surely the point of steemit is to promote and reward original quality content creators.

The point of Steem is to build a network of people who cooperate to provide value to each other. From that a more efficient and generally superior financial system emerges.

posting other peoples work and expecting to get paid for doing so is not the idea. blockbuster movies are produced at great expense by hardworking people. why should the steem chain reward pirates who do nothing but copy/paste files and links? for sure you can share your movies with friends by inviting them round to watch them with you, or see movies for free with friends who have them, sharing is ok in that sense. but do you really want the steem reward pool raped by parasites who just post other peoples work in order to get some easy money?

There is no raping or parasitism involved here. Those are inflammatory words that are used to make copying information sound like something really bad. Sharing information is a form of work. It can be rewarded by the community just like any other work, if they feel it provides value. Sharing movies with people who otherwise could not see them is a form of value to the community. I would prefer if the movie creators were rewarded directly on the network, and they would be if they joined.

the sort of people attracted by free pirate movies are probably not the sort of people who are going to invest in steem. they will do nothing to help the price of steem. this will just lead to pirates raping the reward pool, and cashing out all their ill gotten gains, which will be added selling pressure and only lower the price of steem. not to mention destroying any chance that steemit will get a reputation for providing quality content and being a good place to post your work...

I don't think any of this is substantiated. Nearly half the US population pirate movies, and those who pirate also spend more money on content legally.