Story Protocol, which recently completed a $54 million Series A investment led by a16z, will provide existing creators with a new way to participate and enhance their intellectual property rights. Its vision is to help create a new ecological architecture and become a new standard for the intellectual property industry.
The Pain Points of Intellectual Property Rights
In the past, intellectual property rights relied on the judicial system to operate, but in fact it was full of inefficiencies and even problems. The team believes that although the Internet has successfully connected most users seamlessly and efficiently, it has not benefited intellectual property. The traditional commercial operation mechanism of intellectual property is opaque and slow, which leads to more problems, such as the proliferation of pirated works and the fact that creators are subject to layers of existing systems and cannot get the profits they deserve.
In fact, copyright has always been a controversial issue in the Web3 industry. Story Protocol attempts to solve the problem more deeply from different aspects. Although there is still no answer to the amount of income for creators, Story Protocol changes the existing market business in a way that improves efficiency. The structure of the pattern.
Introduction to Story Protocol
Story Protocol assists creators in putting intellectual property certificates on the chain, assists creators in version management of creative works, and provides a more efficient subsequent use authorization mechanism. According to the white paper, Story Protocol is divided into two parts:
IP Repository: Provides creators with copyright certificates for their works on the chain
Powerful Modules: Provide efficient composability of works
To put it simply, IP Repository is a set of underlying protocols deployed on the blockchain, which turns intellectual property (including articles, music, videos, special effects, 3D objects and other media materials) into on-chain certificates, and converts decentralized attributes Add to intellectual property.
On the other hand, IP Repository adds a "version control" function to its on-chain certificates, which can clearly link the copyrights of derivative works derived from creative works. For example, after Lian News's Podcast voice assets pass the IP Repository login credentials, and fans create and copy the same text version, they also log in to the IP Repository credentials, then the original creation (Podcast voice) and the derivative creation (script) have a link relationship. After the secondary creation generates profits due to certain commercial activities, the smart contract will automatically authorize the profits to be distributed to the original work.
Powerful Modules provide credentials created using IP Repository and have more interactive behaviors. For example, the functional attributes of intellectual property such as licensing, transfer, sales, and profit sharing make it easier for creators to conduct more commercial activities with their works and obtain returns.
future imagination
The author believes that once the copyright infrastructure is in place, when the Metaverse, games, secondary creation communities, or even AI computing need to use any intellectual property materials, the purchase can be completed quickly and conveniently, increasing the liquidity of the materials.
For example, if the creator of The Sandbox wanted to use Mario's materials to create game content, the original step would have been to negotiate copyright with Nintendo's Japanese entity company or a local agent, which is a complicated process. If Nintendo links Mario material certificates to Story Protocol, any creator can use a fixed model to complete copyright authorization simply and quickly.
In the future, when AI develops to a certain level and uses artificial intelligence to automatically construct scenes or stories in the Metaverse, it can automatically access Story Protocol materials and pay copyright fees.
potential problems
The author believes that this protocol may have some potential problems. The most important thing is whether the user of the material is willing to put the usage information on the chain. For example, it is like secretly using the material without informing the owner. Even if the Story Protocol has a good infrastructure, There is no use for it.
Story Protocol solves the problem of improving the interaction of intellectual property rights more efficiently, including licensing profits, but it does not solve the problem of how to prevent piracy. People who ultimately use the materials still need to have a good understanding.
On the other hand, there are still regulatory risks regarding the legal effectiveness of smart contract automatic execution. For example, if the creator, after authorization, changes his mind and expresses the need to recharge or adjust the fees, it is still unknown whether the enforcement effect will be effective and the protection for the purchaser will be unknown.
Finally, there is the issue of usage threshold. Existing material brokers have market advantages. How to make creators willing to try new methods? The difficulty of uploading their copyrights to the chain will affect their willingness and test the team's product capabilities and business development capabilities.
Currently, Story Protocol is not yet online, but to become a standard industry standard, it requires strong product capabilities and business development. How to start from scratch will be the most critical challenge for the team and the protocol in the future.
This article What is Story Protocol? How to help the ecological development of intellectual property? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.