Why blockchains are better for copyright protection
A photographers biggest concern when selling works over the internet is regarding copyright. “How do I protect myself from fraudsters looking to profit from my work?” Whilst traditional photostocks do have a claims process, these often take a long time to be settled and can be costly.
Blockchain technology has the advantage that trust is inherently built into the system, without the need for a central authority like a photostock. You can read more about how blockchain works here. This in-built trust brings a whole load of benefits in terms of copyright protection.
One of the goals of the Photochain project is to create a digital copyright chain (DCC). This is to be a decentralised database of digital works where the true photographer is recognised correctly. Each time a photographer uploads an image, a link is created between the user and the image that is timestamped and permanently available on the blockchain. This DCC can always be referenced as the main resource for copyright infringement cases.
How this will work in the Photochain Dapp is quite simple. Firstly, when an image is uploaded, it is passed through a perceptual hashing algorithm. This produces what is known as a pHash of the image. The main feature of this algorithm is that two identical images, no matter who uploads them, will have the exact same pHash. pHashes are linked to an artist and stored in a pHash databased. Automated technology checks each uploaded image’s pHash immediately upon upload. Any works that have been duplicated are automatically rejected and the actual photographer is alerted.
In the rare event — and we stress rare — that photos do pass through the pHash check, for example due to subtle photo manipulation of an original image, there is opportunity to open a manual claims process. A community user may report the image in question and provide a link to the theorised original image. Photochain’s self developed machine learning, Computer Vision, algorithm will then compare the images. If significant differences are noticed (significant on a machine learning level of course), then the claim is closed. However if the algorithm can’t tell the difference, then the claim passes on to human eyes.
The claim is open for all community moderators to view, and the vote is decided by the first 10 moderators’ viewpoint. Note that not all photochain members will immediately be able to moderate and mediate claims — these mods will be higher ranked contributors, with significant positive activity on the photochain platform. This means there is no questionable likelihood of a Sybil attack. Moderators are also incentivised to behave in the fairest manner possible, as a reward of Photon tokens is available. These are to be paid from the reserve pot.
If the claim is found to be upheld by the community, then the user in question has their account frozen immediately. They have 3 months to complete an appeals process. If either they are unsuccessful or they don’t appeal, then all funds for their account are transferred to the community reserve pot.
On top of all this, the Photochain Governance team has executive powers on top of this. So if there was any concern still, for example, the community moderators had been bribed per se, then the Governance team can overrule their decision and take necessary steps to protect all legitimate users.
You can see that the Photochain project has the best interest of photographers at heart. We are photography enthusiasts like the rest of you and we want to see those who produce the art, rewarded and protected fairly.
