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RE: Is Steemit.com protected as intellectual property?
In order to really infringed on a copyright, I think they would need to prove damages and since Steemit Inc does not receive any benefits from the users posting on their frontend nor does it have advertising I don’t think they suffer. Actually, I think they have tried to state in the past that their focus is on the Steem blockchain code and that other should develop alternatives to engage with the blockchain accordingly. Their largest incentive is to increase adoption given the stake they hold on the protocol.
Though if someone forks the steem blockchain and clones steemit.com on their new blockchain, then promotes/advertises it properly (like steemit.com has never done), there is the possibility of this new player eating steemit's lunch in a very real way.
That's called innovation, not IP infringement. For example. Bitcoin is crap so steemit had a huge pump up, Steemit stole ideas directly from open source bitcoin code. This is the reality we live in.
I get that, if code is open source then others are free to build whatever they want with it. My questions are more geared specifically towards the website steemit.com. Are there no rights to a website someone builds on a blockchain?
No, there is no rights to tell people they can't build on a blockchain. The system is trustless. Did you notice smoke.io doesn't list account USD values? This is for a reason. The code isn't even the same, steemit inc can learn from this code. Innovate or die.