Mikolette / iStockphoto.com
Technology company Kodak has launched an image rights platform and a cryptocurrency in a bid to help photographers and agencies take greater control in image rights management.
Kodak has partnered with Wenn Digital, a development and operations team, to launch the KodakOne image rights management platform and cryptocurrency KodakCoin.
Using blockchain technology, the platform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers.
The photographers can then register both new and archived work that they can license within the platform.
Kodak has invited photographers to take part in a “new economy for photography” by using Kodakcoin to receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale and to sell their work.
Kodak, which announced the partnership on January 9, added that its platform provides continual “web crawling” to monitor and protect the IP of the images registered.
Jeff Clarke, CEO of Kodak, said: “For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who’ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it’s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem.”
Last week, TBO reported that South Korea-based blockchain company Glosfer united with Gemmy Company, which provides a platform to protect music copyrights, to create a copyright protection platform for the music industry-based on blockchain technology.
Sister site WIPR looked into the technology and its potential use in the IP arena, from licensing to anti-counterfeiting actions, last year.
Kodak, blockchain, Wenn Digital, licensing, photographs, technology, image rights, online copyright, cryptocurrency
