Really insightful article! I never considered the effect of content theft on the rewards pool. Totally makes sense though. I am fairly new to steemit and I am learning new things all the time. I am so far primarily a photographer, and I have been slowly slugging it out for years, so when I discovered Steemit I got very excited! Then while browsing the content and seeing how RAMPANT content theft is, I got very discouraged. I have not had theft happen to me that I know of yet. (Maybe my work isn't worth stealing lol). But it still grinds my gears when I see other's work blatantly stolen. I have started to flex my flagging muscles (contrary to my nature). It feels good. I'm not sure on how that affects my curation rewards yet. Does it affect them negatively? I guess that is my learning project for tomorrow. :)