Tech Forum 2020

The web has brought both good and bad to creators. It has allowed them to reach larger audiences than ever before and effortlessly deliver content. With that, however, the ubiquitous availability and lack of control over one’s creative works on the web has also led to many issues including plagiarism, piracy and distribution without credit or compensation.
Through its role as a collective voice of Canadian creators and publishers, Access Copyright has seen how the web has impacted discoverability of content and compromised the interests of rightsholders.
At the heart of the problem is the issue of attribution. We have seen entrepreneurs attempt to solve it, but their solutions exist to serve self-interested business models as opposed to the needs of creators. A far better approach is for the creative industry to come together and leverage emerging technologies to shape the future of content distribution.
Access Copyright and its innovation lab, Prescient, have done just that in building a platform called the ‘Attribution Ledger’; a service using machine learning and blockchain technology where creators can register their work to create a digital fingerprint that connects the creative work to its lawful creator and rights owner in a reliable and authoritative manner. This can be used to track online usage and ensure proper compensation to creators.
This presentation will discuss our journey in building the Ledger and critical areas that we focused, including governance, engaging the key global stakeholders from the creative industry and exploring the potential and possibility brought forward by exponential technologies.