Sony Looks to Blockchain for Digital Rights Data

Multinational company Sony is eyeing the use of blockchain for digital rights management.

In a patent filing published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Sony wants to find a solution that may solve Digital Rights Management (DRM)’s unreliability to track digital content ownership properly. “It has a single point of failure,” said Sony in the filing. If the rights provider/verifier fails or shuts down, the user might lose access to the content.

Unlike using a centralized system, the blockchain can hold information in every node so even if one node collapses, users can still retrieve information and data.

The DRM systems refer to the technology that limits copyrighted materials to those who purchase the access.

Both Sony and its subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment applied for the application submitted to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Sony also included in their application other blockchain uses such as managing the rights to “various types of content or other data, such as movies, television, video, music, audio, games, scientific data, medical data, etc.”

Another use of the blockchain technology as shared by Sony is by having the user’s rights encoded on a dedicated blockchain. An initial ledger, called the Genesis block, is created that will store information about the user. Whenever the user purchases or acquires the rights to view a content, it will be written in the blockchain.

Sony is not the only multinational companies looking at the blockchain to improve efficiency or find solutions to current industry pain points. Samsung is studying how to use blockchain to make its shipping costs cheaper. Messaging app Line is going to use the blockchain to create decentralized apps in its platform.

Other companies expressing interest in the blockchain are gaming hardware and software firm – Razer and Filipino mobile company – Xurpas.

Source: Coindesk