The Application of Blockchain Technology to Improve Authors’ Copyright Protection

Abstract

The Internet facilitates easy access to documents online and has led to an increase in copyright infringement, plagiarism, and theft of intellectual property. To address these challenges, researchers and inventors have created resources like plagiarism detection software. However, people still find a way to fraudulently steal ideas, texts and infringe copyrights. Meanwhile, blockchain technology offers a feasible solution to detect plagiarism by using its decentralized property and time stamp abilities. Therefore, this research created a Blockchain Copyright System with the integration of TurnItIn and a reward system.

The newly created artifact was assessed through two surveys to verify its applicability, feasibility, performance, and usefulness. The first survey was conducted by a group of 10 academic researchers and writers. Their feedback was used to create an improved version of the Blockchain Copyright System. The second survey involved 38 participants with research publication experience. This study compared the effectiveness of the improved version of the artifact to an existing system known as ResearchGate. The two evaluation results showed that blockchain’s properties like decentralization and security make it suitable for improving content copyright protection. This research also proved that when blockchain, TurnItIn and a reward system are integrated together, the resulting product can effectively detect plagiarism and reward authors of original works.

This research is the first to develop a prototype that helps to explore the use of blockchain for plagiarism and copyright infringement detection. The blockchain copyright system also benefits publishers and creative authors.