Bitcoin Forum

Week ago @hosseinimr93 started topic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5300961.0) in reputation board about suspicious merit transfers, and one of the accounts he mentioned was bitcoinermatt (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2797326). Since those merit transfers indeed looked shady, I checked his post history. One topic he started caught my attention, in which he claimed to make bitcoin themed painting.



Since painting looked really good I did some reverse image search which immediately yield results. Turns out painting is work of reddit user Coaster89 (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/drmiin/bitcoin_art_post_your_fan_art/). That painting is shared on the Instagram account of the same user (@coaster89 (https://www.instagram.com/coaster89/)) and he is selling his art through rarible (https://app.rarible.com/coaster89/collectibles). Additionally, same painting was shared almost a year ago in WO thread, and user who shared the painting also shared the original source (Instagram account of Coaster89). Link to that post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg53624971#msg53624971).

@bitcoinermatt didn't bother to answer my question what's going on there, who stole from who, so I decided to contact the person that I thought is the original creator, coaster89. I sent him messages both on Instagram and reddit and few hours later I got reply via reddit, confirming my suspicion that @bitcoinermatt is not the original creator of that painting.

https://i.postimg.cc/3rSqXw9v/Bitcoinartscam.jpg


After I got confirmation that he is not the creator of that painting even though he claimed that he is, i reported him for plagiarism

https://i.postimg.cc/XN9krHwH/ss.png

Week later, that report is still unhandled. Based on previous reporting experience I know that chances of report being handled after one week decrease significantly with each passing day and if report stays the same after two weeks, it will stay like that most likely forever.

I know that we don't have to provide sources of images we share here in fear of plagiarism, but what about those that explicitly claim ownership of painting/photo, like it happened in this case? Shouldn't this be seen as an obvious case of plagiarism since he took someone else's work and claims to be his own?

Plagiarism at worst, spam at best. I'm not sure why they wanted to pretend like they drew it (merit, post count, buy offers) but none of the reasons I can think of are good.

Interesting how the thread is locked... ::)

It's definitely plagiarism.
Below is definition of "plagiarizing" in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarizing).


bitcoinermatt (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2797326) used the idea and a production made by someone else as his own.

Good catch, now that's gonna warrant a permban as well as the boot from the campaign ;)

Perhaps for future submissions, the host should make it compulsory for participants to add some evidence, like a paper with the username.

bitcoinermatt did not use any idea. He downloaded the image, uploaded it in imgur and posted it and said
We see everyone of us copy images from other websites or image sharing sites but once we add I / my / me to create an illusion that we are the owner of the image then we are trying to get an unfair advantages. Whether it could be to have some talk about it to look us great or earning some merit or increase our number of posts/activities or to fill up our signature campaign quota - this kind of work should not be appreciated.

There are no such rules about it, so I think bitcoinermatt will getaway with it very easily which is sad of course.

If I have to guess why he did it, it would be merit fishing. But as you said, there is no  legit reason why would someone claim ownership of painting which is not his, and even made topic about it.

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I thought so too, that this is textbook example of plagiarism case, but guess I was wrong.

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Yep, that's the issue here, he claimed not only once, but three more times after his opening post that painting is his own work. He had the chance to confess and explain that he just took picture from someone else but instead he went on with the lies.





If admins confirm that's the official stance on cases like this, so be it. I just wanted clarification because report is still unhandled, and I don't waste my own and admins time reporting if I stumble upon similar case in the future.

Here, by the decision to ban each forum member, if any incidents occur, the moderators approach individually.
But this case, in addition to the explicit assignment of someone else's drawing, also contains facts of transfer of merit, which suggests an idea of alternative accounts. And also the fact that one of the "favorites" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5300961.msg55872496#msg55872496) to whom the merits were transferred is already banned.
If you link all the negative cases that speak of reputation, bitcoinermatt already violates the rule of evading the ban.

I have to admit that I don't remember anyone getting a perma-ban or any other punishment for presenting someone else's painting/art as their own - so it's possible that cases like this aren't treated as classic plagiarism. Maybe the administration doesn't want to set a precedent, because it's much easier to prove classic text plagiarism, than this is the case when you had to contact a possible real owner and wait for an answer, and in some cases there may not be an answer.

I hope that some of the staff will clarify this situation, because it is logical that there should be some kind of punishment for such behavior - otherwise we send the message that this is allowed.

In my opinion it should be treated as plagiarism in its worst form.
With this kind of mindset, nothing positive can be expected from such a member.

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Just as I thought, here's another example of what kind of member he is (seeking partners to abuse the suspected flaw on the gambling website):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5259316.0

The post has since been deleted, but you can see quotes from other users below or the archived version here (https://loyce.club/archive/posts/5471/54716315.html).

This is plagiarism and even worse case of plagiarism than we usually see with sentences being copy pasted like we usually see in forum.
Some other guy spent much more time in creating this image, maybe hours or days of his life, and than some scammer comes and claim it's his work.
Pathetic... and he should be banned for plagiarism for doing this.

It’s certainly a clear plagiarism, user should be punished according to the forum rules. However, have you PMed the accused user? Because a probable situation is you can fake the chat. So, let's hear his opinion, what explanation he has.

Do you think that he is not aware of the creation of this topic?
He created two new topics next to each other, absolutely useless.
At the time when he was accused of transferring merits (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5300961.msg55858241#msg55858241), he deftly got out, completely not taking the blame on himself. It will be the same story.
He silently waits for the decisions of the moderators, trying in every possible way to show his usefulness, and also referring to inexperience. Although you can always distinguish between ignorance and cunning.

I have no clue either, but I've learned that people will do very strange things for their own internal reasons.  Think of Munchhausen's Syndrome, for example.

I don't know if this falls under the plagiarism rule or not, since what he stole wasn't the written word, which is what plagiarism is defined as (AFAIK).  It's certainly dishonest if true, and if he doesn't get banned for this (which he may very well not be), it surely would be grounds for some negative trust.  

Props to OP for sniffing this out and contacting the person who apparently created the drawing first.

Not always.  Sometimes it's difficult, actually.

I hope for some answer too, as it doesn't make much sense to me that you can get perma banned when you copy two sentences while you can open a topic and claim ownership of someone else's work without any repercussions. @Coaster89 probably spent days making it, and then @bitcoinermatt came and just nonchalantly pretended that he made it and even came up with the bullshit story around it, for the reason only he knows.


As a matter of fact he did contact me (by some strange coincidence exactly at the time I was making this topic) because I left him negative feedback. I told him that he can give his explanation here. Let's see whether he shows up but I don't think that he can say anything that will make me change my mind.


Well, according to Oxford Dictionary (https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609810.001.0001/acref-9780198609810-e-5482), plagiarism is "The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own". That's what he did; he took someone else's work and then went on about spending two weeks making it, hanging it on the bedroom wall etc while it was all lie.

I would like to clarify something first. I understand that what I did is very stupid and I regret it. I am sorry to the Bicoin Community and to the Coaster89 from which I took the artwork and posted it on BitcoinTalk without thinking about the consequences. The reason I posted the artwork is because I was eager to earn Merit. Again, I am deeply sorry to the Community for doing this.

I hope that I will be forgiven. Thanks

No. Forum has never stated any such rules for image. A lot of people are posting images here without sources. In the case of bitcoinermatt, he has lied. While he copied, he is guilty but according to the forum rules, he isn’t. I would rather use the feedback system since he lied to the community.

What I took from the definition above taken from this artilce about image plagiarism (https://buddinggeek.com/check-image-plagiarism-reverse-image-search/) (and we can also find more sources about this), it is part of plagiarism, as in a common way (regardless of whether this forum allows it or not).

There are some notes:
- Copying and pasting an image without any source (some images may have a copyright and we must include the source of that copyright image)
- Showing or claiming the image as their own. If @bitcoinermatt did it, showing and claiming the image as his own, it is surely an image theft/plagiarism.

It's hard to believe your words after all these.

Do you see how many times you have lied? Above are maybe just a few examples of your lies about this painting. For some merit (I believe) you have done all this?

Anyway, everyone deserves a 2nd chance. Stay around for one more year from today. Write me after one year that you have not made such a mistake again. I will remove my feedback although it's a neutral one. Do we have a deal?

User said "I made this..." and they didn't so it is plagiarism. This rule should apply then:

No, not really, if picture is copyright protected you will need permission from author(or whoever is holding rights) to post it and then you will have to give credit to author.

There are no rules for text either. Rule #33 says that plagiarized content isn't allowed. That could mean written text, images, movies, music, books...

The image you post is the source. Its location points towards the source. Unless you download it and post it on an image hosting site like Imgur.
Unless the owner of the image doesn't allow for it to be shared, you are free to use it.

If I want to post this image below with the original link I found when I searched for bitcoin logos, I don't think it's needed to post the source. It's right there when you quote my post (https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ca/c5/af/cac5af954a16f01409a4d61d79b5a540.jpg).
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ca/c5/af/cac5af954a16f01409a4d61d79b5a540.jpg  

Someone correct me if I am wrong.
I am nowhere claiming to have made the logo or that it originates from me. But what the accused user did is totally different. He claimed it was his work several times.

The issue of plagiarism can't be over emphasize, most especially when it comes to art, graphics, videos etc.

No doubt most people claim others materials as there's base on there present emotional drive (such as over excitement) at that particular time, it can be just to pull peoples leg most especially there loved ones without thinking about the consequences there of.

Example, When you post bitcoin logo on social and add a caption text " my name is bla bla bla, and I am the original creator of bitcoin"
At first people will be curious and want to ask lot of questions, with this, you've already got the of the audience which was your primary aim. After this it necessary for you to clear the air that the material is not actually us.
No body will kill you for doing this, rather people will laugh over it and see it as fun. But when you choose to go further than this, then you're being considered a theft!

There's a limit to everything we do, and we should not do things because other are also doing it. Everyone goes to the bank, but there's a way you will go to the bank and you will be considered a suspect

If you post this in the Wall Observer thread for example, nobody's going to come after you because it's not in a place where it can be viewed as the logo being yours and Internet forums are not known for their users claiming ownership of copyrighted stuff.

But say you put this image on your website or blog. That is not OK without permission from or attribution to the author since it could potentially be viewed as the site's property.

One of attribution or permission to use it without attribution (i.e. licensing) is necessary to use the image in content on a site.

Again, technically forums are not exempt from this rule but at the same time, lawyers don't expect forum users to follow them. But other forum users might call them out for doing that (like everyone is to bitcoinermatt right now).

A recent story about using someone else's photos
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1926895.msg55511429#msg55511429

Global moderator's answer on this issue:


I have already met several times accused of plagiarism due to the use of other people's images.
If this issue were clarified in the annexes to the rules, there would be less controversy.

Would you not agree, though, that this situation is different?

Did you ever post an image and say, "this is mine"? You weren't taking credit for other peoples' ideas and content - the user in this case was.

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Even if you don't call it plagiarism, are we going to let people get away with spam by letting people post images and pretend they drew them? Might as well start scraping content from popular crypto artists and make threads out of them.

That case is not similar to the one I reported. From what I could see, @icopress didn't explicitly claimed anywhere that those photos were made by him and no one reasonable would assume that just because he shared some photos, while @bitcoinermat did exactly that and not only once, but he wrote in several posts confirming that claim. And why? To farm some merit.

That's why I wanted the opinion of the forum staff as the way I see it what @bitcoinermat did was textbook example of plagiarism and it shouldn't be allowed.


Since there was no clarification of the rule and @bitcoinermatt is still not banned and my report is unhandled I guess plagiarism rule doesn't apply to images even in obvious cases like this.

I agree, only the question will remain unanswered.
For example, consider 3 cases:
1. The user publishes someone else's picture.
2. The user publishes someone else's picture but does not say "this is mine" (you can not say "that it is mine", but feed it so that everyone would think "that it is mine"  :)  )
These cases are not considered plagiarism on the forum.

3. The user publishes someone else's picture and says "this is mine"

If this should be understood as a fraud, then the fraud on the forum is not moderated, then the flag should be set.

The difference between 1 and 2 is that 1 has omission of attribution whereas 2 would have the user to have the intent of misleading others.

Without getting too pedantic into the epistemic technicalities of plagiarism via lying vs. misleading, I think you should be able to conflate 2 and 3 in certain cases.

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Suppose in an example scenario that the user fulfills #2 by neither confirming nor denying ownership of the art: when one asks about the origin of the picture or if they applaud the user for their work and the user in question doesn't respond, it's in bad faith. Sure, people may skim over a few posts here and there, but if thinking in absolutes there's a certain threshold where you would have to disagree with the willful ignorance.

What would they even say when posting the image, anyway?
"Here's a piece of art:"

"Here is a work of art:" it seem to be mine. ;D
You are right that point 2 can become point 3 in a certain situation, but if users are not banned, then, according to the forum rules, this is not plagiarism.
If this is a scam, then a flag should be set for this behavior. I read that some tribes had a custom at the beginning of our era. If a person was caught cheating, a flag was attached to him and taken through the streets so that everyone could see that this person was a deceiver.