Intellectual Property on the Chain: The Future Direction

Author: timtimtim.eth Source: mirror

I recently saw that story raised $54m and I remembered this project again. Hahaha, I have seen it before, and then there seems to be no news. As for the reason for writing this long article, it is mainly because my master's research direction is this. So let's just talk about it briefly. After all, I don't study law. I just read copyright law for my thesis. I understand some of the existing situations. Before getting to the point, I thought about it recently, so I just casually posted a long article, writing what I want to write, and you can read it if you want to. I don't care much, hahaha.

What is copyright?

Dive into intellectual property and its many subfields, specifically copyright, and the rights and obligations associated with it. We'll also touch on how these legal concepts work around the world.

Let's get started, and start with copyright and intellectual property. Copyright and intellectual property (IP) are more complicated than you might think. Intellectual property is a collection of multiple legal concepts, including but not limited to copyright, trademarks, and patents. These legal concepts are used to prove the rights of creators in some way. As the owner of IP, you can sell, transfer, or manage the rights under these legal concepts. You may have seen us talking about copyright, and you may be confused at this point.

1. Copyright: Copyright is a legal protection mechanism for creative works such as literature, art, and music. It gives creators exclusive rights to copy, distribute, display, and modify their works, usually for a certain period of time.

2. Trademark: A trademark is a word, graphic or symbol used to identify the source of goods or services. It gives the owner the exclusive right to use the mark to prevent confusion and unfair competition in the market.

3. Patent: A patent protects a new and useful invention or improvement. The person or organization that holds the patent has the exclusive right to produce, use or sell the invention, usually for a certain number of years.

4. Trade Secrets: A trade secret is undisclosed information that has commercial value and whose owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it confidential. This can include production processes, customer lists or special algorithms.

In fact, copyright is a subdivided field, because artistic creation is very different from business or invention, so we need to distinguish them.

In the West, copyright is often described as "a bundle of rights", which means that copyright is not a single legal concept, but is composed of multiple rights. These include but are not limited to the right of reproduction, distribution, performance, display and adaptation. This diversity gives creators great flexibility, allowing them to license various rights to third parties individually or in combination as needed.

Why is copyright so diverse? This is because copyright is only a subset of the larger legal framework, namely intellectual property. However, this does not mean that copyright is secondary or limited. In fact, it is a very powerful "subject" in itself that can be used to achieve a variety of legal and commercial goals.

In short, copyright is a legal mechanism used to identify and protect the rights of creators of works. Since we live in a world full of various creative expressions, such as literature, art, music and even software, there needs to be a way to prove the originality and ownership of these works. This is the role of copyright. In addition to the basic rights of reproduction and distribution, copyright also grants creators a range of other rights, such as adaptation and public performance, but also comes with some specific restrictions and obligations.

• Fair Use: In certain specific contexts, such as education, news reporting, commentary, and research, people have the right to use the copyrighted work of others without first obtaining permission. This is an important exception in copyright law.

• Creative Commons: In addition to traditional copyright protection, there are more flexible licensing methods, such as Creative Commons licenses, which allow creators to share their works freely and customize to some extent how others use them.

• Transfer and License: The owner of intellectual property can choose to transfer or license their rights to others. This is usually done through formal legal documents and may come with certain obligations and restrictions.

Compared to other forms of intellectual property, such as trademarks and patents, copyrights usually arise automatically and do not require registration (although registration can provide additional legal protection). In addition, different types of intellectual property rights may apply to different aspects of the same product or service. For example, a piece of software may have both a copyright (for the source code) and a trademark (for the brand name). Generally speaking, intellectual property law is international.

• International Agreements and Organizations: Many countries participate in international organizations and agreements, such as the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). These agreements set out minimum standards for intellectual property protection, but countries have some freedom in how they implement them.

• Regional differences: Despite international agreements, intellectual property laws in different countries and regions can still differ significantly. For example, the "fair use" doctrine in the United States is different from the "fair use" doctrine in Europe.

• Cross-border issues: In today's digital and globalized world, cross-border use and infringement issues are becoming increasingly complex. For example, a trademark registered in the United States may not be protected in China unless it is also registered in China.

So through these laws, inventors can get patent protection, merchants can get trademark protection, and creators can get copyright protection.

Pain points of the copyright framework

Pain points of the traditional copyright framework, what are the pain points, why is it painful, and why we need to change

Through the previous chapters, we have a general understanding of what copyright and intellectual property are, as well as the nuances and applications of these concepts. This lays a solid foundation for the topic we will explore next - the existing problems of the copyright framework and how blockchain may be a solution. If you are interested in this topic, I highly recommend reading Sebastian Pech's paper "HOW BLOCKCHAIN ​​TECHNOLOGY CAN CHANGE THE ADMINISTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTED WORKS". The paper analyzes the shortcomings of the existing copyright system in detail and proposes a series of blockchain-based solutions. It is also one of the references for my master's thesis.

Now, let's take a more specific look at some of the main problems that currently exist in the copyright system. These problems can be roughly divided into five categories: title confirmation issues, copyright fragmentation, opacity of use and payment, unequal distribution of benefits, and infringement. These problems not only limit the rights of creators, but also affect the entire value chain of copyrighted works, from production to consumption. In the following sections, we will explore these issues one by one and explore how blockchain can provide viable solutions.

Problem of confirmation of copyright

As mentioned in the previous section on copyright, "copyright is automatically generated and does not require registration", but the legal effect of this automatic generation is relatively weak. At this stage, although the copyright registration process has been gradually simplified, the biggest challenge is still how to prove that you are the first creator of a copyrighted work. Within the traditional legal framework, this usually requires relying on a large amount of documents and third-party certification, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also has a significant impact on multiple users. Infringers can still use copyrights or intellectual property rights freely before being sentenced, which seriously infringes the rights and interests of the real copyright holders and may affect their future sales and development.

Problem of fragmentation of copyright

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, copyright is often described in the West as "a bundle of rights". This means that copyright is not a single legal concept, but is composed of multiple rights. However, in the existing copyright registration process, it is difficult to effectively separate the copyright subject from its subsidiary rights (such as secondary creation, distribution, interpretation and adaptation, etc.). Although these subsidiary rights can be held separately by different legal entities, how to fairly distribute these benefits to various rights holders has become a difficult problem, which often requires complex arbitration and management by third-party institutions. In fact, if we dig deeper, we will find that this is more of a technical problem. The current copyright management system can only manage a single copyright, which is somewhat powerless and lacks flexibility for multi-dimensional ones.

Unequal distribution of benefits

This problem mainly includes two aspects: one is the profit distribution between the platform and the copyright creator; the other is the profit sharing problem between the creator and the secondary creator.

First, let's start the discussion with the relationship between the platform and the creator. Generally speaking, the profit sharing mechanism of most creation platforms is quite harsh. Taking the music industry as an example, the profit sharing mechanism of Spotify and Apple Music has been widely criticized. This is one of the reasons why music NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have emerged, and their purpose is to return more profits to the creators. The same situation also occurs on platforms such as Amazon Bookstore (covering physical books and e-books) and Qidian (online literature). These platforms often use their traffic advantages to "kidnap" creators and force them to sign unequal profit-sharing agreements.

Secondly, let's look at the profit-sharing issue between creators and secondary creators. This problem is particularly serious at present, such as the popular "ghost animal" videos on the Bilibili platform. Such videos are usually secondary creations based on an original video. However, when these ghost animal videos start to make money, the question arises: Are secondary creators obliged to share the profits with the original creators? At present, such a mechanism is almost non-existent. Most secondary creators do not take the initiative to share the profits with the original creators unless they purchase the secondary creation rights.

Infringement: A thorny issue in the copyright system

Infringement, plagiarism and abuse are the three most thorny issues in the current copyright system. These actions not only undermine the legal and economic rights of original authors, but also expose the shortcomings of the existing copyright system.

Infringement: Authorization and Liability

Infringement usually involves the use of another person's copyrighted work without authorization or beyond the scope of authorization. This behavior not only infringes the legal rights of original authors, but may also cause them economic losses. Although the law has clear penalties, it is often difficult to hold infringers accountable in actual enforcement due to the difficulty of evidence collection and the complexity of cross-border law enforcement.

Plagiarism: Undermining Market Fairness

Plagiarism is a special type of infringement that usually involves unauthorized copying or imitation of another person's work and passing it off as one's own creation. This not only infringes the rights of the original author, but also seriously undermines the fair competition environment in the creative market.

Abuse: Departure from the original intention

Copyright abuse is often caused by improper behavior of right holders, such as restricting the legal circulation of works through malicious litigation or high licensing fees. Such behavior actually undermines the basic goal of the copyright system, which is to promote innovation and information sharing.

Obviously, these problems basically stem from unauthorized use or behavior. So, despite the existence of strict intellectual property laws, why are infringements still common? On the one hand, as an open platform, the Internet is often difficult to effectively track and enforce before the infringement has reached a scale. On the other hand, the legal system is slow to respond to these problems and always struggles compared with the rapidly developing technology. These factors combined make infringement a persistent and complex problem that requires more comprehensive and efficient solutions. Finally, there is the issue of globalization. In the context of globalization and the Internet, copyright issues have become increasingly complex. Different countries and regions have their own copyright laws, which has caused certain troubles for cross-border copyright enforcement. Despite international copyright treaties and agreements, such as the Berne Convention and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), it is still possible for infringers to evade legal liability due to differences in legal implementation and interpretation.

Blockchain and Intellectual Property and Web3

Before talking about Story protocol, I would like to talk about the relationship between blockchain and IP. Blockchain is naturally suitable for empowering IP

Since its birth, blockchain technology has attracted widespread attention from all walks of life. In the field of intellectual property, it is seen as a key technology that may change copyright management, patent protection and brand protection.

The three core characteristics of blockchain - transparency, traceability and immutability - provide powerful tools for intellectual property management. Especially in China, blockchain applications related to intellectual property are rapidly emerging. Ant Chain's "China Copyright Chain" is a typical example, which represents the great potential of blockchain technology in ensuring copyright security, promoting the rights of creators and simplifying copyright transactions. For example, in the case of Douyin suing Baidu in 2019, blockchain technology was used to collect evidence.

But why is blockchain so closely integrated with intellectual property?

1. Ownership confirmation: In the digital age, the creation, distribution and sharing of content are extremely fast, which makes it more difficult to confirm ownership. But blockchain technology provides a solution for this. It can provide an unalterable timestamp for each piece of creative content to ensure that the rights of the original creator are not infringed.

2. Transparency: In the traditional intellectual property management system, copyright information, transaction records and authorization details often lack transparency. The openness and transparency of blockchain ensure that all transaction records are available to the public, thereby enhancing trust between copyright holders and users.

3. Traceability: In IP infringement cases, tracing the source of rights and transaction paths is key. The continuity of blockchain technology ensures that every transaction, authorization and transfer is permanently recorded, providing strong evidence for legal disputes.

When we explore the potential of blockchain, we often focus on its obvious features and applications. But I think that in addition to these obvious advantages, blockchain has a more far-reaching impact in the field of copyright, which is the assetization of intellectual property (IP).

We have discussed the fragmentation of copyright before, which mainly stems from the abstractness of the concept of "a bundle of rights". Traditional management methods often have difficulty in converting such abstract intellectual copyright into real assets with high liquidity. But when we put these copyrights on the chain, such abstract rights can be converted or "assetized". This is similar to the idea of ​​dataFi, which is to concretize abstract data or rights into real, tradable assets. At the same time, we can also play more tricks, pledge, loan, fragmentation, etc. These operations often require multiple legal contracts to be signed in the traditional web2 world, but through blockchain and defi we can simplify these processes

Based on this assetization idea, we can further explore three key mechanisms:

1. IP tokenization: This is the process of converting intellectual property into tokens. Once tokenized, these tokens can be freely traded on the blockchain, providing a new and efficient platform for the transaction of intellectual property. This is actually "mapping" the assets of the digital world back to reality to form real assets, which can be regarded as a "reverse RWA".

2. Application of smart contracts: Through smart contracts, we can automate many copyright-related processes, such as authorization and profit sharing. This not only improves efficiency, but also greatly reduces the costs associated with manual management and legal processes. This automated and simplified process helps to lower the threshold for property rights transactions, making them more popular and convenient.

3. Peer-to-peer transactions: A core feature of blockchain is that it supports peer-to-peer transactions, which means that transactions are not restricted by geography or currency, and as long as both parties agree, the transaction can proceed smoothly.

When we talk about smart contracts and blockchain technology, there is also a core goal to simplify and automate traditional transaction and contract processes. The origin of this technology, as you mentioned, is to achieve a peer-to-peer transaction system, thereby avoiding the intervention and additional costs of middlemen. In the field of property rights, a significant obstacle is the cumbersome document signing process associated with copyright transfer, authorization and other related transactions. This is not only time-consuming, but can also lead to legal disputes and misunderstandings in some cases.

On-chain signatures provide a solution. By using blockchain technology, especially tools like ethsign, both parties to the transaction can sign the contract directly on the chain. This signature is encrypted, cannot be tampered with, and can be publicly verified. This means that the traditional and cumbersome document signing and verification process is no longer required, and all transactions can be completed automatically and securely on the chain.

More specifically, when property rights are on-chain, a contract based on wallet signatures can be attached. In this way, whenever someone wants to buy, authorize, or make other transactions related to that property right, they only need to sign with their wallet, and then the transaction can be completed automatically. This not only simplifies the transaction process, but also ensures the security and transparency of the transaction.

Story protocol

Let's talk about story protocol in this section. Although the reason for writing this is not story protocol, I would like to thank them for pushing me, Xie Ming Story, Sleepy and S.Y.Lee's tweets

Here, I will not go into the background or personal opinions, but focus directly on the technical level. In particular, I will explore how network effects interact with intellectual property (IP) and compare several different solutions. Recently, S.Y quoted Chris Dixon's famous saying in a discussion thread: "The killer app of the Internet is networks". I agree with this point of view. In this networked world, the core of every application is people - or more precisely, nodes in the network. Similarly, if we regard each intellectual property as a node, then these "IP nodes" may form a huge network. However, the current intellectual property system does not seem to have fully adapted to this network trend. Specifically, the existing system has the following problems:

• Copyright opacity: It is often difficult for rights holders to track the use of their works.

• Rights opacity: Similarly, it is difficult for rights holders to understand which people or organizations have which usage rights.

These two problems limit the effective operation of intellectual property in the network environment. Complexity and multi-dimensional challenges, although the above issues are mainly focused on the legal level, intellectual property is actually a more complex subject. When we dig deeper, we find that this problem is much more complicated than it seems.

Since S.Y once created an online novel platform Radish, he conducted a series of discussions from the perspective of novel IP. I personally agree with this direction because I think text works have excellent scalability and operability.

1. Low infringement cost: In the current environment, the cost of infringing novel IP is very low.

2. The contradiction between original and secondary creation: Currently, secondary creation (secondary creation) rarely or never gives back to the original work. For example, on platforms such as bilibili and PEPE, we rarely see secondary creators respecting the original authors.

3. The double-edged sword of the open network: Although the openness of the network promotes the free flow of information, it also makes it more difficult for original authors to protect their works.

The love-hate relationship between IP and platform. We talked about the oppression between interests before. The problem is that the platform and IP start with interests and end with dissemination. The love-hate relationship between the two is not just about interests. The platform economy oppresses the growth space of new IP. Existing content brands and IP are also facing the oppression of platform economy. The platform can accurately control the exposure traffic of each brand IP. New IP can only continuously optimize the customer acquisition cost CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) to make a living. Companies such as Hollywood have been remaking old IPs because they are afraid of the high cost of building new IPs and can only spend the budget on businesses that can reap effective returns. (Tweet quoting the story) The main reason for this is that the content lacks network effects and must rely on huge content and marketing budgets to maintain itself. Think about it carefully. From the traditional 2/8th law, because the platform controls the traffic, it is bound to mean that only some of the top works will have more exposure, and the rest of the works can only rely on luck and fans to promote and publicize spontaneously. In other words, only a small number of people will make money.

To summarize the above points, story protocol wants to solve the distribution problem, protect the rights of authors, and create a new system. So what did they do? S.Y said a very interesting word Git. It may be a bit obscure for people who are not familiar with version control. In a word, Git is a distributed version control system. The Git management system or IP Repo that creates IP with Git as the core logic realizes the on-chain IP infrastructure. The core components are divided into two parts

1. The on-chain IP library is used to store IP, trace back allocation, and record on the chain, which is tamper-proof, transparent, and traceable

2. Combinable IP modules expand the usage methods, making it more free and autonomous

Before we delve into Story Protocol, let’s review Git, which is a crucial tool in traditional software development. The core functions of Git are version management and team collaboration, which solves many challenges that development teams often encounter during the collaboration process. So, how does this relate to intellectual property? As I mentioned earlier when discussing copyright, copyright is actually a collection of multiple rights. This means that different people may hold different subsets of rights - for example, some people have secondary creation rights, some people have performance rights, and some people may have multiple rights. This is surprisingly similar to Git's concept of "version". If we apply Git's logic to IP management, each IP is regarded as an independent repository, and various rights are equivalent to different branches or versions. In this way, each IP is not only enhanced in scalability, programmability, and traceability, but each "sub-version" can maintain its independence.

When IP is transformed from an abstract subject to a specific node, we can start "playing Lego". Through modularization, IP has gained more interesting and useful ways to play. For example, operations such as co-creation, rights distribution, royalty distribution, and blockchain-based IPFi are becoming more and more feasible. This is a similar concept to the "data assetization" advocated in DataFi. That is, through modularization and encapsulation, we can add financial attributes to things that are inherently difficult to quantify, thereby unlocking new business and creative models. In fact, to a certain extent, this makes it easier for us to manage IP and easier to examine the use of IP. Here are some ideas in combination with Story Protocol and Chapter 3.

1. IP Building Blocks: Like Lego, different IP elements (such as characters, storylines, settings, etc.) can be designed as pluggable modules. This will allow creators, investors or fans to combine these modules to create new works or derivatives.

2. Dynamic Rights Management: Modular IP elements mean more flexible rights management. For example, one module may only contain "performance rights" while another module may only contain "publishing rights."

3. Decentralized Co-Creation: Through blockchain or other distributed technologies, all parties can jointly develop and improve IP modules without infringing on each other's rights.

4. Smart Contracts and Automated Royalties: Using modular design, smart contracts can automatically distribute royalties for works co-created by multiple creators.

5. Modular Financialization: Each IP module can be traded as an independent financial asset, which not only increases liquidity but also provides funds for small creators.

6. Module Interoperability: Different IP modules can be interoperable, so that a character in a novel can easily appear in another completely different movie or game.

7. Community-Driven IP Development: Fans or communities can select or improve IP modules through voting or other mechanisms, so that IP development will be more democratic and diversified.

8. Real-time Data Feedback: The usage of each module can be tracked through data analysis, providing real-time feedback to creators to optimize their creation or marketing strategies.

Creader.io

Let me talk briefly about my previous ideas. Although they are immature, they are also a kind of thinking.

The reason why I wrote this article is largely because my master's thesis focused on the research of on-chain copyright solutions, especially in the field of literature. Therefore, my understanding of this field may be deeper than that of ordinary people.

My core idea is to use the "NFT in NFT" model to achieve visual management of copyright. In short, this means creating a separate NFT for each copyright-related right (such as distribution, performance, secondary creation, access rights, etc.). The main advantage of this approach is the high flexibility and transparency it brings to copyright management.

Let me explain the user flow in detail:

1. Registration with Cover NFT: The user first registers on the platform, for example, by uploading a novel cover. The system then generates an NFT related to the cover for the user.

2. Create Subsidiary Rights NFT: Only users who hold a specific cover NFT can further create Subsidiary Rights NFTs related to it.

The core idea of ​​this framework is "rights decoupling". In the traditional copyright management system, although copyright and its subsidiary rights all fall under the category of intellectual property, each right is considered an independent entity. For example, a song may involve three different rights holders: the composer, the lyricist, and the recording company. In this case, each right may require a separate contract for licensing, sales, or other commercial activities. Although this approach provides some flexibility, it also brings complexity to management. With NFT, we can separate these rights and represent them independently, and each right can be traded and managed as an independent NFT

Therefore, my proposal at the time was to separate the property owner from his rights and directly associate this relationship with the property right (i.e., NFT). In this way, the user establishes a connection with the property NFT, and then creates various subsidiary rights through the NFT. The process can be simplified as: user → property NFT → subsidiary rights NFT. At the same time, to ensure integrity and security, when a user tries to create a subsidiary rights NFT, the system verifies whether he is the holder of the relevant property NFT.

NFT and Property Rights

NFT (non-fungible token) is currently widely associated with PFP (Profile Picture) or artwork, but its actual application potential is far more than that. From the original definition of NFT, it is designed to represent the ownership of digital or physical assets. In EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal), the definition of NFT clearly emphasizes its diversity, covering RWA assets, digital assets, and even liabilities. This means that the application areas of NFT are far more extensive than the current general perception.

For example, Uniswap uses NFT to store liquidity pool data, making user transactions more convenient; while Greenfield uses NFT and ERC-1155 standards to assetize data and give it real economic value. These examples all demonstrate the powerful potential of NFT as a data and asset container.

Thinking further, the real value of NFT may lie in the simplification it brings to asset management and transactions. Traditional asset trading and management, especially copyright and intellectual property rights, often involve complex contracts and agreements and lack transparency. NFT, as an open and transparent digital certificate, not only simplifies the transaction process, but also provides a traceable history of rights distribution. This transparency and simplification has brought revolutionary changes to asset management.

6551 and property rights

I first learned about EIP6551 before going to Lisbon in March. I studied it specifically for the trip to Lisbon and developed a dapp based on it for a hackathon. If we compare it in the final analysis, I have almost made a similar mechanism, but the flexibility and scalability are much weaker. Let me explain EIP6551 first. The core idea of ​​EIP6551 is to regard NFT as a container of the wallet, so that NFT is associated with assets, and more operations are superimposed on this basis. The main advantages of this design are transaction isolation and permission isolation, which brings higher flexibility and security to asset management.

In the world of Web2, each website is an independent entity, and the user's data and assets are managed and controlled by the website. But in the world of Web3, this narrative is reversed. The user becomes the center, and the website and application revolve around the user. The advantage of this model is that users have higher control over their data and assets, but it also brings a problem: assets are difficult to separate. When a user's wallet is attacked or stolen, all assets associated with that wallet may be threatened.

EIP6551 provides a solution. By treating each NFT as an independent wallet, the assets associated with it are stored in it, thereby achieving asset isolation. This means that even if the main wallet is attacked, as long as the attack does not extend to all sub-wallets, the assets in other sub-wallets are still safe. This design achieves risk isolation and asset isolation, providing users with higher asset security.

So why does 6551 have something to do with property rights?

In the Creader.io chapter, we tried to define a new property rights management framework through NFT. But the flexibility of this is just like what I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Because there is no asset isolation, once the rights are distributed more, there will still be many inconveniences such as asset transfer and fee calculation. EIP6551 can make a new round of definitions in the existing framework. By associating each right or asset with an NFT, we can realize the digitization and assetization of rights. Each NFT can be regarded as an independent wallet, which contains all the information and transaction records related to the right or asset. This design not only simplifies the management and transaction process of intellectual property rights, but also provides higher transparency and security.

In addition, EIP6551 also provides higher flexibility for the transaction and authorization of intellectual property rights. For example, a music producer can associate his music work with an NFT and use the NFT as an independent wallet. When someone wants to buy or authorize the song, they only need to trade with the NFT without having to negotiate directly with the producer. This design simplifies the transaction process, improves efficiency, and also ensures that the rights of rights holders are protected.

Some of my views

I think many things in the articles based on story protocol are vague. I think the concept of network state is too dependent on users and ecology. We know that another big problem with IP is independence. For example, why can't we see the combination of Harry Potter and Twilight? Don't tell me about fan fiction, that's not orthodox use. Because the original IP is independent and has its own story line. So who will build this network still needs to rely on users and ecology. I think the future of infinite text may be here. But in this way, I think story protocol is not aimed at the original point, but more at co-creation or secondary creation. This may also be why the Story Protocol team describes IP as Git. Everyone has made their own fork based on the original, and then created a new story/ending/character, and then purchased characters from other IPs to merge into infinite text. Hahaha, I also agree with what their team said that the current copyright framework is not conducive to the open principle of the network. Loose constraints may bring new narratives.

Compared to my previous proposal, the biggest point may be the concretization and abstraction. At present, many things that Story Protocol talks about are relatively abstract, but the core ideas are undoubtedly the same, and the purpose is to solve intellectual property issues. My solution focuses more on specific implementation and operation, creating an independent NFT for each copyright-affiliated right through the "NFT in NFT" model, thereby realizing the visual management of copyright. The core of this approach is "rights decoupling", that is, separating the property owner from his rights and associating this relationship with NFT. Story Protocol, on the other hand, emphasizes openness and collaboration, and it provides a more macro and abstract perspective on the life cycle and transactions of IP. Story Protocol emphasizes the creation of a system that can track the origin and evolution of IP and provide modules for frictionless licensing and hybrid IP. Although both aim to solve the same core problem, their approaches and focuses are different. My solution provides a more specific and operational solution, while Story Protocol provides a more open and collaborative framework.

Finally, let’s talk about the difficulties.

New technologies are bound to bring new pains and opportunities.

Let’s talk about the difficulties of blockchain and property rights. In fact, the innovation of new technologies usually brings many new problems, just as new functions destroy the existing logic. Let’s talk about a few more important points, technology acceptance, plagiarism infringement and transaction transparency.

Acceptance

In the past 5,000 years, human civilization has experienced rapid progress, and we have produced trillions of data so far. In contrast, blockchain technology has only a short history of more than ten years. This time difference has led to a significant learning curve, requiring relevant stakeholders to invest a lot of time and resources to understand and adapt to this new technology. In the blockchain industry, we are well aware that user threshold is one of the main challenges currently faced. For ordinary users, this novel and relatively complex technology requires a lot of education and popularization work. Especially when it comes to a field with a long history such as intellectual property, the difficulty of promotion and cooperation is further increased.

The management and enforcement of intellectual property rights vary significantly from country to country, as each country has its own laws and standards. Although the intellectual property rights on the chain may adopt a unified chain standard, it does not mean that it can be perfectly connected with the legal systems of various countries. This sets up additional obstacles for governments in accepting and implementing this new technology. To overcome this challenge, we need an open and unified standard. Only when all participants follow this standard can countries make localized improvements on this basis, thereby simplifying the process and ensuring the smooth conduct of cross-border transactions.

Finally, the attitude and participation of the government are crucial. Generally, governments hold a conservative view on accepting and regulating new technologies. In order to ensure the widespread application of blockchain technology in the field of intellectual property, we need to establish a close working relationship with governments and regulators to ensure that the new technology is consistent with existing laws and regulations.

Plagiarism and infringement

Before discussing the two major topics of plagiarism and infringement, I would like to clarify a point, which is also a problem mentioned by my mentor. That is, no matter how the technology advances, no technology, including blockchain, can completely avoid or eliminate human misconduct such as plagiarism and infringement. We cannot completely control or prevent people's behavioral choices. But on-chain intellectual property does provide us with a powerful tool, that is, right confirmation. In traditional intellectual property disputes, the entire process can be roughly divided into two stages: evidence collection and adjudication. Through blockchain technology, we can greatly speed up the efficiency of evidence collection, thereby shortening the time of the entire dispute handling. In short, the application of this technology can speed up the resolution of disputes, reduce the resulting damage, and increase the cost and risk of infringement, thereby indirectly raising its criminal threshold. But no matter how we change the narrative, we can never avoid on-chain plagiarism off-chain or on-chain plagiarism off-chain or chain ecology plagiarism. This may require the assistance of the community and AI. Finally, let me explain plagiarism, which may be more difficult to understand than infringement. Strictly speaking, plagiarism can only occur in a few ways, such as direct copying, rewriting, or structure and ideas. However, plagiarism at the inspiration level of Stitched Monster is difficult to judge. It is equivalent to similar gameplay but different core, so it does not constitute plagiarism.

Transparency

One ​​of the core advantages of blockchain technology is its transparency, but this also brings a series of challenges and problems. First, privacy issues have become a major concern. Since all transactions are public and users are anonymous, the privacy of creators may still be threatened, especially when it comes to copyright transactions and profit distribution. This may not only expose the identity of the creator, but also reveal their transaction amounts and other sensitive information. Secondly, excessive transparency may bring risks. Although transparency can increase trust and verifiability, it may also lead to the disclosure of certain information that should not be made public, such as the creator's contact information, contract details, etc. Finally, the immutability of blockchain data is also a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this ensures the authenticity and integrity of the data, but on the other hand, it also means that once the data is added to the chain, any wrong or outdated information will exist permanently and cannot be corrected or deleted. This may lead to legal disputes or other problems, especially in the field of intellectual property.

Conclusion

Recently, I have been brewing an article about intellectual property (IP) on the chain. In fact, the reason why I chose this industry is largely due to my strong interest in IP on the chain. In my opinion, although most of the current focus is on digital currency, intellectual property is an area that urgently needs innovation and change.

My enthusiasm for this field is not only because of its commercial potential, but more because I see its impact on the future. I even considered taking this as the direction of my doctoral research, which is not only a career choice, but also an expectation and ideal for the future.

Intellectual property, especially successful IP, has great value and potential. Take "Harry Potter" as an example. This enduring IP has proven its lasting appeal and value. However, under the traditional intellectual property management model, many excellent IPs are often restricted by platforms and intermediaries, resulting in their potential not being fully realized.

Blockchain technology provides us with a new perspective and tools to make intellectual property management more transparent, fair and efficient. We hope to break the shackles of tradition and create a low-friction, decentralized intellectual property management ecosystem through blockchain technology.

The purpose of writing this article is not only to share my views and ideas, but also to help readers understand more deeply why blockchain and intellectual property should be combined and what we are working to achieve. I hope this article can bring you inspiration, and I also hope that the future world of intellectual property will become more fair and prosperous because of our efforts.