Blockchain For DRM

What if you could use cryptocurrency or the blockchain for digital rights management? My brother sells LUTs, which are files to color grade photos and videos. Think of it as professional fancy filters for photos and videos. He has a slight problem though, where a few people steal these files by sharing them on the internet. What if Adobe applied DRM on LUTs to check if you truly own the file before using it? What if we had a system where Matti, my brother and everyone else could see who owns each individual LUT. This is where the blockchain comes in. Blockchains are essentially peer to peer distributed databases. Or even more simply, it's a list. Multiple people have copies of What this list contains is really up to the software that created it. For instance, there's a list or a blockchain out there called Crypto Kitties, which lists out who owns unique, cute digital kittens. Blockchain is also the foundation of Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. So if we can determine ownership of digital kittens using the Blockchain, why not LUTs? And if this was done, what kind of doors would that open up? If the original filter creator allowed for it, I actually think we could create a reshare market for something like LUTs. Where, if people got bored of a specific look or filter, they could simply sell it. This could be a totally legit transaction. If Matti allowed for it and the right Crypto was used, he could even drive a cut of the sales. What about policing ownership? I think the open source mantra even applies here."Many eyes and make any bugs shallow"

"Many eyes make any problem easy""Many eyes make policing these things easy" Although kind of nasty by making DRM open. It would create competing companies attempting to police infringements. So it doesn't seem like a huge idea to move from a traditional closed DRM system to a completely open DRM system, but it could really spur on innovation, creating more companies and marketplaces. Where else do you think it could be cool to use blockchain for DRM? What kind of companies could be created from that system? Send me a message on Twitter @mikkoh. And if you haven't subscribed, it would be so nice if you did. This is Mikko Haapoja. Thanks for listening to my quick thought.