itself and the individuals personal thoughts of the article.
I'm kinda in the same place I won't down vote copy paste content but I also won't up vote it, which kinda sucks when it's a decent article. So if someone merely linked it with their own little write up, that I would up vote for. If it was A) a good find and B) a tiny bit of effort was put into the commentary and it doesn't look like a 2 year old wrote it.
Amazing explanation!
That's what users do on social networks, they share the stuff they find interesting. If you find it interesting too, upvote it so more like it gets posted.
What steemit really needs to do is encourage it in a way that benefits the author too. They need to allow users to embed more types of content.
Not like what we've been seeing... People posting full articles pulled off various sites without attribution is not the same as sharing a meme or a funny youtube video. It's an attempt to populate the network with content that you can profit off of without contributing anything of real value. Next they will be multi-accounting and voting posts up and making a killing... It's just not something we can afford to let happen.
People don't make money for sharing other people's work on other social media outlets. That is the difference.
Did you read the embed link or not?
There is an enterprise level business created called embed.ly that is providing the sharing service using this open source code already. They understand that's what people do and created a service to provide what you guys are calling plagiarism as a service. When done right it can credit the author, provide a link, and add content here easier than stealing it.
All I am trying to point out is that there is no need to waste all this effort to police it, and code bots to scan content, and put people in power to moderate it, if the same service can be done easily by simply embedding the content like people do every day with tweets and youtube videos.
Nope. I'll admit I read the first sentence and responded because I needed to do something else, sorry. I read your post on oembed and knowing Dan I think the more likely outcome would be that Dan simply creates his own version of that app for Steemit or finds a better solution that doesn't need a third party app. I'm basing that off of his past history and his responses to my own promotion of third party apps for his ventures. ;)
For instance, I wanted BitShares to integrate with Qora for a decentralized social media experience. Instead, Dan created Steemit. ;)
Yeah, I expect they would want to code their own version too. That's why I linked the 2 open source versions of it :)
I don't care what service they use, its the idea that solves both problems at once while removing the need for policing that is worth spreading.
Hopefully someone will check it out before wasting any more energy on ai content downvote bots.
I had thought something similar. Then quickly thought about how this relates to other social media, ala Facebook shares and Twitter retweets.
We should be using this site to share content that we find interesting, just as we would on any other network. That includes linking and embedding. Of course, adding ones own thoughts in addition to the link and encouraging discussion is a greater utilization of steemit.
On YouTube a content creator is permitted to play another video or game/movie content and monetize it SO LONG AS they are overlaying or interspersing their own content with no more than 10 seconds breaks. That seems to work ok for them there. I don't think I would recommend setting rules here on such things, as the decentralized censorship-free nature of most blockchain technologies is what makes them interesting in the first place, but if we as bloggers hold similar standards for ourselves and promote the content of others that do the same, the culture will organically feign in a more moral direction... in my opinion.
Bhai ji you can make like this low money
what brings value? it is clearly a major problem on steem, to decide what this value will be.
if steemit is my major source of information i would say, to get something to my attention is really valueable, but as long as steem is small this is maybe not the value we need.
we really need a good discussion on this topic!
Wooooops
As expected, the self appointed content police are starting their rampage. Notice who it is, and who disagrees with the embedding idea.
https://steemit.com/dispute/@drinkzya/valuable-content-shared-with-steemit-is-being-tagged-as-stolen-understand-the-importance-of-giving-credit-where-credit-is-due
If someone shares an entire content from someone else's website without attributing the original content, the intent is pretty clear. They just want to make money out of the same without giving the original publisher any credit for it.
That being said, sharing a content with a link to the original URL is perfectly fine according to me. I mean that's how we share links, images and videos on Facebook as well. Most importantly, we get to see such interesting stuff due to the Steemit post, so in that case, the author of the post deserves some credit I guess.
In conclusion, I believe sharing is absolutely fine and earning some money for that too. But, without attribution is nothing but stealing.
Thank you for drawing attention to this in a very eloquent way!! I actually saw someone share a friend of mines post, and before I say anything, I wanted to see what the community said. Following, resteeming, and uprooting.
That's absolutely true.
You are right
Congratulations @midnightmadman! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about this award, click here
Same to you