Music Copyrights Stored On The Bitcoin BlockChain

"Toronto’s industrial rock band 22HERTZ, created by Ralf Muller, is set to encode a copyright of the band’s new single into the Bitcoin blockchain. The band encountered problems while trying to issue a copyright for their new single..... The overly charged copyright turned out to be a certificate with a title of the song, without any information regarding the lyrics or the melody. Muller continued to search for alternative ways to issue a copyright for the song until he thought of encoding it in the Bitcoin blockchain."

cointelegraph.com...

CoinTelegraph: How and why did you decide to copyright the song to the Bitcoin blockchain?

22HERTZ: Two words, free and absolute. In Canada, it costs $50 CAD a pop for one song and all you get is a certificate mailed to you with the title of your work on it. How this would ever help you in court regarding lyrics or a melody is disheartening. I contacted their support to ask this question and they replied, “I can’t answer that because I am not a lawyer.” I got inspired when I read an article a few months back when someone hashed a book into the blockchain, first time ever apparently.

CT: The band’s online store accepts bitcoin and offers discounts. Is this to support bitcoin? Or because other payment platforms are difficult to deal with?

22HERTZ: Anything to help destroy the greatest form of evil on this planet, the Federal Reserve System. Traditional payment systems are very easy to use but yes there are fees, and you are not helping the evolution of anything. I’m not into ‘business as usual’.

"Although Alexandria is promoted as a library, it should be noted that the Alexandria software does not technically store any media itself. Instead, it uses blockchain technology to store and distribute magnet links, which in turn link to the popular peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol BitTorrent. As such, Alexandria is perhaps better understood as a decentralized version of torrent sites like The Piratebay, but with several additional features, such as streaming functionality and built-in payment options."

cointelegraph.com...

“The goal here was basically to give everyone on the planet the right to free speech. Not by passing laws which can be repealed, watered down or just ignored, but by baking it into the Internet itself. With Alexandria, a citizen can share cell-phone video of police brutality, a whistle-blower can release evidence of corruption, a wiz kid can share her innovative idea for a solution to global warming, a war widow in Syria can share her independent documentary about life in a warzone and use its proceeds to help rebuild her village, and Cody Wilson can share his 3D printable fire arms, and no one can censor them.”

a reply to: wasaka

Songwriters/Bands don't issue copyrights. I own more than a few musical copyrights in the United States Library of Congress...well over 30...and Im confused by what was said here.

It was said the band was having trouble ISSUING a copyright. Bands don't ISSUE copyrights. Copyrights are issued TO them or a songwriter once they REGISTER that piece with the Copyright Office.

It's a registration fee, a copy of the lyrics, the chord progression, and particularly, the melody line (melody-notes). I have never heard...and my 1st copyright was in 1968, of a band "issuing" a copyright. That's isn't how its done.

I receive the Copyright Seal Document with song name, my name and any co-writers, dates etc on it. The music's written copy is held by/in the Library of Congress. Copyrights are honored in most of the world, except Russia who are known notorious infringers.

So...if what was meant was they were trying to get the musical COPY of the encryptions along with the composer(s), title, and dates written etc...and they were trying to do it all digitally-expecting THAT to be registered TO them...then Im not sure of that as a process.

All they'll get in the mail back is the governmental seal, title, owners, dates of composition...

PS This may relate to the practice of the Copyright Office accepting cassette tape copies of the entire piece INCLUDED with all the above requirements about 25-30(?) years back. (And that became a huge storage issue for them).... whereas in the last decade or so, one could include it in digital Mp3 form for them to retain.