Blockchain can provide a better solution. Not only can blockchain record past and present transactions that occur, it can also be used to register and transfer copyright registrations, whether for digital or physical works, if desired. Copyright registration and proof on the blockchain has the following benefits.
Break through geographical restrictions
Blockchain can be used as a decentralized copyright registration platform. On this platform, there is no geographical restriction, and copyright information will be presented in mathematical form to everyone in the world without dispute. Copyright owners will not need to do repetitive and tedious copyright certifications in different jurisdictions, which can undoubtedly greatly reduce the cost of protecting intellectual property and fighting piracy.
Moreover, the traditional copyright registration model is subject to a single point of failure, and if the record is lost, altered or destroyed, it will be difficult for copyright owners to assert their rights and interests. However, based on the decentralized nature of blockchain, each node has a backup of copyright information. Therefore this way will be more secure.
Lower cost
With the development of the Internet, especially the prosperity of social networks, a large amount of information with ownership rights is posted on the Internet, and the economic cost and time cost of copyright protection for such information is often too high under the traditional copyright model. If you use blockchain, then you can copyright these creations anywhere, anytime, i.e., prove when and where a piece of information was created by whom.
And once a record is created on the blockchain, these proofs will be there forever. You can make a proof of copyright for a blog post, a proof of copyright for a photo shared on social media, a proof of copyright for a business plan, a cheap and reliable proof of copyright for almost anything you think is necessary.
More flexible licensing conditions
The use of blockchain for copyright registration and protection may completely change the current global pattern of intellectual property protection, and the licensing and transfer of copyright may be born in more flexible and diverse forms. For example, the current antivirus software often has different licensing terms for individual users, home users and corporate users.
On the blockchain, combining the consumption of intellectual property rights with smart contracts can produce more flexible automated licensing agreements, which can better meet the actual needs of buyers and sellers and achieve the purpose of win-win situation for multiple parties.
When the cost of IPR registration approaches zero, it is possible to birth an unprecedentedly large micro IPR trading market. Information has value, value has attribution, and in the context of blockchain providing proof of copyright, it is really possible to realize the ideal of piracy disappearing and the world being free of thieves.
The law always lags behind the development of technology, but the law will always adapt to the development of technology. We believe that in the near future, the data fingerprint on the blockchain will have the same legal effect as the biological fingerprint.