Embellishing SteemIt Posts with Microstock

in #copyright6 years ago

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I love that SteemIt rewards people for their posts.

Since people on SteemIt receive rewards, they should become more professional in how they publish.

The SteemIt format encourages people to put an image on each post. It appears that some people just grab images off the Internet. Using another person's creations for personal gain is neither cool nor legal.

Citing the source of an image is not sufficient either. To legally use an image one needs a contract with the image creator.

Contacting creators is time consuming and costly. Long ago, magazines developed an industry called stock photography. They would buy pictures from photographers with a standard contract then use the images to design their magazine.

The Internet lead to the creation of MicroStock web sites sites. These sites would have even larger inventories. The standard price was a dollar per use. I was hoping that the prices would drop with time. But they haven't.

I pulled the image for this post from Big Stock Photo. I added a hideous green background a label at the top of the image.

The entry level plan for BigStock gives its users one free image a month.

Unfortunately, their levels for additional images are high. BSP charges $3.50 for on demand photos. Their entry level subscription is $79 a month. Only a few steemians reach the level of making that much a month.

When you buy an image it is still good form to cite the creator. This image was by Ryzhi.

BSP has a referral program. I joined the referral program and included my referral link in the citation. This way I can see how many people click on my images. The BSP stats page says that I joined BSP in 2005. I've sent them 16,747 hits had 4 sales and made $7.00 in earnings.

I tried selling images through BSP. Unfortunately, their editors have standards. They have rejected most of my entries.

As the transaction cost of Steem is so low. I might start offering Microstock images through my sites. That would be a lot of work. My list of backburning projects seems to grow by the day.

CONCLUSION: Since SteemIt is rewarding us for our content, we should be professional in how we produce content. This means securing the rights for images that we put on posts. Microstock allows people to buy images at a low rate. Transaction costs on SteemIt is so low that it would be easy for people to start selling images directly to other steemians.

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Under free use doctrine, you can use images so long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Considering that Steemit compensates you for creating content, I'm not 100% sure where Steemit posts fit into that doctrine.

According to this article, I think you can make a good case for fair use on Steemit posts, so long as you are simply using the image as a visual aid for a fact-based post. But it does also caution that if you invoke fair use, you have the burden of proof.

If the nature of your work is creative in nature, rather than fact-based, you should stick to public domain images.

I am hoping that the compensation people receive on SteemIt will inspire people to learn about copyright laws and the Fair Use Doctrine.

I read the article in the link. It actually showed that Fair Use doctrine is extremely complex.

Fair Use is not a singular concept derived from the ether. It is a very complex set of rulings that have taken place over time. The rulings take into account who created the content, the nature of the content and how it is being used.

The article mentioned that courts take into account the financial impact that copying content has on creators.

Even if I am not making a profit, my placing the content of a creator on my server should have a negative impact on the creator.

The amount of money a person makes and how they make it matters as well.

BTW, I've noticed that Tumblr and Youtube routinely remove content from their site for copyright concerns.

Some people want programs like SteemIt's beloved @cheetah to scour social media for copyright violations.

I am hoping that people on SteemIt will start self policing their content.

The reason that I pointed to microstock is to show that it is possible to bring down the cost of microstock to a reasonable level. The blockchain has reduced transaction costs, so it is becoming easier to negotiate and pay for materials.

I would argue that if you really are abiding by free use, and you are giving a detailed reference for the work, that that creates a net positive for most creators because it brings attention to their work, and that increased profile enhances their hireability. It also increases traffic to the publisher's site. But I agree that it's a gray area. I try not to appeal to fair use unless I can't get a relevant image any other way. Most of the time, I just use http://www.publicdomainpictures.net . Lots of great free images on that site. But if you can't find a public domain image that is suitable, and fair use does not apply, then yes, you should just pay for an image or create one yourself.

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