Sea change ahead
Let's be clear on my position, I think that Steemit.com, as it grows and becomes a real source of income for creatives, will change the game and be giving money directly to the content creators. Those photographers out there getting nothing or very little through the traditional means, like in these competitions for example, or instagram, facebook, flikr, etc., need to get on Steemit.com ASAP and get properly rewarded. And I know that it's at least partially the intention of user Steemed in promoting @masteryoda that will entice talented photographers to come to this platform, but it is, in my opinion, wrong to use others hard work to personally profit.
The above quote is taken from @doctorstrange, found here - https://steemit.com/steemitabuse/@masteryoda/why-i-removed-all-my-posts
My Comments and Possible Solution
With regards to sharing content, and in the case in the article above, posting images, it is very difficult to not share content that is not yours. How else does information spread? We can get into the morals and whatifs etc, but my short point on it is we may be in a time where these rules no longer apply, and we are re-writing the rules as we go along, we have to. We have to adapt.
When reading through this article, a service came to mind in for a pro-active way we could possibly automatically send steem or at the very least recognition to the original poster of the content. Maybe even have a reward share for the person who shares it. The thought came to me while remembering ascribe.io.
Scenario
Photographer takes an image with his camera (in the real world, hahah), and then posts it online, but he/she posts it on ascribe.io. Ascribe then tracks that image on the blockchain. I must admit, I do not have a complete understanding of how ascribe.io works, but it is on a blockchain if I am not mistaken, and it seems to be hugely popular.
After a period the photographers photo gets featured on bbc.co.uk, and @masteryoda, because he is a fan of this particular photographer, and a fan of photography in general, over joyed at such a beautiful image that is displayed in front of him, decides to share it with us. I would rather reward @masteryoda for his share than punish him. But this situation is different now, because ascribe.io is working hard to make sure that we can track the photographers image. So now we know who the hell should be rewarded, and who shared. Cheetah bot is pretty good, and quick, and I don't see an issue with Steemit connecting to ascribe.io to reference content. It should be a standard in all honesty.
The reward, still being controlled by an upvote, will be split between the author (photographer), sharer (steemit user), and curators, in a top heavy algorithym starting from the author. If in this instance, the photographer is not a user on steemit, but is verifyable via ascribe.io, then a wallet could be created with this ascribe.io account, and sent him his reward waiting for him to create his steemit profile.
Effects
A nice obvious effect on this is the spreading of Steemit. Imagine taking a photograph, publishing it on ascribe.io, and the next thing you know, because it was shared on steemit, you got money without even actually posting on steemit, or even knowing it existed. And at the same time, Steemit gets a new user because this person now has an opportunity to post their own content directly, cutting out the middle man @masteryoda, but, if they don't, sharers like @masteryoda will be around to do the marketing for the photographer.
I hope this has been thought of and is being worked on. I have a feeling that this has been discussed before, but I have only been active on steemit for a few weeks now so I cannot be sure.
Issues
I understand that it would be impossible to go and now register all pieces of artwork, however, we should encourage content creators to make use of ascribe.io in the meantime linking up with ascribe.io to become a kind of a rewardable distribution network for ascribe.io. We should be able to move the rewards to the content creator autonomously, and I think ascribe.io can fit that role. They already do half of what should happen. Steemit does the other half.
Closing
I think we should look at setting a precident with this regard as this is going to be a huge issue when more Steemit type services popup. Steemit is the first of its kind, and therefore will have problems the first of its kind. There is no doubt about that. We should all be proactive in finding solutions that will curb issues in the future. Bitcoin hasn't been proactive with their planning or foresight, so Steemit should have the vision to learn from their developers and their community mistakes, much like Dash.
The issue highlighted here specifically with regards to the image is real, whether the solution is one that I described above, or another, we must look at it so that everyone in the chain is benefitted. We all play a part, and we don't want to exclude anyone if we don't have to.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and although I have only been here for a short time, I hope this contribution is useful.