Bitcoin Forum

Was hoping to get some clarity with this question, as I know it’s kind of a grey area. I am the idiot who plagiarized, & who also promised to never break a rule here again. I value my second chance beyond words!

I mainly live in the collectibles sub, as BTC coins are my hobby (obsession really). I hunt online like crazy to find unique and rare collectibles, often sharing with the board. While I was banned I amassed a bunch of pictures of cool collectibles that I’d like to share with the board. I also want to post pics for WTB requests, etc. So the problem is I don’t have websites or sources for many of these pics.. Mostly all pulled from deep dives in google images. I never thought I’d get a second chance here so I didn’t think to save the sources.

I did post an image a few days ago and below it wrote (this is not my personal picture, sourced from google images). It was a generic image picked up through one of those image collecting bot deals. Does that “clause” work? Now I know the vast majority of people here post pics w/out sources..but I’m not most people as I’ve surely got a target on my back, and rightfully so. Plus I want to do what’s right!  I should have asked this question before posting that picture but after reaching out to several mods and DTs, no one had an answer for me. I thought the reference to not taking claim as my own was okay..but..now I’m thinking maybe not?

I appreciate any guidance here! Thank you ahead of time! (Sorry so long winded)

That should be OK. Don't worry too much about it :)

Did you save URLs of those pictures or the images themselves? If you're posting the original URL then that's a reference to the source. If you saved it to your computer and then reposted to e.g. imgur it might be a bit iffy but as long as you're not claiming it's your picture I don't think that's a problem. And if you really want to be anal about it you could do Google reverse image search and find its origins.

Its really nice if you put some sources where you get the image, but most of the image on google has been uploaded by several users who got it  from unknown sources, so I don't think it's necessary for you to put some source If you don't know where it originally came from.

Thank you for your quick response and input dbshck! Have you seen the show scared straight? Lol. I value this place, Theymos, you mods/staff, and DTs who work their tails off too much to ever make any sort of extra work and to ever disrespect this place again.

Speaking of such members who work their butt off here, thanks for your response Suchmoon. I did not save any URLs unfortunately. I am the least Satoshi/Mr Robot there probably is here lol, so I have no idea how to do a reverse image search but I will learn.  I want to be anal as all hell. I want to prove my net positive to the forum promise as well as set a positive example of a formerly banned member coming back and doing right, for others who may be in the shoes I was in down the road.

Probably easiest way is to use Chrome, right click on an image (e.g. when you put it on an image sharing site such as imgur) and choose "Search Google for image". More options here: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808

So is it really possible to get reported if you posted pics without reference! Ah, I see. To be honest, your statement made me feel a little bit nervous since I made a thread on my local board few days ago which include some images (without proper reference). But so far so good, I'm not being reported until now *sigh.

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I guess you most probably get reported if you steal a pic from the others like photos captured by professional photographers and claim it as your own. But other than that, I think it's fine.

Thank you yazher for your reply. Thank you suchmoon for the info! I’m one step closer to becoming a Mr Robot/Satoshi (I mean Dr Craig Wright :D) type now lol.

Finzyo you might be amazed at what’s considered plagiarism. I started writing a paper on it to post here when I was trying to come back and learned just how little you have to do to be liable for plagiarism. Repeat stuff you’ve written yourself and you might just be guilty of plagiarism. Now this is obviously a world wide forum and we all have different laws, so some places some things are plagiarism and others they’re not. I’m not sure if there’s any “majority agreed upon” rule from legit country governments (unlike N Korea for ex) for the posting of pics, but it’s likely possible somewhere this is breaking a law. Now I’m not a legal eagle and that can probably be interpreted a 1000 different ways.

I needed and wanted to be extra sure about this.

It's true that we are in a worldwide forum and we have different laws. But plagiarism is plagiarism. To be safe, we must make it a habit of including our sources, may it be an article or a picture. That way, we don't have to worry about our posts here since we know that we recognized the creator of such. And, it's also a way of respecting and acknowledging their time and effort exerted just to come up with their piece.

Maybe right now, it's fine. But shall we wait for the time when it won't be fine anymore and then suffer afterwards as a circumstance? I don't think so. Just like an adage goes, "Prevention is always better than cure."

I know the forum is not quite strict on posting images without citing sources since many members usually re upload images to image hosting websites like imgurl and then share them here but I think it's better to avoid scenarios where you have to appeal again once banned 

Prevention is better than cure.  ;)

Writing a Disclaimer with information that the picture doesn't belong to you should be enough proof that you are not claiming it as your own work.
Follow suchmoon's advice regarding reverse image searches and if that doesn't work you can try the following websites that do the same thing.

https://www.reverse-image-search.org/
https://www.duplichecker.com/reverse-image-search.php
https://berify.com/

Source for the website list:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5132140.0

I've got a couple of sites where I post my images, and I allow other people to use them on their sites, or in posting. The software adds a watermark to the image, and I don't mind people cropping or resizing the images. However, I do require them to ensure that the watermark is included in the modified image.
The two sites are - Jazz pics (https://jazzpics.com/) and Mobile img. (https://mobileimg.com/mypictures/)

Thank you Pmalek and Jet Cash! Very helpful! I think this is wrapped up now. I am going to lock this but if there’s anything anyone is missing ..Theymos/Mods/Staff/Satoshi (not you Craig Wright) ..plz let me know.