Original Title: "On-chain Intellectual Property: The Future Direction"

Original Author: 0xd745

FLock.io's developer relations timtimtim.eth starts with the pain points of traditional copyright, analyzes why we need to change copyright, and dissects the relationship between blockchain and IP as well as the Story Protocol, and proposes their own ideas about on-chain copyright solutions.

Recently, I saw that Story raised $54m and it reminded me of this project. I've seen it before, but there hasn't been much news about it. The reason I'm writing this long article is mainly because my master's research direction is in this area. So, let's talk about it briefly. After all, I'm not a law student, I just read the copyright law for my thesis. I learned about some of the existing situations. Before getting to the point, I thought about it recently and decided to write what I want to write. Feel free to read it if you're interested, I don't really care haha.

What is copyright?

Explore in-depth intellectual property and its various subfields, especially copyright, as well as the rights and obligations related to it. We will also cover how these legal concepts operate globally.

Now let's start with copyright and intellectual property (IP). Copyright and IP are actually more complex than you might think. Intellectual property is a collection of legal concepts, including but not limited to copyright, trademarks, and patents. These legal concepts are used to prove the rights of creators in some way. As the owner of intellectual property, you can sell, transfer, or manage the various rights under these legal concepts. You may have seen us talking about copyright, and you may be wondering why.

版权（Copyright）：Copyright is a legal protection mechanism for creative works such as literature, art, and music. It grants creators exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, display, and modify their works, usually for a certain period of time.

Trademark: A trademark is a word, graphic, or symbol used to identify the source of goods or services. It grants the owner the exclusive right to use the mark to prevent confusion and unfair competition in the market.

Patent: A patent protects a novel and useful invention or improvement. The person or organization that owns the patent has the exclusive right to produce, use, or sell the invention, usually for a certain period of time.

Trade Secrets: Trade secrets refer to undisclosed information that has commercial value and whose owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it confidential. This can include production processes, customer lists, or special algorithms, among others.

Actually, copyright is a specialized field because artistic creation is very different from business or invention, so we need to distinguish them.

In the West, copyright is often described as "a bundle of rights", which means that copyright is not a single legal concept, but is composed of multiple rights. These include but are not limited to the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, and adapt. This diversity gives creators great flexibility, allowing them to license various rights separately or in combination to third parties as needed.

Why does copyright have so many diverse properties? This is because within the larger legal framework of intellectual property, copyright is just one subset. However, this does not mean that copyright is secondary or limited. In fact, it is a very powerful "entity" in and of itself, which can be used to achieve a variety of legal and commercial objectives.

In short, copyright is a legal mechanism used to identify and protect the rights of creators of works. As we live in a world full of various creative expressions, such as literature, art, music, and even software, there needs to be a way to prove the originality and ownership of these works. This is where copyright comes in. In addition to basic rights of reproduction and distribution, copyright also grants creators a range of other rights, such as adaptation and public performance, while also imposing specific limitations and obligations.

Fair Use: In certain specific situations, such as education, news reporting, commentary, and research, individuals have the right to use copyrighted works of others without obtaining permission in advance. This is an important exception in copyright law.

Creative Commons: In addition to traditional copyright protection, there are more flexible licensing options, such as Creative Commons licenses, which allow creators to freely share their works and customize how others can use these works to a certain extent.

Transfer and License: The owner of intellectual property rights can choose to transfer or license their rights to others. This usually requires formal legal documents and may be accompanied by certain obligations and restrictions.

Compared with other forms of intellectual property such as trademarks and patents, copyright usually arises automatically and does not require registration (although registration can provide additional legal protection). In addition, different types of intellectual property may be directed at different aspects of the same product or service. For example, a software may have both copyright (for the source code) and trademark (for the brand name) at the same time. Generally speaking, intellectual property law is international.

International agreements and organizations: Many countries have participated in international organizations and agreements such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). These agreements establish the most basic standards for intellectual property protection, but countries still have some flexibility in their implementation.

Regional Differences: Despite international agreements, there are still significant differences in intellectual property laws between different countries and regions. For example, the "fair use" principle in the United States is different from the "reasonable use" principle in Europe.

Cross-border issues: In today's digital and globalized world, cross-border usage and infringement issues are becoming increasingly complex. For example, a trademark registered in the United States may not be protected in China unless it is also registered in China.

Therefore, through these laws, inventors can obtain patent protection, businesses can obtain trademark protection, and creators can obtain copyright protection.

Pain Points of Copyright Framework

The pain points of the traditional copyright framework, what are the pain points, why do they hurt, and why do we need to change?

Through the previous chapters, we have roughly understood what copyright and intellectual property are, as well as the subtle differences and applications of these concepts. This lays a solid foundation for the topic we are going to explore next - the existing issues of the copyright framework and how blockchain may become a solution. If you are interested in this topic, I strongly recommend reading Sebastian Pech's paper "HOW BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY CAN CHANGE THE ADMINISTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTED WORKS". The paper analyzes in detail the shortcomings of the existing copyright system and proposes a series of blockchain-based solutions. It is also one of the reference materials for my master's thesis.

Now, let's take a closer look at some of the main issues currently facing the copyright system. These issues can be roughly divided into five categories: ownership issues, copyright fragmentation, opacity in usage and payment, unequal distribution of benefits, and infringement. These problems not only limit the rights of creators, but also affect the entire value chain of copyrighted works, from production to consumption. In the following sections, we will explore these issues one by one and explore how blockchain can provide viable solutions.

Property Rights Issue

As mentioned in the copyright paragraph earlier, "copyright is automatically generated without registration", but the legal effect of this automatic generation is relatively weak. At present, although the copyright registration process is gradually simplified, the biggest challenge still lies in how to prove oneself as the original author of a certain copyright work. Within the traditional legal framework, this usually requires a lot of documents and third-party certification, which not only takes time and effort, but also has a significant impact on multiple users. Infringers can still freely use the copyright or intellectual property before being punished, which seriously infringes on the rights of the true copyright holders and may affect their future sales and development.

Fragmentation of Copyright

As mentioned earlier, copyright is often described as "a bundle of rights" in the West. This means that copyright is not a single legal concept, but is composed of multiple rights. However, in the existing copyright registration process, it is difficult to effectively separate the copyright owner from its subsidiary rights (such as derivative works, distribution, performance, and adaptation). Although these subsidiary rights can be held separately by different legal entities, how to fairly distribute these benefits to each rights holder has become a problem that often requires complex arbitration and management by third-party organizations. In fact, digging deeper, we will find that this is more of a technical problem. The current copyright management system can only manage a single copyright, and is somewhat powerless and lacks flexibility for the multidimensional present.

Unequal Distribution of Benefits

This issue mainly includes two aspects: first, the profit distribution between the platform and copyright creators; second, the profit sharing between creators and secondary creators.

First of all, let's start by discussing the relationship between platforms and creators. In most cases, the profit-sharing mechanism of most creative platforms is quite harsh. Taking the music industry as an example, the profit-sharing mechanism of Spotify and Apple Music has been widely criticized. This is also one of the reasons for the emergence of music NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which aim to return more profits to creators. The same situation also occurs on platforms such as Amazon Bookstore (covering physical books and e-books) and Qidian (online literature). These platforms usually use their traffic advantages to "kidnap" creators and force them to sign unequal profit-sharing agreements.

Next, let's take a look at the profit-sharing issue between creators and secondary creators. This issue is particularly serious nowadays, such as in the case of "ghost animal" videos that are popular on the Bilibili platform. These videos are usually based on some original videos for secondary creation. However, when these ghost animal videos start to make a profit, a problem arises: is it the obligation of secondary creators to share the profits with the original creators? Currently, such a mechanism is almost non-existent. Most secondary creators do not voluntarily share their profits with the original creators unless they purchase the secondary creation rights.

Infringement: The Thorny Issue of Copyright System

Infringement, plagiarism, and abuse are the three most difficult issues in the current copyright system. These behaviors not only harm the legal and economic rights and interests of original authors, but also expose the shortcomings of the existing copyright system.

Infringement: Authorization and Liability

Copyright infringement usually involves the unauthorized or excessive use of someone else's copyrighted work. This behavior not only violates the legal rights of the original author, but may also cause them economic losses. Although there are clear punishment regulations in the law, it is often difficult to hold infringers accountable in practice due to the difficulty of collecting evidence and the complexity of cross-border law enforcement.

Plagiarism: Destroying Market Fairness

Plagiarism is a special type of infringement, usually involving unauthorized copying or imitation of someone else's work and passing it off as one's own creation. This not only violates the rights of the original author, but also seriously undermines the fair competition environment of the creative market.

Abuse: Deviation from the Original Intention

Copyright abuse is usually caused by improper behavior of rights holders, such as restricting the legal circulation of works through malicious litigation or high licensing fees. This behavior actually undermines the basic goal of the copyright system, which is to promote innovation and information sharing.

Obviously, these issues are mostly caused by unauthorized use or behavior. So, despite the existence of strict intellectual property laws, why is infringement still so common? On the one hand, as an open platform, the internet is often difficult to track and enforce before infringement behavior becomes widespread. On the other hand, the legal system is slow to respond to these issues and always struggles to keep up with rapidly developing technology. These factors together make infringement a persistent and complex problem that requires more comprehensive and efficient solutions. Finally, there is the issue of globalization. In the context of globalization and the internet, copyright issues are becoming increasingly complex. Different countries and regions have their own copyright laws, which poses certain challenges for cross-border copyright enforcement. Despite international copyright treaties and agreements, such as the Berne Convention and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), infringers may still be able to evade legal responsibility due to differences in legal implementation and interpretation.

Blockchain, Intellectual Property, and Web3

Before talking about the Story protocol, I would like to first talk about the relationship between blockchain and IP. Blockchain is naturally suitable for empowering IP.

Blockchain technology has attracted widespread attention from various industries since its inception. In the field of intellectual property, it is seen as a key technology that could potentially change copyright management, patent protection, and brand protection.

The three core features of blockchain - transparency, traceability, and tamper resistance - provide powerful tools for intellectual property management. Especially in China, blockchain applications related to intellectual property are rapidly emerging. AntChain's "China Copyright Chain" is a typical example, representing the huge potential of blockchain technology in ensuring copyright security, promoting the rights of creators, and simplifying copyright transactions. For example, in the 2019 case where Douyin sued Baidu, blockchain technology was used for evidence collection.

But why is the combination of blockchain and intellectual property so closely related?

1、Ownership Confirmation: In the digital age, the speed of content creation, distribution, and sharing is extremely fast, making ownership confirmation more difficult. However, blockchain technology provides a solution for this. It can provide an immutable timestamp for each piece of creative content, ensuring that the rights of the original creator are not infringed upon.

2. Transparency: In traditional intellectual property management systems, copyright information, transaction records, and authorization details often lack transparency. The openness and transparency of blockchain ensure that all transaction records are available for public review, thereby enhancing trust between copyright holders and users.

3、Traceability: In intellectual property infringement cases, tracing the source of rights and transaction paths is crucial. The continuity of blockchain technology ensures that every transaction, authorization, and transfer is permanently recorded, providing strong evidence for legal disputes.

When we explore the potential of blockchain, we often focus on its obvious features and applications. However, I believe that in addition to these obvious advantages, blockchain has a more profound impact on the assetization of intellectual property (IP) in the field of copyright.

We have previously discussed the issue of fragmented copyright, which stems mainly from the abstract nature of the concept of "a bundle of rights". Traditional management methods often struggle to transform this abstract knowledge copyright into highly liquid tangible assets. However, when we put these copyrights on the blockchain, this abstract right can be transformed or "assetized". This is similar to the approach of dataFi, which aims to concretize abstract data or rights into tangible and tradable assets. At the same time, we can also explore more possibilities, such as pledging, borrowing, fragmentation, etc. These operations often require multiple legal contracts in the traditional web2 world, but through blockchain and defi, we can simplify these processes.

Based on this assetization mindset, we can further explore three key mechanisms:

1. IP Tokenization: This is the process of converting intellectual property into tokens. Once tokenized, these tokens can be freely traded on the blockchain, providing a new and efficient platform for the trading of intellectual property. This is essentially "mapping" digital assets back to reality, creating real assets, which can be seen as a kind of "reverse RWA".

2. Application of Smart Contracts: Through smart contracts, we can automate many processes related to copyright, such as authorization and profit sharing. This not only improves efficiency but also significantly reduces costs associated with manual management and legal processes. This automated and simplified process helps to lower the threshold for property rights transactions, making them more popular and convenient.

3、Peer-to-Peer Transactions: One of the core features of blockchain is its support for peer-to-peer transactions. This means that transactions are not limited by geography or currency, and as long as both parties agree, transactions can proceed smoothly.

When we talk about smart contracts and blockchain technology, there is also a core goal of simplifying and automating traditional transaction and contract processes. The reason for this technology, as you mentioned, is to achieve a peer-to-peer trading system, thereby avoiding the intervention of intermediaries and additional costs. In the field of property rights, a significant obstacle is the cumbersome document signing process associated with copyright transfer, authorization, and other related transactions. This is not only time-consuming, but in some cases may lead to legal disputes and misunderstandings.

On-chain signature provides a solution. By using blockchain technology, especially tools like ethsign, both parties of a transaction can sign contracts directly on the chain. This signature is encrypted, tamper-proof, and can be publicly verified. This means that traditional and cumbersome document signing and verification processes are no longer needed, and all transactions can be completed automatically and securely on the chain.

More specifically, when property rights are put on the blockchain, a contract based on wallet signatures can be attached. This way, whenever someone wants to buy, authorize, or conduct any other transaction related to the property rights, they only need to sign with their wallet and the transaction can be automatically completed. This not only simplifies the transaction process, but also ensures the security and transparency of the transaction.

Story protocol

Let's talk about the Story Protocol in this paragraph. Although the reason for writing this is not related to the Story Protocol, I would like to thank them for giving me a push. Thank you to Ming Xu's story, Sleepy, and S.Y.Lee's tweets.

Here, I will not delve into the background or personal views, but rather focus directly on the technical aspects. In particular, I will explore how network effects interact with intellectual property (IP) and compare several different solutions. Recently, S.Y quoted Chris Dixon's famous saying in a discussion thread: "The killer app of the Internet is networks." I strongly agree with this view. In this networked world, the core of every application is people - or more precisely, nodes in the network. Similarly, if we consider each intellectual property as a node, these "IP nodes" may form a huge network. However, the current intellectual property system seems to have not fully adapted to this networked trend. Specifically, the existing system has the following problems:

Opaque copyright: Rights holders often find it difficult to track the use of their works.

Opaque rights: Similarly, it is difficult for rights holders to understand which individuals or organizations have which usage rights.

These two issues limit the effective operation of intellectual property in the online environment. Despite the challenges of complexity and multidimensionality, although the above issues are mainly concentrated at the legal level, intellectual property is actually a more complex topic. When we delve deeper, we will find that this issue is far more complex than it appears on the surface.

Due to S.Y's creation of a web novel platform called Radish, he has conducted a series of discussions from the perspective of novel IP. I personally strongly agree with this direction, as I believe that written works have excellent expandability and operability.

1. Low infringement cost: In the current environment, the cost of infringing on novel IP is very low.

2、The contradiction between original and derivative creation: Currently, derivative creation (derivative) rarely or never gives feedback to the original works. For example, on platforms such as bilibili and PEPE, we rarely see derivative creators showing respect to the original creators.

3、The double-edged sword of open networks: Although the openness of the network promotes the free flow of information, it also makes it more difficult for original authors to protect their works.

IP and platform's love-hate entanglement. Previously, we talked about the oppression between interests. The problem is that the platform and IP start with interests and end with dissemination. The love-hate entanglement between the two is not just about interests. The platform economy oppresses the growth space of new IPs. Existing content brands and IPs also face the oppression of the platform economy. The platform can accurately control the exposure flow of each brand's IP. New IPs can only continuously optimize the customer acquisition cost (CAC) to maintain their livelihood. Enterprises such as Hollywood have been reheating old IPs and constantly remaking them because they fear the high cost of building new IPs and can only spend their budget on businesses that can generate effective returns. (Quoted from a tweet about the story) The main reason for this is that the content lacks network effects and must rely on huge content and marketing budgets to sustain itself. Thinking carefully, from the perspective of the traditional 2/8 law, because the platform controls the flow, it inevitably means that only a few works at the top will have more exposure, and the rest of the works can only rely on luck and fans to promote and publicize them spontaneously. In other words, only a few people will make money.

Summarizing the above points, the Story Protocol aims to solve distribution issues, protect author rights, and create a new system. So what have they done? S.Y interestingly mentioned a term called Git. For those unfamiliar with version control, it may be a bit obscure. In short, Git is a distributed version control system. Using Git as the core logic, an IP management system or IP Repo is created to achieve on-chain IP infrastructure. The core components are divided into two parts.

1. On-chain IP database, used for storing IP addresses, tracing allocation, recording on the blockchain, tamper-proof, transparent, and traceable.

2. Combinable IP modules, expanding usage options, more flexible and autonomous.

Before delving into the Story Protocol, let's first review Git, which is a crucial tool in traditional software development. The core function of Git is version control and team collaboration, which solves many challenges that development teams often encounter during the collaboration process. So, what is the connection between Git and intellectual property? As I mentioned earlier when discussing copyright, copyright is actually a collection of multiple rights. This means that different people may hold different subsets of rights - for example, some people may have the right to create derivative works, some may have the right to perform, and others may have multiple rights. This has an astonishing similarity to Git's "version" concept. If we apply Git's logic to IP management, we can view each IP as an independent repository, and various rights are equivalent to different branches or versions. In this way, each IP not only enhances its scalability, programmability, and traceability, but also maintains its independence for each "sub-version".

When IP transitions from an abstract entity to a concrete node, we can start "playing with Legos". Through modularization, IP gains more interesting and useful applications, such as collaborative creation, rights distribution, royalty distribution, and IPFi based on blockchain, which are becoming increasingly feasible. This is a similar concept to "data assetization" advocated in DataFi. That is, through modularization and encapsulation, we can add financial attributes to essentially unquantifiable things, unlocking new business and creative models. In a sense, this makes it easier for us to manage IP and examine its use. Here, we combine some ideas with Story Protocol and the third chapter.

IP Building Blocks: Like Lego, different IP elements (such as characters, storylines, settings, etc.) can be designed as plug-and-play modules. This will allow creators, investors, or fans to combine these modules to create new works or derivatives.

Dynamic Rights Management: Modular IP elements mean more flexible rights management. For example, one module may only contain "performance rights," while another module may only contain "publishing rights."

Decentralized Co-Creation: Through blockchain or other distributed technologies, parties can jointly develop and improve IP modules without infringing on each other's rights.

Smart Contracts and Automated Royalties: Using modular design, smart contracts can automatically distribute royalties for works created by multiple authors.

Modular Financialization: Each IP module can be traded as an independent financial asset, which not only increases liquidity, but also provides funding for small creators.

Module Interoperability: Different IP modules can achieve interoperability, allowing characters from one novel to easily appear in a completely different movie or game.

Community-Driven IP Development: Fans or communities can choose or improve IP modules through voting or other mechanisms, making IP development more democratic and diverse.

实时数据反馈（Real-time Data Feedback）：Each module's usage can be tracked through data analysis, providing real-time feedback to creators to optimize their creative or marketing strategies.

Creader.io

I'll briefly talk about my previous thoughts, which, although not mature, are still a form of contemplation.

The reason why I wrote this article is largely because my master's thesis focused on the research of on-chain copyright solutions, especially in the field of literature. Therefore, my understanding of this field may be deeper than that of the average person.

My core idea is to use the "NFT on NFT" model to achieve visualized management of copyright. In short, this means creating a separate NFT for each type of copyright-related right (such as distribution, performance, derivative works, access, etc.). The main advantage of this approach is its high flexibility and transparency for copyright management.

Let me explain the user process in detail:

Registration and Cover NFT: Users first register on the platform, for example, by uploading a novel cover. The system then generates an NFT related to that cover for the user.

Create subsidiary rights NFT: Only users who hold specific cover NFTs can further create subsidiary rights NFTs related to them.

The core idea of this framework is "rights decoupling". In the traditional copyright management system, although both copyright and its related rights belong to the scope of intellectual property, each right is considered as an independent entity. For example, a song may involve three different rights holders: the composer, the lyricist, and the recording company. In this case, each right may require separate contracts for licensing, sales, or other commercial activities. While this approach provides some flexibility, it also brings complexity to management. With NFTs, we can separate and represent these rights independently, and each right can be traded and managed as an independent NFT.

Therefore, my proposal at the time was to separate the property owner from their rights and directly associate this relationship with the property (i.e. NFT). In this way, users establish a connection with the property NFT and then create various subsidiary rights through that NFT. The process can be simplified as: user -> property NFT -> subsidiary rights NFT. At the same time, to ensure integrity and security, the system will verify whether the user is the holder of the relevant property NFT when they attempt to create subsidiary rights NFT.

NFT and Property Rights

NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is widely associated with PFP (Profile Picture) or art in the current context, but its actual potential goes far beyond that. From the original definition of NFT, it was designed to represent ownership of digital or physical assets. In the EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal), the definition of NFT explicitly emphasizes its diversity, covering RWA assets, digital assets, and even debt. This means that the application of NFT is much broader than the current common understanding.

For example, Uniswap uses NFTs to store liquidity pool data, making trading more convenient for users; while Greenfield uses NFTs and the ERC-1155 standard to tokenize data assets, giving them actual economic value. These examples demonstrate the powerful potential of NFTs as containers for data and assets.

Further thinking suggests that the true value of NFTs may lie in their simplification of asset management and trading. Traditional asset trading and management, especially in the realm of copyright and intellectual property, often involve complex contracts and agreements that lack transparency. However, NFTs, as a public and transparent digital certificate, not only simplify the transaction process, but also provide a traceable history of rights distribution. This transparency and simplification bring revolutionary changes to asset management.

6551 and Property Rights

EIP6551 was first learned about in March before going to Lisbon. I specifically studied it for the trip and developed a dapp based on it for a hackathon. If we compare it at its core, I essentially created a similar mechanism but with weaker flexibility and scalability. First, let's explain EIP6551. The core idea of EIP6551 is to view NFTs as containers for wallets, thereby associating NFTs with assets and adding more operations on top of that. The main advantage of this design is transaction isolation and permission isolation, which brings greater flexibility and security to asset management.

In the world of Web2, each website is an independent entity, and user data and assets are managed and controlled by the website. However, in the world of Web3, this narrative is reversed. Users become the center, and websites and applications revolve around them. The advantage of this model is that users have higher control over their data and assets, but it also brings a problem: assets are difficult to separate. When a user's wallet is attacked or stolen, all assets associated with that wallet may be at risk.

EIP6551 provides a solution that treats each NFT as an independent wallet, where its associated assets are stored, achieving asset isolation. This means that even if the main wallet is attacked, as long as the attack does not extend to all sub-wallets, the assets in other sub-wallets remain secure. This design achieves risk isolation and asset isolation, providing users with higher asset security.

那为什么 6551 会和产权有关系？

Why is 6551 related to property rights?

In the chapters of Creader.io, we attempt to define a new property management framework through NFT. However, the flexibility of this framework is limited due to the lack of asset isolation. Once the distribution of rights becomes more complex, there will still be many inconveniences such as asset transfer and fee calculation. EIP6551 can define a new round of framework within the existing one. By associating each right or asset with an NFT, we can achieve the digitization and assetization of rights. Each NFT can be viewed as an independent wallet containing all information and transaction records related to that right or asset. This design not only simplifies the management and transaction process of intellectual property, but also provides higher transparency and security.

In addition, EIP6551 also provides greater flexibility for the trading and authorization of intellectual property. For example, a music producer can associate their music work with an NFT and use that NFT as an independent wallet. When someone wants to purchase or authorize the song, they only need to trade with the NFT, without the need to directly negotiate with the producer. This design simplifies the transaction process, improves efficiency, and also ensures the protection of the rights of the rights holder.

My thoughts

I think there are many things that are a bit vague based on the story protocol. I think the concept of network state relies too much on users and ecology. We know that IP also has a big problem with independence. For example, why can't we see the combination of Harry Potter and Twilight? Don't tell me about fan fiction, that's not legitimate use. Because the original IP is independent and has its own storyline. So who will do this network still needs to rely on users and ecology, and I think the future of infinite text may be here. But in doing so, I think the story protocol is aimed not at originality, but more at co-creation or secondary creation. This may also be why the Story Protocol team describes IP as Git. Everyone can create their own fork based on originality, and then create new stories/endings/characters, and then merge the roles of other IPs into infinite text. Hahaha, I also agree with their team's statement that the current copyright framework is not conducive to the openness principle of the network. Loose constraints may bring new narratives.

One of the biggest differences between my previous approach and the current Story Protocol is the level of concreteness and abstraction. Many of the concepts discussed in Story Protocol are quite abstract, but the core idea is undoubtedly the same, which is to solve the problem of intellectual property rights. My solution focuses more on specific implementation and operation, creating a separate NFT for each type of copyright-related right through the "NFT on NFT" model, thus achieving visualized management of copyright. The core of this method is "decoupling of rights", which separates the property owner from their rights and associates this relationship with NFT. Story Protocol, on the other hand, emphasizes openness and collaboration, providing a more macro and abstract perspective on the lifecycle and transaction of IP. Story Protocol emphasizes creating a system that can track the origin and evolution of IP, and provides frictionless licensing and mixed IP modules. Although both aim to solve the same core problem, their methods and focuses are different. My solution provides a more specific and operationally strong solution, while Story Protocol provides a more open and collaborative framework.

Finally, let's talk about the difficult points.

New technologies are bound to bring new pains and opportunities. Let's talk about the difficulties of blockchain and property rights. In fact, the innovation of new technologies usually brings many new problems, just like new functions disrupt existing logic. Let's discuss a few important points, such as technology adoption, plagiarism and infringement, and transparent transactions.

Acceptance

Over the past 5000 years, human civilization has experienced rapid progress, and we have now produced data in the exabyte range. In contrast, blockchain technology has only a short history of just over a decade. This time difference has led to a significant learning curve, requiring stakeholders to invest a lot of time and resources to understand and adapt to this new technology. Within the blockchain industry, we are well aware that user adoption is one of the main challenges currently facing us. For ordinary users, this novel and relatively complex technology requires a lot of education and outreach. This difficulty is further compounded when it comes to a field with a long history like intellectual property, making promotion and collaboration even more challenging.

The management and enforcement of intellectual property rights vary significantly between different countries, as each country has its own laws and standards. Although on-chain intellectual property may adopt a unified on-chain standard, this does not mean that it can perfectly connect with the legal systems of various countries. This sets up additional barriers for governments in adopting and implementing this new technology. To overcome this challenge, we need an open and unified standard. Only when all participants follow this standard can countries make localized improvements based on it, simplify processes, and ensure smooth cross-border transactions.

Finally, the attitude and participation of the government are crucial. Typically, the government holds a conservative view towards accepting and regulating new technologies. In order to ensure the widespread application of blockchain technology in the field of intellectual property, we need to establish close cooperation with the government and regulatory agencies to ensure that the new technology is consistent with existing laws and regulations.

Plagiarism and Infringement

Before discussing the two major topics of plagiarism and infringement, I want to clarify a point that my mentor once mentioned. That is, no matter how technology advances, including any technology including blockchain, it cannot completely avoid or eliminate such human improper behavior as plagiarism and infringement. We cannot fully control or prevent human behavior choices. However, on-chain intellectual property does provide us with a powerful tool, which is the right to confirm. In traditional intellectual property disputes, the entire process can be roughly divided into two stages: evidence collection and adjudication. Through blockchain technology, we can greatly accelerate the efficiency of evidence collection, thereby shortening the time for the entire dispute resolution. In short, the application of this technology can speed up the resolution of disputes, reduce the damage caused thereby, and increase the cost and risk of infringement, thereby indirectly raising the threshold for its criminal behavior. However, no matter how the narrative is changed, we are always unable to avoid on-chain plagiarism, off-chain plagiarism, or plagiarism in the chain ecosystem. This may require the assistance of the community and AI. Finally, to explain plagiarism, it may be more difficult to understand than infringement. Strictly speaking, there are only a few types of plagiarism that may occur, such as direct copying, rewriting, or structure and ideas. However, it is difficult to judge the inspiration-based plagiarism like Frankenstein. It is like the similarity of gameplays but the core is different, so it does not constitute plagiarism.

Transparent

One of the core advantages of blockchain technology is its transparency, but this also brings a series of challenges and issues. Firstly, privacy concerns have become a major focus. As all transactions are public and users are anonymous, the privacy of creators may still be threatened, especially when it comes to copyright transactions and revenue distribution. This may not only expose the identity of creators, but also reveal their transaction amounts and other sensitive information. Secondly, excessive transparency may bring risks. While transparency can increase trust and verifiability, it may also lead to the leakage of certain information that should not be made public, such as creators' contact information and contract details. Finally, the immutability of blockchain data is also a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this ensures the authenticity and integrity of data, but on the other hand, it also means that once data is added to the chain, any errors or outdated information will permanently exist and cannot be corrected or deleted. This may lead to legal disputes or other issues, especially in the field of intellectual property.

Conclusion

Recently, I have been contemplating writing an article about on-chain intellectual property (IP). In fact, the reason why I chose this industry is largely due to my strong interest in on-chain IP. In my opinion, although the current focus is mostly on digital currency, intellectual property is a field that urgently needs innovation and change.

My passion for this field is not only because of its commercial potential, but also because I see its impact on the future. I even consider it as the direction of my doctoral research, which is not just a career choice, but also an expectation and ideal for the future.

Intellectual property, especially successful IP, has enormous value and potential. Taking "Harry Potter" as an example, this enduring IP has proven its lasting appeal and value. However, under traditional intellectual property management models, many excellent IPs are often restricted by platforms and intermediaries, resulting in their potential not being fully realized.

Blockchain technology provides us with a new perspective and tool for more transparent, fair, and efficient management of intellectual property. We hope to break free from traditional constraints and create a low-friction, decentralized ecosystem for intellectual property management through blockchain technology.

My purpose in writing this article is not only to share my views and ideas, but also to help readers gain a deeper understanding of why blockchain and intellectual property should be combined, as well as the goals we are striving to achieve. I hope this article can bring you inspiration, and I also hope that the future world of intellectual property can become more just and prosperous because of our efforts.

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