By Dougliris Torres

KODAKCOIN, image economy and copyright management

The multinational company engaged in the design, production and commercialization of photographic equipment, Eastman Kodak Company –generally known as Kodak- announced last January that it will join the blockchain wave and launch its own cryptocurrency called “KODAKCOIN“.

Since the appearance of the bitcoin created by Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym for this unknown person or people) in 2009 [1], there have been several views on cryptocurrencies as a digital medium of exchange, but the fact is that they are becoming more and more noticeable in the economy.

The term cryptocurrency refers to a digital means of monetary exchange or simply a so-called “virtual currency” [2]. It does not require any type of intermediary since it is supported by a system known as “cryptography”, whose function is the protection or concealment of information against unauthorized observers.

This type of digital currency is not controlled by any State, bank, or financial institution, which allows to preserve privacy in their transactions. They also have an international nature, so they can be traded anywhere in the world through operations that are much more expeditious than those carried out by financial institutions, meaning a reduction in the transaction costs, and given that the operations are supported by complex encryptions, the validation of such virtual money in guaranteed, making it a safe method. These features have undoubtedly made this mechanism an attraction for its investors. Today there are hundreds of cryptocurrencies and even the big banks have stated that they are considering creating their own.

What is KODAKCOIN?

KodakCoin is a cryptocurrency based on the Blockchain technology, built with the help of WENN Digital and has been defined as a new economy for photography, which will serve as the currency for an encrypted, ledger of intellectual property rights ownership, and which creation was announced on January 10 of this year by Eastman Kodak Company.

Originally, the initial offer of this cryptocurrency was planned for January 31, 2018, but in light of the growing global regulatory interest in currencies, Kodak announced that it would be postponed and is currently in a pre-sale in which they are evaluating that investors meet the necessary requirements and in the next few weeks, as announced by the KodakOne portal, the first sale will be made to these investors. It is worth noting that it will be open to investors who are in the US, United Kingdom, Canada and other selected countries [3].

Benefits for Copyright

The alliance between Kodak and WENN Digital will allow photographers to register their old or new works, in order to claim their license payments in KodakCoins. For this purpose, Kodak will rely on the KodakOne platform, which uses web crawlers to identify intellectual property licensed to the platform, creating an encrypted and digital accounting book of ownership of the rights in the photographs and where these works may be licensed, while the KodakCoin cryptocurrency will act as a means of payment.

That is, if thanks to the tracking performed by the KodakOne platform with the purpose of protecting intellectual property right of the photographs housed in the system, it detects the unlicensed use of one of them, this will generate an alert, so that the photographer whose copyright has been violated and can exercise the corresponding legal action seeking for compensation [4]. Additionally, it gives the authors who are part of the KodakOne community the opportunity to track for themselves the uses of their photos and have a more efficient and effective control of these intangible assets.

This platform will allow photographers to participate in a new economy, since those who register their works in it will be able to grant licenses to use them through contracts that will be registered in this blockchain, and for which they will receive the payment immediately after, on a secure blockchain platform [5].

Protection of photography in the Venezuelan legislation

From the point of view of the Venezuelan Law on Copyright [6], photographs as a form of artistic expression are subject to registration and grant the author a series of rights of integrity, reproduction, distribution and modification, which are enforceable against third parties.

These rights are born with the mere act of creation and not by the registration of the work, so that its recognition is conditioned to the minimum of originality required by law, but it is convenient to register them to reinforce the moral and patrimonial rights of the creator against the latent risk of plagiarism.

The Venezuelan Copyright Law establishes that the author or the owner of the exploitation right may grant a non-exclusive and non-transferable license to third parties in exchange for remuneration, which shall be governed by the conditions set forth in the contract.

We see in this way how Kodak aims to simplify the tasks of management and protection of the intellectual property in photographs, allowing photographers to benefit from new sources of income and receive payments faster through a reliable system.

Although cryptocurrencies have been increasingly implemented towards the financial market, the use of blockchain in the data register is more common than is believed and is currently blooming in the art industry. Blockchain ensures that the registration of such content is unmodifiable, attributable solely to the author or authors, and this has been precisely the main attraction for this guild.

Although we must wait for the implementation of the system in its entirety to analyze its feasibility, not only as a method of copyright protection of the registered photographs, but also as a new option of economy according to which we must move forward.

Sources:

Photo by Viktor Hanacek on picjumbo.com
[1] http://es.cryptocurrencyprofits.com/que-es-una-criptomoneda/
[2] http://conceptodefinicion.de/criptografia/
[3] https://kodakcoin.com/
[4] https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/01/126833-kodak-jumps-crypto-world-kodakcoin-partnership-wenn-digital-blockchain-based-digital-rights-management/
[5] https://kodakcoin.com/
[6] Ley Sobre el Derecho de Autor. Gaceta Oficial N° 4.638 Extraordinaria 01/10/1993. http://sapi.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/leyes/ley_da.pdf