Japanese tech giant, Sony, has shown that it is interested in delving more into the Blockchain initiative as reports indicate that the company is looking at how it can use blockchain to save digital rights data.
Discarding The DRM Solutions
On Thursday in an application published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the tech giant explains how the current DRM (digital rights management) solutions initially aimed for interoperability “might not be reliable as was first thought. In the event that the rights locker system fails or is out of business, users will lose all the acquired data. Adopting a Blockchain will mean that all required identification data are stored to make sure users can watch the products they buy, according to the filing.
DRM solutions or systems are technologies that are designed to limit access to materials that are copyrighted only to those who acquire access. Sony says UltraViolet, a cloud-based system for digital rights, is a good example. by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony filed this app. The document cites movies as a good indicator of the kind of media the system can be applicable to. However, Sony insists that a Blockchain-powered system can manage the rights of a broader range of data including Television, movies, music, games, audio, medical information and scientific data.
The app describes several possible implementations of the technology. Each user’s rights will be stored on a dedicated Blockchain system. This ledger starts with a genesis block, that will save identifying data about that user. Once a user acquires the rights to specific content (that is by buying a movie download), those rights will be committed to the Blockchain. A DRM, on the other hand, will verify the rights and decrypt the media when necessary. This system can take multiple formats, including a “DRM agent” on a user’s device, the company says.
