Introducing UREEQA: A Platform for Protecting, Managing and Monetizing Creative Work
“People don’t buy what you do. They buy WHY you do it”
– Simon Sinek
Take any group of people. There will be differences. Differences in age, gender, ethnicity, interests, skills etc.
However, there is one thing that binds us together. Our love of creative works.
Whether we enjoy listening to music, reading a book, watching videos or admiring art, creative work nourishes our soul.
The people who create this work pour their hearts into their creations for the world to enjoy. They don’t generally do it just for the money but their rightful earnings allow them to keep creating.
Unfortunately, creators have their work ripped off daily.
For example, a recent study found that approximately 85% of all photos on the internet were used without a valid license.
This has to stop!
The Current System: Slow, Expensive and Ineffective
Copyright protection is meant to protect creators but the current process is slow, expensive and ineffective.
Most creators believe that registering their copyright is all it takes to achieve full protection for their creative works. This is not the case. The current copyright registration process is only one step and even this first step takes time.
For example, in the United States, it takes over 3 months to have a Copyright application processed.
At the end of the 3 months, you end up with a piece of paper that simply says you claim the work as yours. The US Copyright Office performs no validation steps to attempt to determine whether the work submitted is original or even if it was previously registered.
Registration is only the first step. The creator then needs to monitor and identify infringing uses of their works. When they do, since the registration process didn’t involve any validation, enforcing copyright can entail complex and difficult lawsuits with uncertain outcomes.
The system is ineffective and broken.
The situation is no better in developing nations like India where despite having a population of over 1.35 billion, there were only 14,625 copyright registrations in 2019. Over the course of 365 days in all of India, less than 15,000 items were processed for “protection”.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) correctly identified blockchain technology as a means to “easily provide evidence of the time of creation”.
Their WIPO Proof system allows creators to stake their claims within minutes. However, like the US Copyright Office, they perform no validation steps. Again, users of the system are merely claiming the work as theirs. We consider WIPO Proof and other similar systems to be Blockchain 1.0 solutions.
UREEQA: Protecting Creators with Blockchain and the Crypto Community
UREEQA takes the protection further by building a package of proof that creators can use to play both offence and defence.
We allow creators to stake their claims on the Ethereum blockchain within minutes. We also plan to allow creators to BYOC (bring your own claim) like WIPO Proof, a National Copyright Registration or others. We view this step as the minimum price of entry into this space.
Our next (patent pending) step is where we shine.
By working with Copyright lawyers who understand what courts look for, UREEQA will train and certify a global network of Validators who work together to determine the ownership and originality of the submitted work. Validators perform this work as Consultants who are paid in URQA ERC-20 tokens.
Once a submitted work has successfully passed the Validation process, an ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token (NFT) will be minted for the work and it will be added to UREEQA’s Premium Protected Collection.
The owner will have a unique QR code that they can display on websites, print in their books, etc., as a credible seal of validation for their creative work. When scanned, this code will take the user to the appropriate UREEQA Premium Protected page where the validation steps performed can be viewed along with other information about the work and creator.
Since creators are often too busy creating to enforce their rights, we handle that too.
Just as our Validators work to validate submitted work, our global team of trained and certified Protectors will work to find and report cases of infringement for items in the UREEQA Premium Protected Collection.
The creator can then easily send demand letters using the UREEQA platform to remedy the situation with links to pay the creator-specified amounts.
The NFTs that represent ownership of creative work can be monetized in the UREEQA Marketplace.
The NFTs also provide a convenient way for non-registered entities like DAOs to hold ownership of their creative assets.
We’ve focused on Copyright when painting the picture of our vision. If you zoom out some more, we intend to provide an alternative for national intellectual property registries. Zoom out some more and we intend to expand coverage to include patents, trademarks and industrial designs.
Zoom in and we have our closed beta launch at the end of March where we test the system with creators and onboard Validators. We are about to take on a large, inefficient system. We intend to do it one step at a time.
This isn’t our Founders’ first rodeo. As the CEO, you can read about my road to UREEQA here.
You can read about the rest of our Team in our whitepaper.
If you believe in our vision and team and want to help protect creative work (the soul of humanity), sign up for our closed beta here.
To learn more about us, visit UREEQA.io.
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