content - Pwim.Net

Japanese Advertiser Dentsu Offers Influential Manga Comic Critics Blockchain Rewards

Japanese advertising behemoth, Dentsu has partnered with Kadowkawa ASCII Research Labs to help local content creators on popular streaming apps to gain recognition and have their work critiqued by the public.

According to an article on April 20 by Nikkei, the partnership centres around establishing a Proof of Concept (POC) for rewards to independent content creator using blockchain. The goal is to offer blockchain rewards to popular commentators of Japanese Manga comics who leverage the livestream apps.

Japanese Manga Has Some Copyright Issues

Manga comics are synonymous with Japanese culture but the famous art form has its own copyright issues. Japanese consumers often sell on comics and some books are sold on multiple times especially if they are collectible, however the author only receives commission on the first sale.

The popularity of these comics has fostered a rich history of secondary creators, fans who often create content based on original works of anime, manga and their central characters. While the intentions of these creators are usually to express their appreciation or love for a comic, copyright laws are often breached especially when it comes to some manga commentary videos.

Dentsu and Kadokawa aim to make it easier for people using livestream with potentially copyrighted material by using blockchain. The partnership is designed to explain the range of allowed materials on these platforms to these secondary and even tertiary creators.

“We want to incorporate the activities of fans that have not been converted into monetary value into the legitimate content market,” said Junichi Suzuki, who is heading the blockchain trial at Dentsu.

Japan’s government has shown a heightened interest in preserving their own content. The Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry in Japan also set up program in 2019 with the aim of providing companies with an interest in managing Japanese creator content using blockchain up to half a million USD.

WordPress Plugin to Boost Copyright Protection by Timestamping Content on the EOSIO Blockchain

Upon setting up a plugin dubbed WordProof Timestamp, WordPress users will be able to store and encode their content on the EOSIO blockchain. As a result, the open-source blockchain platform will guarantee any WordPress website copyright protection and transparency.

Blockchain certificate pop-up

Timestamping is a sequence of encoded information or characters, which shows when a given event happened. Once the content is timestamped, a universal and unique fingerprint or hash for all media files, pages, and posts will be generated. In a case scenario where the content changes, the hash is also altered. The hash gets added to the blockchain platform with a date and time because this will help the website owner show proof of ownership over the content.

According to the announcement:

“With WordProof Timestamp, you can timestamp your WordPress content on any EOSIO blockchain from the comfort of your WordPress site. No prior blockchain experience necessary. After the set-up, everything is taken care of automatically.”

Blockchain-based SEO benefits

This new development is touted as a game-changer in unveiling the next-generation search engine optimization (SEO) benefits, which will be pegged on blockchain technology.

The WordProof Timestamp will enhance content transparency by increasing claim authenticity and trust. Some of the notable features will include copyright infringement claim tools, downloadable blockchain certificate as proof of existence, and a blockchain certificate pop-up on the website.

According to statistics by web technology survey firm W3Techs, WordPress is utilized by 63.5% of websites that use the content management system (CMS), representing 38.7% of all websites.

Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) stated that it views blockchain technology as a turning point in addressing illicit internet content of abusive imagery associated with social ills such as sexual exploitation and violence.

Specifically, blockchain is being deployed together with another technology called PhotoDNA developed by Dartmouth College to help cloud storage platforms and social media networks delete all abusive and illegal images from their databases.

AI-Based Startup Optic Raises $11m, Developing AI NFT Content Recognition

Optic, a San Francisco-based NFT authentication company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $11 million in a funding round led by US venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and crypto-native investment giant Pantera Capital.

For the latest funding, Optic said it plans to use to invest in building core AI infrastructure and designing a decentralized protocol. The company also stated that it intends to use the capital to recruit more engineering talents and release new tools designed for NFT creators, collectors, and a public API for web3 developers.

Other investors, including Greylock Partners, Lattice Capital, OpenSea, Circle, Polygon, CoinDCX, Neon DAO, and Flamingo DAO, also participated in the funding round.

Optic was founded in March this year by a former director of products at Google, Andrey Doronichev, and world-class AI researchers Roman Doronin and Vlad Vinogradov.

Optic said it is creating an AI detection engine for NFT content recognition. The firm processes millions of newly minted NFTs daily and matches the content against authentic collections to evaluate their originality. Its automated monitoring tool informs media companies, marketplaces, or brands about potential intellectual property violations.

Optic co-founder and CEO Andrey Doronichev commented: “Optic isn’t an enforcement business. Our goal is to make the information available and transparent to the ecosystem. Artists and marketplaces can decide what to do with it.”

Optic displays a percentage for how much digital content matches existing NFT collections, with a higher number representing a close match and a likelihood of a complete counterfeit. Doronichev said a score below 95% implies that the NFT probably includes inspired or derivative art.

NFT giant OpenSea currently uses Optic’s Marketplace Moderation tool as part of the company’s efforts to crack down on frauds.

Doronichev elaborated: “People think of authenticity and all sorts of fraud and trust issues in the NFT space as a problem of a single marketplace or a single chain or a single creator or community. That’s not true. That’s a systemic ecosystem issue, and it has to be addressed.”

Optic’s move comes at a time when counterfeit NFTs are causing major problems for digital platforms.

With the parabolic rise of NFTs since last year, cases of fakes and forgeries have become increasingly common in marketplaces.

Brands are struggling to balance how to use their digital assets for marketing and sales purposes while protecting their intellectual property and saving their clients from buying counterfeit NFTs.

But new proprietary tools are being developed to change that.

The global market for non-fungible tokens hit $22 billion last year as the craze for collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Matrix avatars turned digital images into major investment assets. But fraudsters appear keen to take advantage of lax rules and enforcement mechanisms on major NFT marketplaces.