The latest ICO is coming from… Kodak?
Pretty bizarre at first glance, but stock has soared. I can kind of see how blockchain could be useful for commercial photographers, but I’m not entirely convinced Kodak are best placed to win at this strategy.
What do you think?
I don’t actually believe blockchain is a solution to any problem - I have yet to see a problem solved by blockchain that isn’t better solved by something else.
Look at Bitcoin for example, it’s been around for years and yet there is still no problem it solved that conventional services don’t do better (money transfer = TransferWise, payments = cards, etc)
Same with Ethereum… name a single real-world problem solved by it… I don’t see any.
In this case I really don’t see the point of using a blockchain to protect phorographer’s rights… maybe there would be if every single licensing/royalty provider was secretly scamming them (one of the “problems” this coin claims to solve by being transparent and auditable) but so far I haven’t heard any uproar from protographers regarding this so I doubt this is a real problem.
Look into ripple (xrp)
It gives banks and other organisations the chance to reduce the confirmation times of an internal transfer from 3-5 working days to a matter of minutes
I won’t pretend to know the first thing about block chain, but photographers’ images are stolen on a daily basis. If blockchain technology can help to prevent this from happening, then it will be very popular indeed.
I can give you one: Version control. Just that it’s known as Git over there… (I know, I know …)
Mildly related:
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Have fun 
But those are stolen by random people on the internet, and this will continue despite this blockchain thing. However I haven’t heard of the likes of Getty Images (or similar) scamming photographers which is what this coin is claiming to be able to solve.
Well, to be fair:
Yeah, that is a bit… #dodgy
Fair enough. As I said, I know little about blockchain.
Basically the blockchain is not binding in any way - once someone gets a copy of the image nothing prevents them (besides copyright law) from uploading it anywhere they want and pretend it’s their own. Copyright law, while not perfect, can at least attempt to stop it if the original rightsholder sues. Blockchain is not legally binding in any way (note the two aren’t mutually exclusive, you can have copyright and blockchain, but what purpose does that blockchain serve, besides separating idiot investors from their money?)
From reading the actual announcement, this seems like a distributed attribution platform, basically a replacement for single-play hosted platforms like Getty and Shutterstock. The big question is whether the value of the token (‘KodakCoin’) will just be left floating in the breeze in the hope it shoots up in value, or whether it will be backed with a normal currency (akin to USDT) and just act as an integral transaction processing system. If it’s a backed currency, this actually looks like a pretty good idea.
The coupling of the announcement of this service with the separate proposal to host Bitcoin miners at the Kodak building has caused a lot of confusion and was probably a pretty poor decision.
Basically the blockchain is not binding in any way - once someone gets a copy of the image nothing prevents them (besides copyright law) from uploading it anywhere they want and pretend it’s their own
Making it identical to every other photo licensing/distribution service in existence. There is no magic that will prevent copying images (or any other data) after all. The only recourse is a legal recourse.
I was under the impression that blockchain technology would enable anyone to know that this has happened. One problem photographers face at the moment is that if someone cuts and pastes an image there is no way of knowing it has happened. You can only take action if you know about the offence.
Once I can see this on my computer, if I’m determined, I can get a copy of it - no matter where it came from. ‘blockchain’ unfortunately doesn’t have magic powers. It doesn’t even have super cow powers!
Yes, I get that it won’t prevent illegal downloading. I just thought it might help to detect either the downloading or uploading. Then a reverse Google image search or Tineye search would would find where the image had been used and any enforcement action could then proceed.
Super Cow powers, though! Can’t wait fort that! 