[Steemit] Spam, Plagiarism and Flagging

I came across the following post, which was claiming to be attacked by Hive account@abusereports, a false flagging campaign you could say. The comment on the post left by Hive account@abusereports merely said that the user had been blacklisted and that they were a spammer. Confused, I scrolled through their comments and although some comments maybe weren't exactly what you'd call quality, they also weren't necessarily spam.

I then noticed that under source for the image, they merely put instagram. To me, that would suggest your own instagram, but no they just found it on instagram and decided to post it here. The problem is, this was someone's work. I found the original creator with this amazing, CSI-style technology known as a reverse image search. It took me a whole minute to find the image and the original blog post by Paul Reiffer. This was the earliest post of the image I could find, so I'm going to presume they are the original creator.

If you are posting other people's images you must state the original source, and link to it (in my opinion). To make Steemit a great platform, we the users must stop being so damn lazy. State your sources, always. It doesn't matter that the instagram user may have stolen the image to gain some likes, but if you are trying to gain financially, you're what's wrong with Steemit. You are the problem if you behave like this. There are exceptions to this, known as "fair use", however that only applies to "transformative" works, for example for the purpose of news reporting or review. It's still just good manners to link to the original source however.

The image in question is the very one I have used for this post, as a bit of an experiment. This is not my image, it is Paul Reiffer's and all credit goes to him (it is a beautiful shot after all). Scroll down a bit, and there is the link to his original post. This, in my eyes at least, is how it's done. It's not hard guys, seriously. Well what are your thoughts and feelings on this subject? I have to say, it seems to be becoming a bigger and bigger problem, and I don't want to see this great experiment fail because of the selfishness of a few. This was a bit more off-the-cuff than usual, but if you enjoyed it you might like some of my other posts, so go ahead and tap that Follow button to stay up to date. Until next time guys, CITE YOUR SOURCES!

Sources:
Photographing London - The capital city of home by Paul Reiffer (https://www.paulreiffer.com/2014/05/photographing-london-capital-city-home-tower-bridge-st-pauls-cathedral/)
Marvelous picture of the Tower Bridge at London! (https://steemit.com/cityscapephotography/@camillesteemer/marvelous-picture-of-the-tower-bridge-at-london-this-post-will-be-flagged-by-the-f-g-abuser-flagger-https-steemit-com)

All images are used without the express authorisation of the copyright holders. They are used under what's known in British law as "Fair Dealing" or under US law as "Fair Use" exceptions. For example, exceptions relating to research and private study, criticism or review, or news reporting. For more information visit the UK Gov website or the US Gov website.