Why KodakCoin is useless

KODAKOne Platform and KODAKCoin cryptocurrency

Just a few thoughts from a photographer and someone who understands, at least a little bit, about blockchains and cryptocurrencies

There isn't a current problem with proving ownership of photos. Most of the time nowadays images are posted online by the original authors (or the company that they work for) and those online records are easily searchable (ever heard of Google?). And if they aren't easily found online, then the photographer will have either the RAW photo (before any edits/specialized file format) and/or a larger size/uncropped images to prove it is his/hers.

Copyright law is federal law (Title 17) which means that the cases are only tried in federal court which means they are very expensive. These lawsuits for enforcing copyrights can reach over a million dollars (The High Cost of Suing for Copyright Infringements - $2.5 Million in Legal Fees and Costs) which often means that these cases are not persued. Even if it is a slam dunk case in your favor, it is often times not worth the time and cost. There are groups looking to change this with small claims copyright precedings (2017 Copyright Small Claims Bill), but until something like that is passed into law, copyrights are pretty much worthless.

What photographers/agencies do now is send demand letters and threaten lawsuits crossing their fingers for a payout with no recourse. This KODAKCoin doesn't solve either of these issues.

There are also tools specifically designed for searching the web for your images like what the new KODAKOne platform wishes to do. One of those tools is Google Reverse Image Search and I can't imagine Kodak coming to the table with better image analyzing software and/or a better web crawler.

And finally the last part of the KODAKOne system is the ability to license images for use and collect payments (KODAKCoin in this case)). Many sites/services already exist for this. It is called Stock Photography. iStock is a big one and recently Adobe has entered this market with Adobe Stock. If you don't know Adobe, they are the makers of Photoshop and Lightroom. They are the two biggest and most well known staples of the photography industry which are tied into Adobe Stock already.

Kodak fell out of favor a long time ago for professional photographers. They missed out on the digital market in the 2000's and short of producing film for the very few photographers and videographers who still use it, the photography world has passed them by. Their brand name has no pull in the industry, only in the memories of past consumers.

TLDR: Don't waste your time. This doesn't solve anything, and doesn't need a blockchain to do it.