SteemReports - Tool to Help Protect Your Media Content

steemreports (64)in #steemit • 7 years ago (edited)

If you are posting text content to your Steem blog, you can be reassured that if anyone else tries to pass it off as their own work, you can use the blockchain as evidence to refute this. This is another great benefit of using a blockchain based blog for your content.

Unfortunately, it isn't possible to your store any photographs, videos or music in the blockchain (they are stored on ordinary web servers) so it's not so simple to prove that they are your own work.

I have created a simple tool, which creates a hash of any file you select, and allows you to paste it directly into your blog, as a form of protection.

The hash is a digital signature, and acts as a representation of your file, that nobody without your file can recreate. When you paste it into your blog it shows (in the public blockchain record) that you had the file at the time of posting.

With this SHA256 hash, and your original file, you could fairly easily demonstrate for example that somebody had copied your musical idea, or stolen your photograph.

http://www.steemreports.com/file-hashing-tool

I'm a musician (and also post as @andybets). Several years ago I was a victim to this kind of behaviour where a few of my original songs were posted online by another person who claimed they were his. It's not about money for me (I'm not a professional musician), but there is something really annoying about it, so when I started posting on Steemit, I decided to use this approach to protect my original media from any similar situations. You can see the code at the bottom of my open mic entries.

I don't know whether the evidence this technique provides is legally admissible or not.

#steem #steemdev #blockchain #abuse

7 years ago in #steemit by steemreports (64)

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jaybird (72) 7 years ago

Firstly, thanks for posting this interesting method, it's much appreciated.

Just curious, doesn't a "standard" blog post on the blockchain essentially do this already..?

If someone takes your content, it's pretty clear that you posted it first and that they obviously did not have the content prior to your posting of it (unless it was obtained prior to the post somehow).

For example, if I post a video of me performing one of my songs on steemit. The blockchain has already time/date stamped the blog post hasn't it?

The method you are explaining is more like an added layer of security in this case then ... I think... yes/no lol?

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steemreports (64) 7 years ago

Good question.

When you embed a video from youtube in your blog for example, the things that are stored in the blockchain are the text (keeping the lyrics safe already if you include them) and the link to the youtube video. This youtube link is generated to be unique for every uploaded video, so in that way it's just as good, and could be good enough in practice.

Youtube could change their content addressing scheme in a year or two though, go out of business, start charging, de-list your video or you might just want to move it. If the link is ever broken it stops you proving ownership of the musical idea for example. The method I'm suggesting keeps you independent of everything except the Steem blockchain.

I guess in many cases it will just be an added layer of security though.

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jaybird (72) 7 years ago

Very interesting, thanks for explaining that further. Makes a bit more sense to me now.

I didn't really consider that the link is what gets stored and not the actual video (which totally makes sense upon reflection)

I'm still a bit hazy on how the hash would capture your video performance though. Wouldn't it also just show that the link was there and that's it..?

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andybets (62) 7 years ago (edited)

If you use the tool above to make a hash of your video before uploading it to youtube, and keep the original file you hashed and include the SHA256 you generated in your post, it proves you had the original video file at the time of posting, as there is no other file on the planet that could produce the same hash code.

If somebody later doubts your ownership, you can do the following:

point to your post which contains the SHA256 hash
send them your original video file (using dropbox or whatever)
let them know the link to the tool above

They can then use the tool on your file to prove to themselves that you are the honest party, as they will get the same hash as the one you put in the blockchain.

It's a bit hard to explain, but I hope that makes sense.

(If my tool if ever unavailable, any standard Linux PC can also calculate the same hash code, and there may even be other online tools that do exactly the same)

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