Can Blockchain Fight Piracy?

According to researches, TV series and films lost millions of revenue due to online piracy and it is estimated that the number would reach a stunning 60 billion by 2022. This is why the TV industry is considering blockchain technology.

However, blockchain technology isn’t really capable (for now) to fight it. Blockchain technology can certainly help bring better and more transparency in the media space but can it necessarily do anything about piracy? Every digital media that people tend to create can be duplicated. We can never know why exactly people do it but it will continue to happen. Researchers found out that there is more piracy related to music rather than other forms of digital media. For example, people download music illegally simply because that’s the only way in their community to get it. Basically, not being affordable for certain countries or people can be the main reason people want to find online TV programs or music for free.

There is no guarantee that a blockchain can eliminate piracy because we cannot find the root of the behavior of the people who do that. The only thing it can do is actually just fight it harder and thus being able to help to some extent but not really eliminate it. Some argue that if the entire internet was based on the blockchain, it would basically be impossible to share content unlawfully, but it is practically not possible.

There are companies that create new technologies that will track the life cycle of any content so if someone tries to copy a content that is tracked with that technology, the company behind it can identify the owner of the device.