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Story “Creating a potentially pristine access and usage record that is also publicly visible is the core purpose of blockchain and makes a lot of sense when applied to content rights and royalties.” - Ed Finegold, Netcracker Technology platform. The best thing about blockchain is the link it provides between the content owner and collecting their money. Collecting and distributing royalties will be automated based on smart contracts which will remove conflicts and capitalise on exact knowledge (e.g. the monetisation of re-runs will be trustworthy and transparent.) This will be achieved in real time, so the rights owner won’t have to wait for Anti-piracy blockchain prototype test success Cloud-based video experience solutions provider Linius Technologies has successfully tested what it claims is the world’s first video blockchain, opening new distribution, protection and monetisation possibilities to the global video industry. By applying its video virtualisation technology, Linius successfully used smart contracts to control and transact video as a digital asset within blockchain – for the first time. According to Chris Richardson, Linius CEO, the breakthrough has the ability to solve video piracy as we know it today. “With virtual video embedded within each block of the blockchain, smart contracts can be used to control the transactions associated with video files,” he advised. “For the first time, content owners – such as movie studios – can have complete control and visibility over video distribution and access. Video assets and viewers can be validated prior to playing the video, eliminating improper play out of the video.” “This is particularly exciting, because it demonstrates that the protective power of blockchain can be applied directly to video – just as it is to cryptocurrency today – to effectively address the world’s multi-billion- dollar piracy problem.” In addition to secure content distribution, Richardson suggests that video blockchain would facilitate superior monetisation of video content, enabling built-in payment gateways, automated royalty payments, and even peer- to-peer transactions. “Linius feels this is the 18 EUROMEDIA their payment.” “Blockchain can effectively ensure the content creators get what they deserve,” asserts Michalko. “A decentralised network allows for direct payments from a consumer to a content producer, eliminating intermediaries who charge commissions of up to 70 per cent and settling the transaction almost instantly instead of waiting for the money for many months, or even half a year, which is often the case. Blockchain gives content creators, such as film producers, complete control to set their own prices for their works, and without intermediaries taking large fees or commissions, the prices would benefit both customers and producers alike.” “If a blockchain-enabled system were used throughout the video lifecycle, this is possible,” says Carlson. “Upon viewing of content, tokens of payment could flow around the ecosystem with the benefit of immediate settlement.” “No, Blockchain alone cannot,” states Russo. “Blockchain inherently, if deployed and utilised correctly, can assure information validation. However, the ecosystem requires the addition of secure transmission as data moves onto the Blockchain and off the Blockchain. In addition, access and control of the distributed data requires additional security, tracking and permissions, for there to be a total package to achieve the goal of maximising revenue generation and distribution to those entitled to receive it. An unassailable technology, such as MTE is truly a requirement to answer this challenge.” “Blockchain may be able to do that, but I don’t think it is the best tool for many natural evolution of its anti-piracy strategy, and the virtual video into the blockchain, will use blockchain to protect, distribute as well executed the smart contract transaction as monetise the video itself,” says Richardson. (with associated mining), and successfully “It’s now possible for all retrieved a copy of the video stakeholders to virtual video based on the have an auditable trail criteria of the contract of how many times a l That retrieved virtual video is played, and be video was then validated instantly compensated with ISOviewer at the time of play, based The successful prototype on digital contracts.” test follows Linius’s “With the ability December 2017 for content owners and announcement of its studios to distribute and intentions to deliver monetise content with the world’s first video guaranteed tracking blockchain, coinciding and royalty payments, with the publication including enabling paid of its video blockchain “As demand for consumer-to-consumer strategy. more granular rights content sharing, the Linius’s patented Linius Video Blockchain increase, blockchain will Video Virtualization is set to transform Engine (VVE) makes be even more vital for the entire world of video blockchain possible proficiency with sales video production by breaking-down video transactions, tracking and distribution,” he into small blocks of data, and reporting.” – Chris declared. creating virtual video The details of the files. A fraction of a per Richardson, Linius successful test are as cent of the original video follows: file size, virtual video l Linius virtualised several videos of files can be easily transferred and managed different sizes, stored in the cloud on by blockchain. Amazon S3 “With traditional video, a blockchain l On a private instance of Ethereum would be impossibly big,” says Richardson. (a world-leading, blockchain-based “And, the Internet standard video format distributed computing platform), Linius MP4 does not work in blockchain. Virtual generated a smart contract to control videos, however, are ideally suited to digital transactions against the virtual video assets, which can be recorded, transferred l Linius then successfully uploaded and managed by a blockchain,” he notes.