For the first time, I am announcing a new STEEM program and benefit!

Do you need stock photography and images for your STEEM blog?

Do you need background music, video clips, or sound effects?

We’ve got you covered! And I’ve got a plan.

There is a free bonus offer for 50 qualified Steemians. Please only request this as specified below.

Here is how things used to work. (The old way!)

• You are a creative, talented blogger and content creator on STEEM.
• You have no quick and easy way to add a photo or video clip
• You go searching for royalty-free, stock photos on the Web
• You have to dive into permissions, size restrictions, copyrights, legal agreements
• You have to pay good money for a subscription (or pay a la carte) to use these stock images
• You are left frustrated doing a search and being inundated with images that cost extra
• You are a bit aggravated that you paid good money for your photos, only to see other users grabbing images for free

(Source: @uruiamme)

Here’s what I want to setup (The new way!)

• A programmer sets up a reverse image search engine to find images. This would be like a @cheetah bot for images
• This bot account replies to STEEM users who are using non-free images, like @cheetah does for text
• The bot account will provide a link to the new Steem Stock Photos, Videos, and Music (SSPVM)† Page
• The user will be encouraged to use the SSPVM system or a properly licensed stock photo.
• Users who are professional bloggers and photographers will be able to opt out of this notice, since their images are not infringing copyright – they acquire images legally
• Of course, we will also need the SSPVM website and ecosystem, listed in the next part

Here’s how SSPVM will work

• Photographers, graphic artists, musicians, and other professionals supply SSPVM their content
• Content creators are encouraged to supply SSPVM with original, unique content, but are free to license it in whatever manner they choose outside of SSPVM
• SSPVM will host their content
• SSPVM will sub-license content to STEEM bloggers who need a stock photo (or some other stock file)
• STEEM bloggers must share their post’s earnings with SSPVM (6% for now)
• SSPVM will, in turn, send content creators part of the earnings from the STEEM blogger’s earnings
• SSPVM will monitor STEEM bloggers to identify cheating and abuse of SSPVM images

Here’s how a Steem Blogger will use SSPVM

• Create your original content
• Obtain an account on SSPVM and login
• Search for stock images, video, or music that go with your content
• Choose one or more stock items and obtain the special link
• Enter the link(s) into your original content
• Each image will automatically have an attribution
• For videos and music, you will get a text link to be placed near the stock content
• You must have a byline in your post that credits SSPVM as the provider
• You must have a byline in your post that credits a STEEMIAN as the source of the stock

Here’s how we automatically vote

• Your new post that has the SSPVM stock item will be upvoted by us! (With good Steem Power)
• The content creator of your stock item will also upvote your post! (OPTIONAL)

Here’s how you will automatically vote

• If you are a member of the SSPVM stock website as a provider or user, you will automatically upvote our blog posts on STEEM.

Here’s the payout system

• You create an original, best-of-class, unique story for STEEM
• Your awesome content, combined with the awesome stock item(s), rockets upward by hundreds of upvotes
• At the end of the curation and payout period, you receive a payout from the STEEM blockchain for that post
• Your payout is now shared with SSPVM and the stock item creator (Currently, 6% split between them)
• Multiple stock items may increase the 6% take

Here’s Alternate System #1, in which early users might adopt quicker

• Instead of opting for a payout after the 7-day content, pay SSPVM and the content creator up front
• The pre-paid cost would be based on an above-average post’s payout
• The pre-paid cost would enable the user to use this stock item for any and every future post on STEEM
  
  
  (Source: @uruiamme)

Here’s Alternate System #2, in which professional bloggers can better manage their costs

• Instead of paying separate fees and rewards for individual stock items, the user may opt to pay a flat subscription fee for the use of any and all content on SSPVM, with limits
• A tiered system of 45, 145, or 245 items per month can be offered, with different price points
• Music and video stock files will count as 2 and 3 items respectively

What I need

1. Early interested parties. (You are reading this, please consider!)
2. Heavily invested parties, such as whales, developers, and influential dolphins
3. Investors, including those with Seed money and those who are software and blockchain experts
4. Content creator evangelism, for those who are interested in producing stock for SSPVM
5. Content creator evangelism, for those who are interested in using stock from SSPVM

Questions

(1) What about images that originally were placed on a STEEM post? Can these images be used in SSPVM?


Let’s say @photog821f93 posts on STEEM, and she has an original design. Since @photog821f93 also wants to license her photo to other Steemians, she uploads it into SSPVM for her own post. This makes the SSPVM website a photo hosting service. Now, after a 7 to 30 day delay, her photo is available for licensing and use by other Steemians through the SSPVM.


No longer will anyone simply copy-and-paste the photo from @photog821f93’s original post.
No longer will @photog821f93 be unhappy that @you made money from her photo.

(2) What are the costs of this endeavor?

• The manpower for setting up the system will be largely borne by web developers, database engineers, and computer experts who should expect good pay for their work.
• The computer system to run the apps and store the data is going to need either a major investment in server hardware and networking, or it will need an expandable cloud-based server account from Amazon or Google.
• Backups will need to be maintained in case of hardware failures, programming errors, or hacking.
• Security reviews and a mixture of open and closed source software audits will need to be made by outsiders to prevent hacking.
• Technical experts will need to be available 24 hours a day to support users. Most large support systems use a distributed CRM system and support “tickets” to solve complicated issues.
• Legal experts and attorneys will need to review and monitor the system to help prevent or mitigate copyright infringement by users. Both proactive and reactive responses to infringing material will need to be budgeted for.
• Growth into other languages will need translators.
• Ongoing evangelism, promotion, and operations will need a tight-knit group of managers.

(3) How can we show interest in this idea?


I would like to offer interested parties a ground-floor opportunity. If you would like to donate to this cause, please send STEEM to @uruiamme in an amount in relation to your investment or usage interest as follows.

What you need to do!

Here are the requested amounts:

Talented Artist. ($$$) You are interested in SSPVM as a content creator, graphic artist, or stock image professional. (For example, this means you are paid money by clients for this line of work, not that you are a hobbyist!) If you would like to get in on the ground floor of this project, I would like to offer you some incentive. I have contacted @papa-pepper as an influential member of the STEEM community, and he has decided to offer each stock (image/video/music) content creator a bonus for joining. This bonus of 3 SBD per user will be offered for the first 50 qualified and approved users! Please send @uruiamme any amount of STEEM (like 0.001) to express your interest and qualifications. You must have made posts to the photography, art, drawing, music, video, travel, or similar topics on STEEM which show off your talents in the necessary fields. Please have a website link to some of your creative content, whether on or off STEEM. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS OFFER, YOUR CONTENT CREATION SKILLS CANNOT BE RELATED TO PORNOGRAPHY OR ADULT TOPICS. For the testing phase, I reserve the right to select only those people who I feel are qualified and likely to participate in the trials. If you are not selected, I will refund your tokens and reply back.

Businessperson. You are interested in SSPVM as a financial investor, a technical expert and advisor, or a businessperson who loves working with graphics. This could mean a number of different things depending on the way the business is run and the deal is inked. SSPVM is intended to be a for-profit business idea, and it will be subject to the costs of organization, development, research, and marketing, as would most businesses. You are asked to contact me privately so that a business model can be fully developed. Contact me through the STEEM wallet, chat, or any other means.

Supporter. You are really excited about SSPVM, but you are essentially going to wait until more is developed with the project. There are lots of great ideas on STEEM, but not all of them succeed. This endeavor needs oversight, experts in numerous fields, and community support. As a community support member, I would ask you to support this post by following and resteeming. If you wish to make a one-time donation to the project, please send 1 to 10 STEEM or SBD to @uruiamme using the Transfer function of your wallet. Send a random, non-integer amount and a memo about SSPVM!

Alpha Tester. You are interested in SSPVM, and you would like one of the limited number of accounts for alpha testing. This amount will demonstrate your interest and willingness to help test the system before it officially launches. During the alpha testing phase, the intent is to provide maximum use but unpredictable financial rewards. Please send 15 or more STEEM to @uruiamme with a memo (public or use a # for private communication) stating your intent to join SSPVM as an alpha tester. This will be a long project test, and so we will need you to be seriously invested in project development and blogging like a pro. I would prefer to work with those who are dedicated and have a 50 reputation and/or a long history of reputable blogging.

Steemit, the corporation, and Witnesses. I would like to discuss a means by which SSPVM can become a known, permitted, or even (someday) a required part of STEEM posting. (As the project progresses and a long testing period transpires over a year or more.) This level of integration will be beneficial, since licensing, copyrights, and infringement lawsuits are going to be important back-room topics as the STEEM community grows. If and when there is a copyright infringement or a legitimate takedown notice, there should be infrastructure in place to find and punish the culprits …. and to steer users away from breaking the rules. The STEEM blockchain (the content side) is being built by people with virtually no technical knowledge of how money is being made. Part of policing the inevitable low-quality posts is to scrutinize their photos and guide them toward legal ones. Some of the influential Steemians, like @anyx, have gone to great lengths to weed out bad actors: his leadership with @cheetah and @steemcleaners shows promise. To be honest, I would like to append this idea to the Steemit 2017 roadmap. Let’s talk, @steemitblog and witnesses! I want Steem to be better!

†Because this idea is still in the preliminary stage, the actual, memorable and fun name for this project is a secret. I think you will like the new name, as SSPVM is a bit… uncouth! The new name, if approved by my business partners, will have some bite.

Here was my preliminary topic on this. Thanks everybody! I know it was a long read! You could also read a little about me here, here, here, etc.

[EDIT: Update]

I have a followup to this post:

• A dirty big secret of Blogging on Steem (and my solution to come clean)