Blockchain Could Help Reduce Potential Damage to Innovators’ Work

Many people in the academic, art, music and other innovation sectors produce content on a daily basis and their content has to be copyright protected.

Innovations and creativity must be normally handled with much caution, and they have to be protected from any possible danger(s). One of the most effective new alternative ways that can be used is by applying a groundbreaking decentralized tool called the blockchain.

Copyright industry is still vulnerable

Recently, founder of Bitcoin SV, Dr Craig Steven Wright, also known as  "Faketoshi" for his claim to be the real creator of Bitcoin, recently copied and plagiarised some other author’s work without his permission, when he was writing his doctoral thesis, according to a report on Medium.

Surely, he was exposed in copypasting fragments of the text of another author with numerous proofs. However, this case demonstrates the vulnerability of the entire copyright system as well as the need for modernizing tools for protecting against plagiarism. 

Indeed, Craig Wright is far from being the only popular person exposed for engaging himself to claim what does not belong to him, copying and plagiarizing other creators’ work. Some great people including famous politicians, literature writers, musicians, etc. have all fallen victims. 

For instance, Dr Martin Luther King while doing his doctorate at Boston University plagiarized a dissertation and went ahead to defend it to receive his degree. The claims of plagiarism only surfaced a couple of years after his death. Other famous names who plagiarized include a scientist Jane Goodall, musician Johnny Cash, celebrity Helen Keller, poet Thomas Sterns Eliot, and many others.

Blockchain can be the solution

Since Blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) is transparent, incorruptible and immutable, it can be used to carry out digital notarization as well as copyright protection of many things including intellectual property (IP).

Most blockchain-based platforms offer the ability to register a copyright with the use of timestamps, that is, the system fixes the time when the work was uploaded. So, it can be used to verify ownership along with the author’s identity and IP address. This helps to remove or reduce doubts and makes it easier for inventors to rightfully implement their rights when a breach or any type of infringement happens.

On the plus side of such a platform is the fact that the author can upload the work and register copyright oneself. Actually, no one else would be able to access both one’s account and one’s work. This helps avoid any kind of forging or changing the data by third parties, as it might happen when the author turns to the services of intermediaries. In other words, blockchain platforms allow minimizing human factors.

As of now, companies from all around the world are exploring blockchain’s potential in registering and protection of copyright. Coinidol.com, a world blockchain news outlet, has previously reported that Italy was actively developing in this sector. Actually, there are a number of platforms including LCA Studio Legale, Tutelio and Creativitysafe operating as a blockchain-based data repository for recording and storing copyright information. Some streaming platforms are also exploring blockchain to avoid stealing the plagiarising content users upload on them.