Rights Protection In a Digital World

You are a Creator of Works of Art. And you would like to see your works findable and presented in some form in this new Digital World called the Web.

Let’s say your work is a document containing text and maybe some imagery and it gets turned into some digital format. That literally means it has become one or more computer readable Files.

Files can be copied and passed around and once that happens where are your rights as the Creator of the work? Can you prove ownership if you had to?

There is growing use of a technology called Non Fungible Tokens to help in this area.

Non-fungible tokens are used to create verifiable digital scarcity, as well as digital ownership . . . Art was an early use case for NFTs, and blockchain in general, because of its ability to provide proof of authenticity and ownership of digital art that has otherwise had to contend with the potential for mass reproduction and unauthorized distribution of art through the internet.

from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token

This is an evolving application of technology and while there are current Standards in the Blockchain technology world look for more to come up as the field heats up as more and more artists and institutions look at employing it. Events in Feb 2021 have brought it into the spotlight of popular culture with some digital works fetching 6 and 7 figure sale prices.

Like $6.6 million for a short video by beeple.

How serious is this?
Christie’s Auction house is currently auctioning another beeple video and as of today (Mar 5,2021) the bid is up to $3.5 Millions USD.

As we learn more about this evolving aspect of publishing on the web we’ll be sure to add it in the blog. If you are serious about publishing on the web you should at least be aware of the sort of marketplace it is.