Self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin SV proponent Craig Wright has won a legal battle claiming copyright infringement on the part of Bitcoin.org for hosting the Bitcoin white paper. Wright won by default after the website’s pseudonymous owner, “Cøbra,” chose not to mount a defense. Bitcoin.org must now remove the white paper and display a notice referring to the judgment and cough up at least 35,000 British pounds ($48,600) to cover Wright’s legal costs. Cøbra responded to the ruling on Twitter: I don't think you could get a better advertisement of *why* Bitcoin is necessary than what happened today. Rules enforced …

If you’ve had anything to do with digital arts, digital assets, or both, in the last few months, it has been virtually impossible to escape the barrage of news about how nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the game for creative industries. From Kings of Leon dropping their new album as an NFT to digital artist Beeple closing a Christie’s auction with an eye-popping price tag on a piece of his work, the trend has been unfolding at a staggering pace. Many believe that NFTs are not merely a flashy new medium for artistic work but a vehicle that can …

Copyright infringement in the online world has been an issue ever since the internet entered our lives. With a copy-and-paste culture, it’s never been easier to pass off a funny tweet as one’s own, upload unauthorized versions of chart-topping songs, and repurpose jaw-dropping photographs and videos. Now that nonfungible tokens have entered into the arena, a whole host of new issues have emerged. Opportunists are now tokenizing artwork without consent, and in some cases, artists haven’t realized their pieces have been plagiarized until the NFTs have been bought and sold. One attorney recently told Vice that, while creators do have …

Italian copyright collecting agency Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori, SIAE, has minted more than four million NFTs on the Algorand blockchain to digitally represent the rights of more than 95,000 authors. The partnership between SIAE and Algorand started in 2019, with SIAE aiming to digitize its entire copyright database to help decentralize the management of the metadata. NFTs will eventually provide copyright owners such as authors and publishers with royalty streams to their work. The tokenization of the articles and published works will allow the system “to transfer management directly to rights holders, who will then be able to …

Nonfungible tokens are being used to explore a new business model that puts music makers back in control of sales and copyright issues. Grammy-winning producer Illmind released what he calls the “first ever NFT-backed sample loop/melody pack” on Thursday, putting a collection of 10 “melody compositions” up for auction on the Mintable NFT market app. Based on Ethereum, the NFT is titled "Alorium" and contains an exclusive link to a file containing individual audio tracks of the compositions. It also comes with a “royalty-free guarantee” and a contract that gives the NFT owner rights to use the audio files for …

Chinese fintech Ant Group — which is now poised to launch what could be the world’s largest initial public offering — has announced a new platform via its blockchain business. Ant Group spun out from e-commerce giant Alibaba and is the parent company of China’s largest digital payments service Alipay. Ant Group’s blockchain business, AntChain, has today rolled out a new digital copyright services platform. It combines blockchain technology with AI to enable creators to securely authenticate and verify all kinds of original content — whether video, image-based or written material. The platform generates a unique, tamper-proof digital copyright certification …

United States-based cloud computing company Lancium LLC has filed a lawsuit against Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Layer1 for patent infringement in the Western District Court of Texas. According to a complaint filed on Aug. 14, the power usage model employed by Layer1 for Bitcoin mining violates Lancium LLC’s patent filed in March 2020. The founder of Lancium LLC, Michael McNamara and Raymond Cline, had reportedly filed the patent after formulating a method to help data centers shut down or start operations depending on the cost of electricity in near real time. The company claims that its data center power management …

The narrative around blockchain technology as a great enabler of cross-sector innovation has endured since the technology’s perceived potential was assertively decoupled from fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2018. The game of word association that intrinsically linked Bitcoin to blockchain has evolved significantly since then, broadening the scope of understanding around the transformative potential of blockchain on a global scale, with dynamic use cases permeating a wide range of industry verticals. The principles of immutability, transparency and efficiency that are deeply ingrained in the fabric of blockchain align with the groundswell of data-savvy citizens who are acutely …

Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, recently asked for an explanation of Bitcoin (BTC) on Twitter, bringing an onslaught of commentary from the crypto community. "This started as a joke, but now I’m afraid I’ll never be able to log in to Twitter again without someone getting angry I don’t own Bitcoin," Rowling tweeted on May 15, adding: One day you’ll see a wizened old woman in the street, trying to trade a Harry Potter book for a potato. Be kind. She did try to understand." Nearly the entire crypto community showed up for comment Responding to a May 15 tweet …

On May 15, beloved Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling tweeted at crypto journalist Leigh Cuen about her comprehension of Bitcoin. "I don’t understand Bitcoin," Rowling said, adding, "Please explain it to me." We would be happy to oblige. Dear J. K. Rowling: The first thing you need to understand is that Bitcoin is magic. It allows you to exchange money with anyone in the world instantly, cheaply and securely, without the need for any centralized, Goblin-based banking authority. Chapter 1: The White Paper From No One Bitcoin was invented by a mysterious computer programmer named Satoshi Nakamoto — almost …

An IT arm of South Korea’s major conglomerate CJ Corp is using Amazon’s blockchain tech to improve music copyright management. CJ Corp implementing Amazon Managed Blockchain CJ OliveNetworks has implemented Amazon Managed Blockchain in its new digital copyright system for recording and tracking music in broadcast content, local news agency Yonhap reported on Sept. 19. Specifically, the firm reportedly deployed Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) file-based video transcoding service Elemental MediaConvert to recognize and extract music content from broadcasting data. Secure data sharing and storage According to the report, the new blockchain-enabled electronic copyright platform intends to bring a higher level …

Blockchain digital property rights startup Bitmark has secured $3 million in a funding round led by Taiwanese electronics giant HTC. Bitmark will use the investment to expand its sales and marketing efforts, according to a news release published on Sept. 3. Alibaba, DCG and WI Harper also invest Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, venture capital firm WI Harper and crypto-focused investor Digital Currency Group also participated in the Series A funding round. Phil Chen, decentralized chief officer at HTC, said the company's investments in blockchain are at the core of its strategy of putting power back in the hands of global …