Сopyright deposit is the process of fixing the copyright of a work to prove your authorship in case of possible disputes. And this is where blockchain is a great tool. Why? Because it’s a registry where records cannot be altered or tampered with (well, until the age of quantum computers).
When and to whom copyright deposit is useful
Authors often need to record their rights, but at the same time not disclose the work publicly. For example, the lyrics to a song have already been written but the music hasn’t yet, and you want to record the lyrics but not put them online. Or a screenwriter has developed an interesting movie concept and wants to discuss it with his colleagues, producer or director, but fears that the ideas may be used without his consent. This is exactly the kind of thing that escrow is for.
When we launched the National Intellectual Property Registry (NIPR), we used dual-key encryption to protect the data. This ensured confidentiality – only the depositor and the NRIS could decrypt the work. But with blockchain everything is even simpler: you cannot falsify a record, so the second party (the centralized depository) is simply not needed. It is enough to encrypt the work yourself and upload it to the blockchain.
Example of escrow deposit of texts using TON and Getgems
Let’s break down an example of how to deposit text quickly and cheaply, while not revealing its contents. We’ll use the TON Wallet cryptocurrency wallet and Getgems marketplace to create an NFT.
The steps are simple:
- Authorize through TON Wallet on Getgems.
- If necessary, you can create a collection for the NFT (but you can skip this step).
- Start the process of NFT creation (minting) – specify the name, you can add a picture, and put the text in the NFT description.
And here comes the first difficulty – the text must be encrypted so that no one can read it but you. For this you can use AES encryption (with one key). For an example, we even made a form that compresses and encrypts text.
But here’s another challenge – character limit. On Getgems, the limit is 700 characters. Well, for this we add text compression using archiving algorithms, and now the encrypted text becomes compact enough to fit within the limits.
Encrypt and compress text for copyright deposit in the blockchain
Character count: 0
Decrypting and decompressing text from NFTs
Character Count: 0
What if there is more text?
If you have more text or the work is large, you can consider other platforms, such as OpenSea, where the limits can be wider. Then there is the choice of blockchain: Ethereum or Polygon. It all depends on your region, preferences and, of course, the cost of gas for NFT minting. The process is the same: encrypt the text, save it, say, as a PDF and add it to the NFT properties.
If the data is stored in a decentralized system such as IPFS, this is even better – your data will be securely recorded and you can always prove that you are the author.
Legal issue and jurisprudence
At this point, the question remains as to how jurisdictions will accept such proof of authorship. It’s important to understand how court precedents will shape up in different countries and the extent to which blockchain and NFT will be recognized as legal proof of authorship. Of course, there is one “but” – don’t lose the key! After all, it will be impossible to prove authorship without it.