[2016-08-09] Is Blockchain-Powered Copyright Protection Possible?

[CrimBit]

The many uses and proposed uses for blockchain technology include smart contracts, decentralized payment systems, insurance claims, supply chain management, health records management, land title registration, energy grid management and now protection from copyright infringement.

Websites like Blockai, Pixsy, TinEye, Ascribe, Mediachain and Proof of Existence promise to use blockchain technology to register and protect against copyright infringement. They understand that a public decentralized ledger like the blockchain is ideal for cataloging and storing original works of art, documents, manuscripts, photographs and images, away from any central authority.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/is-blockchain-powered-copyright-protection-possible-1470758430

[Dinki]

It will take a while for other sectors to adopt blockchain fully. It's hard getting accepted in the financial world as it is now.

[Carlton Banks]

Copyright protection and immutable attribution are not the same thing. These systems are designed to perform the latter, not the former. The only effective tool for protecting the right to copy digital art/media is force.

This is amazing to me. We're 30 years on from Richard Stallman's "information is free" observations, 20 years since Napster, less than 20 years after Bittorrent, 5 years since the decentralised competitor to the most significant political force on Earth (i.e. the power to print money), the whole "music charts" culture is basically dead, and people actually believe "copyright" is still a valid concept?


Everyone has had the right to copy since magnetic tape technology. That was in the 1960's. It's over. Move on.