Online piracy is something that puts intellectual property rights holders at risk since it would prevent them from obtaining the remuneration that they deserve. Piracy is also risky for the people that download pirated software online because of the fact that this is the sort of act that could potentially end up infecting their systems with all kinds of malware, and the kind of identity theft that occurs can make this supposedly free software even more expensive than the legitimate versions that you could have easily purchased online.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Microsoft is attempting to use blockchain technology to attempt to address this issue. What the company is basically trying to do is that it is attempting to incentivize the reporting of piracy online. If people were to report piracy more often, the problem could slowly start to decrease until eventually it goes away for good.
Reporters would be guaranteed anonymity thanks to the blockchain and they can be paid a bounty for this process as well which would definitely enable them to make the most of the kind of activities they were trying to take part in. What’s more is that the watermark that is applied to a particular pirated software can enable Microsoft to give the licensee a penalty and there are a lot of safeguards that have been put in place as well which would help to reduce the incidences of false reporting and the like.
Whether or not this will help bring an end to piracy remains to be seen, but the thing that virtually everyone is going to be interested in is the kind of money they can earn from reporting online piracy. This is an incentive that has never been offered before so it might just work.
Getty / Brasil2
Read next: Best antivirus tools for Windows home and business users
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Microsoft is attempting to use blockchain technology to attempt to address this issue. What the company is basically trying to do is that it is attempting to incentivize the reporting of piracy online. If people were to report piracy more often, the problem could slowly start to decrease until eventually it goes away for good.
Reporters would be guaranteed anonymity thanks to the blockchain and they can be paid a bounty for this process as well which would definitely enable them to make the most of the kind of activities they were trying to take part in. What’s more is that the watermark that is applied to a particular pirated software can enable Microsoft to give the licensee a penalty and there are a lot of safeguards that have been put in place as well which would help to reduce the incidences of false reporting and the like.
Whether or not this will help bring an end to piracy remains to be seen, but the thing that virtually everyone is going to be interested in is the kind of money they can earn from reporting online piracy. This is an incentive that has never been offered before so it might just work.
Getty / Brasil2
Read next: Best antivirus tools for Windows home and business users
