The largest processor manufacturer in the world, Intel, is betting on blockchain technology and has become part of the growing list of large companies that envisage the future of digital rights management and many other new solutions.
On March 8th 2018, Intel applied for a patent under the name of “Blockchain-Based Shadow Images to Facilitate Copyright Protection of Digital Content”. The patent petition was made in the United States Patent and Trademark Office where the technological giant of Silicon Valley established a method using blockchain to download the rights to digital images where the content can only be modified according to the configuration of the copyright policies.
The patent petition in its tenth paragraph says:
“The present disclosure introduces technology to facilitate copyright protection of digital content. In particular, as described in greater detail below, blockchain technology is used to document and verify attributes of digital content that are relevant to copyright protection. Such attributes may include, for instance, an identifier for the author of the content, a timestamp to indicate when the content was created, and a measurement that can subsequently be used to detect copying or modification of the content”
The developed technology will use various types of software to automatically evaluate the copyright policy settings for each image, even if it was taken from external sources. Subsequently, it creates a particular identity for both the original content and the modified versions. The patent calls these identities “shadow images”.
The patent pertains to images, video and other content, offering a more complex rights system with additional features. The Intel technology seeks to permit users to keep works in progress, including unstructured pieces, such as literature with multiple publishers, so the content will only be modifiable with copyright policies.
Intel is not the only company behind using blockchain to protect copyright. Copytrack is a project that was born as an ICO and offers a platform that identifies copyright violations.
This is not the first time that Intel has applied for a patent that deploys blockchain technology. In December 2017, the company filed a patent for blockchain-driven software to help investigate DNA and RNA, genetic sequencing in particular with Proof of Work (PoW). Intel is a company that is definitely betting on blockchain technology.
