COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND IMAGE THEFT IS RAMPANT ON STEEMIT AND CONTENT CREATORS/ARTISTS/PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE BEING RIPPED OFF!
I have been looking around and seeing a lot of outright image theft from other Steemit users. What I have witnessed is very sad to see. You see very talent people working to create art and photography and most of them are making little to nothing on their posts.
Then you see someone else steal the images off of their page, credit them (which does not give you the legal right to use someone's images) and create a new post with one or more images from the same or multiple users and then make $100-$500 on that post. They are profiting from other people's hard work and expenses as very often there are hard costs involved in photoshoots, there sure are in mine.
The is not right, not fair, and unethical. The only exception is if the person obtained permission from original content creator. I have studied U.S. copyright law extensively and to the best of my knowledge this is not legal and if the images are registered with the copyright office the violators are subject to up to $150,000 Punitive Damages per image. Posting to make profit is a commercial use.
Now since I am not a Lawyer and if there is some technical loophole I have missed that would allow this unethical behavior, it is still ripping off the Artist/Creator and is Unethical.
I'm asking people to stop upvoting these kinds of "ripoff posts" that they see and instead go to the page of the Artist/Creator and upvote their work.
Doing that is the only thing that will stop this kind of theft of other peoples work for selfish profit. And better yet downvote it.
I'm not a big fan of downvoting people's work. But downvoting image theft is a good use of the downvote button.
The Whales have the power to stop this with downvotes, kill the payouts and the theft will stop.
Now if you're one of the people doing this you need to obtain written permission to use the image, you should also be either paying them a fee or splitting the payout. What ever you negotiate. That is the ethical way to use someone else's work.
But it's not ethical to steal someone's work, post it and profit from it. Just because you see it on the internet does not mean it's public domain or give your the right to use it especially for profit.
Imagine this... You found a model, set up a shoot, paid the model, paid the Make Up artist and then spent several hours shooting, then retouching.
Then you post your work and make a few dollars. Then later you see your work on someone else's post that never asked you for permission and they are making $90 on your work! How would you feel?
This behavior is also a liability for Steemit itself and I foresee lawsuits coming in the future if this is not policed and stopped. All it will take is one high profile photographer that likes to sue people like David LaChapelle seeing his work stolen and profited from and Steemit will get hit with a lawsuit I guarantee it (Then the court will decided after heavy legal fees.) Then you'll see headlines linking Steemit to Image theft. This is not good for Steemit's image.
Post that are willingly violating copyrights of others (Steemit users or not) should be blocked or have the payout removed or better yet have the payouts given to the person who's work was used without their permission. There should also be a way to report copyright violations easily so it shows Steemit is doing all it can to protect people's copyrights.
This is also exactly why so many artist and photographers are starving. Yet the people stealing it produce nothing of value and get paid.
To The Artists: I will be adding this to all of my posts from now on I suggest you add something similar.
"Copyright Notice: All Images on this and any of my post are copyrighted by me Nico Simon Princely and registered with the U.S. Copyright office. All rights reserved. You DO NOT have permission to use or post any of my images without written consent from me. Do to so is copyright infringement and is subject to $150,000 in statutory damages per occurrence under U.S. Copyright Law. You may resteem the post. "
Support The Artists and Content Creators not the thieves and Steemit please step up to the plate and protect the legit content creators not the thieves.
I spent my time and own money to promote this post so that this would be brought to people's attention for the greater good of the Creators/Artists/Photographers on Steemit and to prevent steemit from getting into legal issues down the road.
I ask that all of you you do your part and stop supporting content thieves and support content creators.
Without that Steemit will just turn into a haven for unethical ripoff posters rather than place for Creative People to get the support they need and deserve and a place for people to come view quality original content, because the content creators will leave or quit.
Please Resteem, and help with paid promotion if you can so more people see this.
Thanks,
Nico
Some of my other Recent and Still Active Posts that feature my Digital Photography...
NSPART - Erotic Nude Photoshoot Series featuring "Roxy" Part 3 (NSFW- Erotic Art - Nudity 5 Images )
https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-erotic-nude-photoshoot-series-featuring-roxy-part-3-nsfw-erotic-art-nudity-5-images
NSPART - The Girl, The Gun, The Booze in Grainy Black & White - (Implied Nude - No Full Nudity - 3 Images) Another Steemit First Post!
https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-the-girl-the-gun-the-booze-in-grainy-black-and-white-implied-nude-no-full-nudity-3-images-another-steemit-first-post
NSPART - A One Off Art Piece in Color and Black & White with with the very Beautiful Nikola Weiterova IFBB Bikini Fitness competitor (Images and Video) - ANOTHER STEEM IT FIRST POST!!!!
https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-a-one-off-art-piece-in-color-and-black-and-white-with-with-the-very-beautiful-nikola-weiterova-ifbb-bikini-fitness
NSPART 800 Followers Passed - How following Me Benefits You & Makes You Money - Color and Black & White Images with Lauren (NSFW - Mild Nudity - Part 1) - Another Steemit First!
https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-800-followers-passed-how-following-me-benefits-you-and-color-and-black-and-white-images-with-lauren-nsfw-mild-nudity-part
ANNOUCING WHALESHARES NSFW NUDE/EROTIC ART CONTESTS - Win Whaleshare you can use to get whale votes on your posts! This Week's Theme Black & White Nudes!
https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/annoucing-whaleshares-nsfw-nude-erotic-art-contests-win-whaleshare-you-can-use-to-get-whale-votes-on-your-posts-this-week-s
Amazing and marvelous picture @nspart. I like it so much. U got two thumbs and Upvoted DONE. View my blog for my latest post (B & W photo).
of course will flag such contents, and also you can let us know on steemit.chat when facing such posts, to make sure they won't get away from it easily
Interesting.
I have been really surprised at which people I've seen doing this at some level. Just citing a source for where they got the copyrighted image is not enough. A registered copyright and notation on an image aren't even needed in the US any more. We now have implied copyright. The @steemcleaners channel on steemit.chat can take your report of any theft you see. They follow up and issue weekly reports on the actions they've taken. We all have to stay on top of this. It comes in waves as Steemit gets waves of new users. But some older Steemians have surprised me, too! Here's to diligence and #steemcleaners!
I just spent a couple days trying to explain the whole "art theft" thing to somebody. Which is good, because they seemed to understand.
Then some jerk came up and acted like I was trying to stifle free speech or something! >:(
I had tried my best to stay calm and rational with the person I was originally explaining it to because I thought they legitamately didn't know any better. But when the other person acted like that, I just boiled over and gave them a rant about it!
I don't like letting myself get carried away like that because it's easy to let myself just become really rude and mean... BUT I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE SOME PEOPLE!
I know exactly how I feel. Some of these people actually feel they have the right to steal other people's work and profit from it or "Share" it, both of which harm the value of the work in many cases and income of the person who spent all of the time and money and put their heart into to it.
When someone steal and shares work people are selling they directly effect their income. On here, they are just profiting from other peoples work and getting money they don't deserve. They need to either split with a revshare the payout or pay a license fee to be fair and ethical.
Newbies, I can understand, because the idea of sharing art being "theft" isn't always an obvious concept to grasp.
Heck, I remember when I was a newbie on deviantART, I took a picture I really liked, colored it, and showed it to the person who drew the original. Needless to say, they weren't happy lol.
But I took the picture down and promised not to do it again, and we actually hung out a bit.
It just goes to show that if you respect content creators, things can go just fine.
But. There aren't many things that make me madder. Then when people disregard the BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS that go into something because they think they have some abstract "right" to just throw it around wherever they please!
Whenever I see art theft, normally I just tell the original creator and let them chew them out. But I'd really hate to give Steemit a bad rap =.=;
Imagine finding out somebody not only reposted your picture, but MADE MONEY FROM IT! Well you said that happened to you, but for somebody not familiar with Steemit?
It would be like finding out somebody used your picture to sell stuff on Cafe Press!
I have seen people on Tumblr #signalboost that stuff inTO OBLIVION, people could get the idea that Steemit is some scammy art theft site!
That being said, if artists are directly contacted, and people offer to split the rewards with a post featuring the artwork with the artist as a way to learn how the site works... That could be a great way to explain the site to people who might wanna join! ^-^)
I just realized this comment is really long I am so sorry, oh my gosh--
Its just way too easy to start ranting about this sort of thing... ._.);
Don't be sorry it's a good conversation. I know it upsets me too not only with my work but seeing it happen to others almost as much.
People need to ask for permission and what they negotiate with the Creator is between the two of them. Some people don't want anything, some people do. But that's the Creators choice.
It upsets me because making a living as a artist and photographer has been the hardest way to make money I have ever experienced. I have sacrificed a lot to keep doing it. And then someone else thinks that should be able to profit from my work that I have sacrificed to keep doing and spend hours and hours and money creating... Is just ridiculous.
It's been my experience is people with that mentality create nothing, which is why they don't respect those that do most of the time. They should create their own work and then see how the feel about giving it away for free or being ripped off.
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. Thank you for posting this!
Did you see my posts about this exact topic? I know you were in the same channel the other day where I was discussing it. I am trying to get photographers some Steem, some money, and recognition. If you want to help out, you can see:
where I offer a solution and a signup bonus for artists. There, you will find out about the project where I talk about ridding Steem of picture bandits and stock photography!
Actually I did and I'm glad to see you and others working toward this goal also.
After two days suspected this much, when in doubt I look at the rest of their posts, or don't vote at all until certain. I work hard on what I do and find it unfair that other's make triple of what I do by robbing someone else and taking credit. I left Facebook and even a commision, because of these kind of practices, it's insulting.
i couldn't agree more followed and shared
Ok, if you see my hdr frog in somebody else's post, let me know...
I KNOW! Let's just use huge watermarks ;)
!
Actually I do use use huge watermarks sometimes...lol People use to criticize me for it, but guess what no matter how many people see or love a photo if they don't know I shot it it has no value to me. And then people started telling me I know your work I have seen it before if it was not for your watermark I'd have never known it was yours.