Blockchains for Copyright

Making Use of Bitcoin’s Technology to Protect, Track and Monetize Digital Works

The very nature of the internet that allows content creators to disseminate their work globally and instantly also allows for anyone to pirate near-free copies of identical quality. Content creators that broadcast their work online give up control, hoping that the benefits of internet dissemination outweigh its potential loss of income due to piracy.

Anti-piracy efforts have come a long way since early attempts at disabling the ‘Right click…’ functionality in web browsers. Looking into Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology, we must recognize that it too can not help to fully prevent copyright infringement, but the technology offers several applications that may support copyright holders in enforcing, tracking or monetizing their works.