I have to say that being a scientific minded person that idea of copyright was always one that didn't quite sit very comfortably with me. After all, there is this concept that we "stand on the shoulders of giants", which is to say that we "discovering truth by building on previous discoveries". That is not to say that on occasions this is also why research can often blindly create massive blunders because we fail to question what came before us (let's leave this to another post), but the fact is that progress is built on what precedes it rather than from thin air.
For those that are unfamiliar with this concept of copyright, here is some background information. I am a massive fan of Kirby Ferguson and the ideas that he advocates for in "Everything is a Remix", something he eloquently explained in his tedx talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix
And also in his website:
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/
I don't believe that I can lay claim to an ownership of anything I ever did as a scientist, at least since nothing I did came from an original thought or idea. And indeed anything that I have posted on Steemit would have borrowed concepts and ideas from elsewhere, and where possible I have tried to provide attribution to the source. So here I want to talk about what I think copyright means here on Steemit and try to revive the original purpose of copyrights, which is to encourage the exchange of ideas and collaboration so that we can continue to innovate and create in a way that leverages the collective intelligence.
How does this apply to steemit? These are some of the scenarios that I have seen that are relevant to the issue of copyright and original content:
Plagiarism - I don't think we need to cover this as the direct copying and pasting of content without attribution is already frowned upon here. Even duplicating your own material for different purposes is not really seen as something that we should be encouraging, so be mindful if you are treading these waters...
Fair Use of copyrighted content for criticism and commentary - I think there are some very good guidelines and recommendations on these, as summarized in this video:
Basically fair use is something that is used to make a point (criticism or commentary) that is clear to the average person and that the appropriate amount of material is used for its purpose/intent.
What about 'Original Content' on Steemit?
This is where I would like to think that we can do better in the Steemit community compared to what happens out there in the rest of the world. Of course, if you write a blog or create videos or any other type of content outside of Steemit, then you should expect to follow the conventions and laws that govern those social media platforms. However, considering that Steemit is a platform that tries to reward content creators and encourage collaboration, I think that there is a case to be made that if you create content exclusively for the purpose of the Steemit community then this ownership is shared by all in the community (e.g. a story that you created for a writing competition, a photo that you took for a contest) and that we can freely use this to create content to benefit other steemian. The patent and copyright laws serve to benefit patent attorneys and private enterprises a lot more than the creators of those ideas and inventions anyway, and I certainly see this as a barrier to collaboration in the real world.
Is it possible to reach a consensus or equilibrium between our personal views of wanting to protect or own something that we perceive to be our own intellectual property and creating an environment where can freely use materials (with correct attribution of course) to cultivate a social platform of innovation and collaboration that comes from valuing and sharing ideas without all the legal minefields? I certainly hope so. There is so much original work being created, both in the physical and digital mediums, but much less so in terms of collaborations.
How can we apply some practical wisdom to make this work? One ideas is to tag content created exclusively for use on Steemit (e.g. logos for groups, banners for teams etc.) so creators and designers have shared resources to work with while the original creators can still be acknowledged. Remixed work will provide attribution to the source material but can still receive payout for having created a new concept.
Where there is dispute about the original source of material and the creator, a third party (e.g. #bisteemit) can be engaged to look through blockchain records and verify the first author/creator, and a dispute resolution can take place to correct the attributions. However, I think we should allow for the possibility that people can independently come up with the same or very similar ideas, and to avoid either party missing out, if it can be shown that they arrived at the same concept separately (showing proof of the conception and execution of the idea) then they should jointly share the payout for creating the content if the timing of the first use of this material falls within a specific window of time (7 days?).
Perhaps there are other ways we can make this work as well, but I definitely believe that there is a lot more opportunity to collaborate on steemit and revisiting the idea of how we think about copyright and ownership can help accelerate and enrich the creative process here. Some examples include:
- polyglots and translators working with content creators to provide multi-lingual content (I don't know how well it is being managed at the moment)
- digital artists working with physical designers to come up with new products and services (I think #steemit-cards is a good candidate for this)
- educators providing learning materials or courses for other steemians
And I am sure there are many more examples that I haven't even contemplated yet, so the possibilities and opportunities are very exciting if we can encourage collaboration further here.