Just joined. This is a fascinating platform, and I imagine there will be a bunch of amazing things that will develop in the form of new features and as part of this platform. From a high view, I can see the Steemit platform as a tool for educating people who don't understand or care about the value of intellectual property.
In China, the concept of intellectual property rights - has gone through various historical phases. In ancient times, the original ideas and skills that resulted in paintings, poetry, performances, and other creative works did not belong to the individual who created them. They belonged to the emperor and the kindgom. There was no notion of individual ownership for such works.
It wasn't until western traders and visitors to China in the 1700s that the idea of a Chinese individual actually owning his or her authorship or works was first introduced. For a short period, attempts were made to adopt intellectual property laws, but they were difficult to and rarely enforced. The majority of infringement took the form of counterfeiting western books of the day. Just when it seemed the intellectual property rights and laws were starting to gain some traction, 1949 rolled around and the Communists took control. Since everything belonged to the Communist party, IP laws and IP rights got chucked out the window.
Then in the late 1970s, China's leader Deng Xiao Ping embarked on the Open Door Policy, which ushered in a new era of reform - and a part of that reform involved taking steps to mobilise China in many ways - to pull itself out of its economic decay. Since then China's IP laws have been evolving and by now form a relatively solid body of law. However, infringement, piracy, and counterfeiting of goods, remains prolific. It ranges from luxury goods to hollywood movies to music, and to almost anything else under the sun. The problem is enforcement.
The expression 'it takes a generation' comes to mind when I think about when the majority of the population there will take IP and IP rights seriously, so that they become widely respected and more efficiently and readily protected. In a way, given the yo-yo history of not having - having- not having- and then having IP laws in China - its easier to understand why the situation there is in such a mess. Looking in from the outside, what should one expect to see in China when its population has experienced such mixed signals? It is easy to be critical when we've had the benefit of an uninterrupted and now well-developed IP regime spanning over 200 years.
A firm body of IP law is now in place, but it still takes time to instill a sense of appreciation sufficiently broad among the population, before the rights of authors, composers, artists and innovators are widely respected. China has a colossal population - and when one is swimming against the tide of humanity, it takes time - but that time is getting ever closer.
True upheaval and shift in the perception and value of IP needs to come from within China. Chinese IP owners /rightsholders need to get angry when their works are infringed and take steps to enforce. That is happening already, but it needs to gain momentum. Once that happens and gains traction, piracy levels will adjust to a more manageable and possibly significantly lower level - which translates into fewer lost profits for US and western companies doing business there.
If launched in countries such as China where IP infringement remain rampant, I can see how Steemit can educate people about the value of their intellectual contribution and reward them for it. That in turn could accelerate the shift in perception (of a billion-plus people in China alone) to one of truly understanding and respecting the value of IP, and I imagine that would in turn translate into significant economic benefits to many.