Vlog 307: European Union might ban the use of memes because of copyrights. Could frictionless royalty payments be possible on a blockchain? + Steempay 0.3
I woke up this morning to a Dutch news article from the NOS. here.
It stated in the title that the European Union might ban the use of memes and it got my interest.
Because of possible new regulation websites that facilitate content with copyright should filter it out unless royalties are paid.
Basically if you use a photo, song or movie that has copyright it should not be showed unless royalties are paid by the website hosting it to the creator of the original content.
The decision wether this will happen will be in about 2 months.
It's surprising to me that we still have this discussion in 2018...but anyway..
I'm hoping that in the future when more and more people are on a blockchain that royalties will be an automatic process. Just like getting rewarded on the steem blockchain is a automated process.
There are no accountants anywhere typing up numbers and calculating who gets what on the blockchain it just happens automatically according to a set of rules.
It's a frictionless process.
Why can't this be the case for royalties? There is already software out there that can detect copyright materials in content.
If someone earns cryptocurrency from their own content (but used a copyright piece of content while creating it) why can't royalties be frictionlessly paid to the owner of the original content (maybe trough a smart contract?) from the earnings.
This way content could generate a continuous income stream for the original creator. They would probably welcome the use of their content and content creators could just freely create content without having to worry about these damn royalties.
If content creators get paid, copyright material gets paid too. Everyone wins.
Now, Is this a good solution? I'm not 100% sure. There is probably many aspects that I'm missing but at least it's thinking in solutions and not banning things.
I truly think the solution for these problems lies in Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies and I talk about it in my vlog.
Steempay
Steempay is a cool little website were it is possible to generate a QR code to get paid in SBD but you fill in your local currency.
It's created by witness @asbear and version 0.3 was just released here.
Website: https://steempay.co/ (works best on mobile).
I filled in 10 euro and this was created (without the red lines):
After scanning the QR code I was presented with this. Very handy! I could pay straight away with Steemconnect:
Dlive fantastic introduction post.
From the very beginning I realised that the blogging difficulty will go up in the future when more and better content creators will come to the blockchain.
I saw this introduction post by Bonnie Piesse and was very impressed by the quality. here
If this is a glimpse of the future. Well, we have our work cut out for us especially when SMT's come out.
I am a witness with our developer group @blockbrothers for the Steem blockchain. If you want to support us I would appreciate your vote here.
We build Steemify a notification app for your Steemit account for iOS.
Get it Here:
My live stream is at DLive
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
That's stupid, memes are fair use because they are satire, if you just used the image unedited perhaps they would have a claim but the whole point of a meme is to mock something by altering something else, memes are satire. A meme is no different from a Weird Al Yankovic song.
On the other hand I would like to see the EU try it. That would be interesting.
spot-on.
And news paper satire cartoons.
I just said something similar thing, but you were first. Therefore I give you an upvote. :)
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Only thing that would get harder would be banning cryptos. I'm a big advocate of copyrights and patents. But just like any other great tool like nuclear energy etc. it can be used for very destructive means and that's what these idiots have been doing for some time (with patent trolls and other scum)
They need to understand why copyrights even exist in the first place. Copyrights let the creators make money off of their creations. It's pretty much like having a bounty on something. there is a lot of incentive to create and creators can be self sufficient without sponsors.
EU needs to get schooled on fair use.
The meme police will be kicking down doors across the continent while the bus stations become rape rooms.
"They need to understand why copyrights even exist in the first place. Copyrights let the creators make money off of their creations. "
Exactly, no one is going to confuse a meme with the movie it came from nor will it prevent the author from making money off of it. No one is going to stop making movies lest a frame becomes integrated into a meme.
Don't you know, the mayor of Cologne has figured out way to stop all of that. Girls just need to keep the men at arms length. If the women can't outrun them, that's her failure as a human being.
BTW did you saw my #Trudeaueulogy post: https://steemit.com/comedy/@vimukthi/revisiting-trudeaueulogy-some-of-the-best-political-satire-ever
That video points out the motivation and justification they use, guilt
you colonized these people long ago therefor now they can colonize you and if you say shit it is hate speech.
Hello @funbobby51, and nice to Steem you! :-)
Well, as far as I know nor in the United States of America nor in the European Union the copyright laws allow royalty-free use of a material on the basis of the satirical, parodic or humorous intention of the "second hand" author, and I guess it partially derives from the interpretation margin which would arise from such a subjective claim (a same artwork may be seen as a parody from its content creator point of view, and as a plain political or social statement from other viewers opinions).
In case it doesn't exist yet, and following your suggestion, it'd be beneficial to promote the adoption of a "humorous" Creative Commons licence attribution :-)
Upon further reading I will change my argument to say that memes are parody.
Parody is very strongly protected while satire is less so but still protected.
https://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf
they note that:
I think a single frame from a movie that has been turned into a meme satisfies both of those conditions.
Beautiful .. amazing words
Great post from you, well done
Thanks for sharing..
Steempay looks really cool to make payments with mobile using QR code ....Glad to see lots of interesting projects on this great Blockchain....Indeed Bonnie Piesse content is of high quality, that may be the reason you have gifted her 10 SBD on dlive . Keep promoting the good stuff @exyle ....
@exyle I guess it is possible to do this on a crypto platform. However, how will they ever ensure that royalties are being paid on platforms like Facebook, or Twitter. I see copyrighted content there all day long. I guess they will never be able to put a hold to that.
Hello @markdeheide, nice to Steem you! :-)
Maybe a precedent in that way is the European Union directive on the so-called "fake news", through which it seems the E.U. succeeded in obtaining from Facebook and Twitter an adaptation of their algorithms that allows posts filtering (and free thinking inhibition, but that's another theme ;-) ). They probably could automatize in a similar manner copyrighted content detection and royalties payment...
@ijatz ow yeah true. Keep in mind though people aren't paid for placing content on Facebook or twitter, so there are also no payments to be forwarded. On YouTube this is already happening on a massive scale.
Good video and interesting thoughts...:)...
Mark @exyle I like the STEEMPay and I am grateful you brought it to my attention. Now I need to go out and use it to see how I like the functionality........
With regard to copyright, I think it is high time that measures were taken and various possible solutions considered for this....
If content creators get paid, copyright material gets paid too. Everyone wins.
This I think would be the best solution.... Unless some authors don't want to sell their content.
I think it's great to create @asbear.... How fast we are moving forward and evolving the blockchain and its applications.
Greetings!!
In the US, the tax code is quite complex. We have federal. State, and local taxes. There are income, sales, and property taxes. Blockchain integration is seemingly impossible. It is frightening to consider such potential.
Good God I hate the EU.
Great talk this morning especially on smart contracts. I too would like to see an increase in their use for royalties, taxation, levies, tariffs etc. It just makes life easy for everyone. The best part is that we have Ethereum, NEO and the upcoming EOS among others; where these smart contracts can be built. So hopefully in the future things will be better. BTW the Dlive video of @bonniepiesse is fantastic...thank you for sharing :)