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![steempope.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQejCC6Az6igg8CGoQm7wXitrzNq17Qekhz6a7KCDf2TZ/steempope.jpg)

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It came to my attention several days ago that there is a lot of plagiarism and spam in the NSFW category of posts. People are copy/pasting images from various other websites, failing to offer attribution, and often then using bidbots to increase the profits from their lazy behavior. The NSFW tag serves as a barrier to keep most users from ever noticing this, too. I have spent a considerable amount of steem power countering their illicit profits in order to balance the reward pool away from rewarding such spam, but some spammers are responding with flags on my posts rather than by rectifying their errors.

Compounding this problem, @partiko actually defends such plagiarism and spam as if it is somehow an exercise of free speech rather than acknowledging the flaw in offering a chance to auto-vote anything and everything their app users post and making an effort to stop rewarding misbehavior.

We are on the bleeding edge of technology. It is our responsibility to promote ethical behavior on the blockchain and discourage unethical behavior. No outside force is going to do that, and the Steemit developers don't seem to care. Do support @steemcleaners, @steemflagrewards, and @cheetah, because they are trying to help us keep Steemit from becoming  just another internet wasteland of spam. Don't reward the people like @partiko who support spammers, or people like @chbartist who abuse bid bots to buy a place on the trending page every day.

Remember, If you still want to share copy/pasted content,

1. Provide attribution to the original creator.
2. Decline payout unless you are using such material within the context of your own original content, such as an image for illustration.
3. Try to use CC0 or public domain content if possible, but still link to the source as a matter of courtesy.

This is basic ethical behavior. We need to set  the standard so the minnows joining our platform have a better example to follow. It's not a matter of mere legality, but one of *integrity.* Otherwise, Steem will continue to spiral into altcoin obscurity.