Recently, I have seen a significant increase in activity of @steemcleaners . I have no doubt that copyright requires protection, and spam should be suppressed by all available means. But at the same time I would like to draw attention to some problems that the authors of literary and photographic works, who publish them on Steemit, can meet. I want to say the possibility of accusation in plagiarism and the impossibility of proving anything.
I did not have this problem, but what I see makes me think about it.
I will speak on an example to make it easier.
The first and very important remark. Under the legislation of many countries, copyright arises at the time of creation of the work and does not require registration.
So, I am the author of more than 200 articles. And I know for sure that the texts of many of these articles are in the Internet. I did not post them there. But this could be done by the editors or my students as an exchange of educational materials.
Thus, if I publish the same article on Steemit, there is a risk that I will be accused of plagiarism. Well, if the one who published my article on the Internet, will indicate my name. Otherwise, I can not prove anything.
Even worse is the situation with lectures. Lectures I do not publish, but often I give students a ready-made text. And I sometimes find this text on the web. Most often - without mentioning my name. And then I publish the same text on Steemit. I am absolutely calm because I know: I am the person who fas written it! But then: SHOCK! @steemcleaners comes and says: we found the same text on the Х-forum. And hint that I stole this text. And they suggest me to write them if I am the author. I can write. But what can I prove? Absolutely nothing!
Photographers who had the imprudence to publish on Steemit photographs that they had previously published on the web (f.e. on Facebook) are in an even more vulnerable position. As soon as your photo is in the net, you can say goodbye to the authorship. If there is no copyright registration, then there is no evidence (although I can easily prove that the registration does not prove anything).
The easiest way for artists. They can easily prove their authorship by taking a photo with their work in hand. Moreover, many of them prudently fix the process of its creation.
And the most important question: what to do?
We are all adults and understand all the risks of the publication of our copyright works on the Internet. As for the publication on Steemit, I can give only one advice: publish only works where you can prove your authorship. For example, I can show a paper journal where my article was published earlier. The second option is to publish on Steemit only those works that were not previously published on the network.
As a few-day-old minnow here (I havent even made an intro post yet) that's something I never would have thought about, especially since I have some great work on other social media sites that I would love to share with the Steemit community, so because it already exists somewhere else I'm disallowed from posting it here? This is a discussion that needs to be had
You can safely publish it here, if you CAN prove your authorship. It's not a problem. The problem is when you can not prove it. F.e. as I said, I often give my student texts of my lectures. And they publish them on forums without my permission. Sometimes I do not even know about it. Then a problem may arise. What do I have? Only the text in my computer, but this does not prove my authorship. I'm talking about this situation, and not when you have your blog somewhere else and can prove that this is your blog.
As you have said it...take precautions. Start signing you work. I mean every text i give out to my students has a first page where all is listed. From the date, title and my name under. And there is my name in the head on each page. If possible post it here first, dates what was posted where first matter. When u look under properties of the files like word etc. you can find all the info...when was it created and u can protect em by watermarking or even passwords.
People who publish their stuff on FB are fine. All they need to do is write in their FB profile that they are on steemit, that they are verifying that they are the owner of this FB acc content and thats that.
I am pretty sure there is more ways to prove ownership....but this is what I came up with till now...at least mainly old works I would prolly prove by date of creation on the file itself.
You're right. But people often do not think about it. My friend was in a very unpleasant situation because of this. I just want to focus on this. Internet significantly complicates both the protection of copyright and the proof of the authorship.
Yes it does and also doesn't. The internet can also make it easier to steal it...since copy is one click away from your home couch....but if you are a bit territorail about your work you can also protect it. I could take even more precautions regarding my work but lets face it....I'm lazy. I mean....if you dont lock the car cuz u dont feel like it...........are u seriously gonna be surprised if it gets snatched? :)
I am party not worried much cuz this is the only place i post. So if cheeta finds something outiside of steemit....I will know for sure someone took it. I have most of my drawing files in original and since they are only posted here the date verifies who posted first. But I do get your concern...and the question raised itself a few times in my head.
Best to publish here first.
After you've established a reputation for original work, then occasionally slip in something from the back catalogue, with a caveat explaining why you can't demonstrate authorship.
It is interesting that publishing on Steemit first puts a record in the Steem blockchain that you published it on a certain date. If it does not appear anywhere previously, that would be strong evidence that you are the creator of the work. As for publishing things on Steem that you created and were previously published elsewhere, maybe it would help to put something in the original post noting that it is published elsewhere, but that you are in fact the author.
In a way yes I had thought that Steemit could be the poor man's copywrite for intellectual property without the need for a court or patent office etc.
Agree with you
Thank you for this! As I have things published elsewhere, this is a good idea for me to be careful about how I post. I would like to get copyrights in the future for my art (US resident) but for right now I don't have much consistency, so have not felt the need yet to begin while I'm still in school. I will have to consider it for my digital paintings and ones I end up selling, since it would be harder to prove authorship.