A writer was telling me of some copyright issues they have had with some of their work, which led me to wonder what assistance my be offered by the relatively new blockchain and other distributed ledger technology, DLT, projects to proving copyright and author ownership.
Below are some of my findings along with some traditional and conventional solutions for comparison.
I suggest to keep things appropriately simple, for some that may be a one off use of a low tech solution, for others it my be a combination of solutions and regular use of a blockchain service.
Below I use the word material to refer to the creative work on which you claim copyright, that may be a written document, artwork, photographs, images, etc.
Established tried and tested methods that effectively require only pen and paper, no electricity or high technology required.
And do not open the envelope or package on receipt, this will provide proof of posting and a date stamp. The UK Royal Mail Signed For is one service that could be used for this.
The problem with this is that the package may be opened only once, in the presence of a legal representative and other relevant parties, to provide evidence, thus subsequent copyright infringements may be harder to prove.
A tried and tested solution that could be used on multiple copyright infringements if the need arises.
However there is likely to be a regular maintenance fee from the solicitor and this may become expensive for multiple items.
These solutions here onward require electricity, computers, an internet connection and due diligence in storing your usernames and passwords.
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artefacts in digital form.
For both of the above it would be wise to provide additional evidence of copyright by digitally signing the material using GPG, the GNU Privacy Guard. That may seem a little scary for most users hence the blockchain solutions in the next section may seem easier, however read on for now.
Instructions on how to use GPG via the command line are given here https://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual/x135.html, but there are some graphical interfaces available to make life easier:
These are likely to be even easier options for you than the Conventional Computer Based options given above, but require an extra step or two in the otherwise simple account set up - this should make your account and data more secure.
shared, open, universal ledger designed to record immutable and timestamped metadata and ownership information for digital creative assets.
The Blockstack platform is a decentralised computing network and app ecosystem, it has a number of dApps (decentralised Apps) that you may like to consider for proof of copyright, including :
Encrypted Document Signing and Digital Notary
- Sign documents and maintain ownership of data like it's on your own encrypted laptop.
- Prove a document was signed with NO need for a Notary service or Lawyer.
The author may register their creative work on the Blockchain, using the timestamp on the Blockchain to claim the copyright of the work, no need to use a third-party organisation.
An author of some creative work may need to prove their identity in order to protect their copyrighted material, here is one option that may help:
@heiditravels (known as Cryto Tips on YouTube) has written about it here: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@heiditravels/encrypt-your-identity-with-civicFor the computer, blockchain or other distributed ledger technology solutions it will be necessary to securely store passwords, passphrases, keys, ID's, usernames or other information required to access accounts and files.
Furthermore you may need to keep these details forever and pass them on to the next generation! Print out duplicate copies of these details and store them safely and securely in separate places.
For storing the details on a file on a computer I use KeePassXC which produces an encrypted file (database) accessed with a password or key file. Make backups this file and store on a separate device to your computer.
Should disaster strike your printed details and backup files give you a better chance of recovery and maintaining access to your data.
I hope the above will be of interest or of use to you.
Earth ID "provide a Safe and Secure Identity to all Human Beings, through the power of Blockchain and Cryptography".
FutureLearn Introduction to cyber security course.
Email self-defense guide from the Free Software Foundation.
Civil platform for journalists and news organisations.
