StockBlock.io

Artwork Copyrights and attribution on Blockchain

Overview

“A picture is worth a thousand words”

Very true, but when that picture is protected by image copyright, you might get cease and desist for using it without permission. Every day you’re inundated by images. They appear in tweets, texts, and articles. You’ve probably laughed, liked, and shared countless ones. But have you ever wondered where the original image came from? More importantly, is that person even getting proper credit?

Most people think by adding a couple of words, they’ve created an original image, or by adding a different filter, they’ve created an original JPEG.

Wrong. The harsh reality is that’s not always the case. The “text” or “filter” might be “original,” but the image isn’t. Being unaware of copyright rules for images will leave a dent in your wallet.

The copyright law of the United States tries to encourage the creation of art and culture by rewarding authors and artists with a set of exclusive rights. Copyright law grants authors and artists the exclusive right to make and sell copies of their works, the right to create derivative works, and the right to perform or display their works publicly. These exclusive rights are subject to a time limit, and generally expire 70 years after the author’s death. In the United States, any music composed before January 1, 1923, is generally considered public domain.

Problem

Protecting your artwork

Copyright law provides a creator with several critical and powerful rights over their work. Registering your artwork is mandatory to win cases in court.

Copyrighting your artwork alone is not enough. Let’s say you register your image and use it on your website or sell it on stock photography website. Now, anyone can download the image without your permission, add/modify the image as per need and use it either online or offline.

There is no way to locate stolen copies of your artwork on the world wide web. You can google it and locate copies. Looks good for single image or a dozen images may be. What if you have hundreds of images?

That is problem no. 1.

It is not important to copyright your thousands of images legally. When you click the shutter, you own the copyright. What if someone stole the image from you and published it online before you do? You need to prove the proof of publication to win a case.

That is problem no. 2.

When you sell your artwork online or via stock photography websites, it is impossible to track who the image was sold to. How many clients bought those images. This information is never shared with its creator. There is certainly no ownership or transaction history.

That is problem no. 3.

Solution

• Proof of ownership

Registering your copyright is the best way to prove ownership. When you click that shutter you own your copyright. StockBlock is not an alternative to it. But it is the second best to help win cases in court. With the help of Blockchain technology, content creators will be able to timestamp their artwork copyright and attribution. Whenever you upload your artwork on StockBlock, the information is recorded on blockchain. A fingerprint of your image along with your details is timestamped using smart contracts on ethereum blockchain.

• Proof of Publication

After time stamping your copyright information on the blockchain, the image is binded with proof-of-publication. All information regarding the time stamp and a copy of the image is presented in a PDF format. Our lawyers are working out on the legalities of the same so it becomes a proof of publication. More of a digitized birth certificate of your artwork.

• Marketplace

After proof-of-ownership and proof-of-publication, the images are approved by moderators for quality & technical purposes.

The platform uses perceptual hashing to track any duplicate images. There won’t be any duplicate images in the system.

Same user can have multiple similar images(altered like blurred, grayscale etc) as the same user owns it. There can not be two similar images in different user accounts.

This also helps keeping fraudsters off the system. If someone uploads a stolen image, the account is flagged and a ticket is opened for dispute. The fraudster is flagged for plagiarism.

The system search also uses the perceptual hashing system to display the search results.

• Finding similar images (With phash score more than 90%)
• Finding visually unique images. (With phash score less than 10%)

Reference: http://stockblock.io/fingerprint/

The marketplace platform is fraudster-proof. With unique, verified, attributed content, the buyer is assured of buying genuine artwork.

To secure the platform further, the registration of artist is invite only. It is a blockchain of trusted media artist.

• Tracking your Artwork

The platform will be able to track your images online. Using fingerprint the system will crawl the world wide web and look for similar fingerprints online. If any similar images are found online they will be listed under the artwork tracking history for the user. The author decides further actions.

For more information on the project please read our whitepaper.

We as a community are here to collaborate and help solve copyright infringement problems and in turn credit, attribute the authors for their artwork. This will empower the artist rights and provide a better way to monetize their artwork, leading a better living. We need your support to make this happen.

Please visit our website. If you have any questions please feel free to ask on

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WebSite: http://stockblock.io/