Can Blockchain Technology Solve Copyright Attribution Challenges of Digital Work?

Can Blockchain Technology Solve Copyright Attribution Challenges of Digital Work?Efforts are being invested in leveraging blockchain technology to resolve challenges associated with copyright attribution to provide acknowledgment of copyright of a digital work of art to its holder or author. Blockchain technology aims at utilizing decentralized, cryptographically secure database technology, to document the recordation, reproduction, distribution, and trade of digital works of art. One of the fundamental forms of copyright attribution is the crediting of the copyright holder’s or author’s identity, to provide authenticity and ownership of an original work of art.

For example, a digital work of art primarily exists in the form of intangible artifact and the digital work of art may not fit the form of the high-stakes international art market, which continues to rely on unique, original, tangible objects. Since a digital work of art does not yield artifacts that can be easily owned and traded in a conventional sense, their value may not be appropriately estimated. Copyright and other intellectual property tools are frequently employed to countervail this problem but with little success.

Decentralized database technology to registeblockchain data storing technology and protect against copyright infringement is ideal for tagging and storing original works of art, digital intellectual property, documents, manuscripts, photographs, images, etc., away from any central authority. As such, if a copyright service ceases to exist, there will still be a verifiable copy of the original digital work of art stored on the blockchain.

Conversely, a centralized database is only as trusted as the entity that controls the database. If the centralized database and the entity that controls the database undergo unethical behavior, then trust issues emerge by the collapse of the database and the records may not be of any value and may not be valid.

Rather than collecting information about a digital work and the creator of the digital work and storing it in a centralized database, turning that database into a blockchain and decentralizing the database enables anyone to find, use and trade the works of art in an authorized way. Some of the several advantages of blockchain technology in registering and protecting against copyright attribution challenges are that, inter alia, it has the potential to provide increased trust and security.

Nonetheless, decentralized blockchain data storing technology relies on the trust of the group. As long as the group is strong and the blockchain is well distributed, the record is still valid, namely, one of the many strengths of blockchain’s data storing technology is that it is designed to survive, have longevity, and be a highly reliable source of record and dating intellectual property, thereby establishing that the digital creation was in one’s possession in a specific point in time, and as such, may provide non-repudiation longevity service.

In the U.S., the usefulness of a third-party, non-repudiation service (blockchain or otherwise), has been limited by the U.S. Copyright Office. In a nutshell, anyone who would like to register the copyright and consider filing a lawsuit needs an official, timely registration, if they’re to collect the desired damages. Since U.S. Copyright Office registration serves as prima facie proof of ownership, in most cases, a third-party service is superfluous from a content protection standpoint.

While non-repudiation services can provide a public record of ownership and a means to track a work back to its author, the U.S. Copyright Office cannot serve as effectively the capability of people being aware of the database and knowing how to search within it. Additionally, copyright is governed by local laws and regulations that differ in different jurisdictions.

While some innovators aim to establish a date of creation for copyright works, it is an underlying problem to ostensibly remove or act on digital content or intellectual property, with or without the issue of considering legal intervention to protect from copyright infringement.

Spotify, which provides commercial music streaming service for restricted digital content, has recently acquired Mediachain to resolve music attribution challenges. Such companies have directed more attention to data content protection problems by investing efforts in ways to provide more potential solutions in solving challenges associated with digital music content attributions.

NKOR, a blockchain-based platform, aims at utilizing a decentralized, cryptographically secure database blockchain-based technology, to document the recordation, reproduction, distribution and trade of digital works of art. Rather than collecting information about a digital work and the creator of the digital work and storing it in a centralized database, turning that database into a blockchain and decentralizing the database enables anyone to find, use and trade the works of art in an authorized way. Some of the several advantages of NKOR’s unique blockchain technology in registering and protecting against copyright attribution challenges include, inter alia, the potential to provide increased trust and security. Nonetheless, decentralized blockchain data storing technology relies on the trust of the group, namely, as the group is strong and the blockchain is well distributed, the record is still valid.

NKOR serves as an especially promising and revolutionary platform for the registration and trade of intellectual property and copyright that is based on blockchain technology and serves as a game changer in commerce of intellectual property and protection of copyright. One of the several strengths of NKOR’s blockchain data storing technology is that it is designed to survive, have longevity, and be a highly reliable source of record and dating intellectual property, thereby establishing that the digital creation was in one’s possession at a specific point in time, and as such, may provide non-repudiation longevity service. NKOR is directed to providing a revolutionary solution to data content protection problems by investing efforts in efficient and precise technologies to provide more potential solutions in comprehensively solving challenges associated with digital data content, such as digital music content attributions.

 

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One comment so far.

  • [Avatar for Anon]
    Anon
    February 2, 2018 09:47 am

    I bristle at the cavalier treatment of “intangible.”

    There is NO copyright in anything intangible.

    A primary basis for the possibility of copyright is that a work must be fixed in a media.

    That “fixing” is tangibility.

    In the day and age that MRI machines are deemed “abstract,” we need to be even more diligent when we speak of “abstract” and “intangible.”