Blockchain Copyrights: Is It Possible?

July 28, 2019

FrederikNielsen
18

The blockchain is at the center of attention as the next generation technology, in which developed countries are investing large resources. According to Hao Han, general secretary of the Union of Architects of Copyright in China, Anne Shares will jointly promote the development of blockchain technology in the field of copyright protection, along with a number of well-known enterprises.

What is copyright?

In the era of the digital economy and everyday life, each of us somehow creates objects of copyright: programs, articles, photos for YouTube, videos for YouTube. The rights to such objects (objects of copyright) belong to the author by default.

The authors own two types of rights – exclusive (property) and non-property. Exclusive rights allow authors to prohibit the use of works by other persons.

There are several Blockchain platforms that attempt to provide information about who owns the image and where it is used; despite this, having a legitimate way to claim rights to an image is difficult. Copyright protection varies by country. For example, in the United Kingdom, other users are automatically forbidden to copy images, distribute copies or upload them to the Internet, but this does not apply to the blockchain. The Berne Convention was adopted in dozens of countries to try to resolve this issue; dictates that a copyrighted photo in one country enjoys the same protection in another.

How to confirm authorship?

However, the absence of registration requirements can also play against the author – no one is insured against disputes about the initial authorship. As a rule, authors and companies voluntarily take measures that will help confirm authorship in the event of a dispute.

If you need to use evidence, the author, who made the entry in the public blockchain, should prepare the wording for the claim or the claim and repeat the hashing operation.

The result of the repeated hashing must coincide with the hash recorded in the blockchain. After the operation, it remains only to explain to the court what hashing is and how the blockchain works.

If you have used any of these services, you can try to use our wording – the finished text can substantially eliminate the task in court.

Alternative option

An alternative way to confirm copyright is to save the work in the public decentralized registry – in the blockchain. This way:

  • The cheapest.
  • Possesses the same legal force as the above.
  • Does not forced to rely on the viability of any organization.

Similar services already exist Proof of Existence, Emernotar.io, the joint solution Bitfury, and PatentBot or our service Content. All of them work approximately equally: the downloaded file is hashed, the result (the unique imprint of the file – the hash) is entered into the blockchain. If it is necessary to verify, a repeated hashing operation is performed and the resulting hash is compared with the hash stored in the blockchain. Hash matching ensures that a particular file was added to the blockchain at a specific point in time.

In conclusion

Governments around the world can adopt this technology to officially enforce copychain copyright law. People from the music, photography and literature industry are starting to develop solutions to become market leaders; this is the case with Kodak, which developed the Wenn Digital brand, a blockchain-based image rights platform that seeks to speed payments for those who want to buy professional images, helps photographers to identify violations and collect their payments. They have a web tracking technology that detects images on millions of sites. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) believes that, for example, tweets are too short to be protected by copyright.

Frederik Nielsen
Frederik Nielsen

I’m a freelance writer and full-time curious person. My main interests are philosophy, politics, art, culture, science, and how they’re all interlinked. When I’m not writing, I’m fronting a band, producing records, and making videos. I’m also currently working on launching a YouTube channel that will focus on culture and politics. I think blockchain technology is fascinating because of the huge potential it has to revolutionise not only the financial sector, but society as a whole.

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