A Chinese internet court is employing blockchain in order to safeguard the copyright of writers who primarily work online. China has supposedly “set up three Internet courts in Beijing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou.”
China.org.cn, an English-language news outlet, has reported that blockchain technology will be part of the online work and can be used by writers to use it as evidence in any lawsuit, if necessary. Earlier on, writers had to depend on screenshots and download the material to submit it as evidence.
However, there were various complexities involved in getting the document accepted in the court of law and many a times it was rejected as credibility can be easily questioned, according to Wang Jiangqiao, a judge at the Internet court.
Hangzhou Internet Court’s official website opines that it “behave[s] as an ‘incubator’ for Internet space governance, a ‘test field’ for Internet judicial rules, a ‘leader’ for diversified Internet disputes, and a ‘first mover’ for the transformation of Internet trials.”
The website China.org.cn reveals that Hangzhou is the “home to many, if not most, online writers in China.” The media outlet further states that 107 “famous” online writers in the Binjiang District work together in a “writers’ village”. The use of blockchain technology for content protection has certainly come as a relief to China’s 800 million internet users and other online business that have resulted in a considerably increase in the Internet-related disputes.
Wang Jiangqia further stated that since “blockchain guarantees that data cannot be tampered [with] […] all digital footprints stored in the judicial blockchain system […] have legal effect,” especially because of its ability to track “authorship, time of creation, content and evidence of infringement.”
Jiangqiao’s statement is in accordance with Supreme Court of China’s opinion made in early September. The Supreme Court disclosed that it had passed a decree legalizing blockchain evidence.
