Envisioning a Compulsory-Licensing System for Digital Samples Through Emergent Technologies

Despite the rapid development of modern creative culture, federal copyright law has remained largely stable, steeped in decades of tradition and history. For the most part, copyright finds strength in its stability, surviving the rise of recorded music, software programs, and, perhaps the most disruptive technology of our generation, the internet. On the other hand, copyright’s resistance to change can be detrimental, as with digital sampling. Although sampling can be a highly creative practice, and although copyright purports to promote creativity, current copyright law often interferes with the practice of sampling. The result is a largely broken system: Those who can legally sample are usually able to do so because they are wealthy, influential, or both. Those who cannot legally sample often sample illegally. Many scholars have suggested statutory solutions to this problem. Arguably, the most workable solutions are rooted in compulsory licenses. Unfortunately, implementing these solutions is practically difficult. Two recent developments invite us to revisit these proposals. First, with the passage of the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”), Congress has evinced a willingness to “modernize” parts of copyright law. Second, emergent technologies—from the MMA’s musical-works database to blockchain to smart contracts—can be leveraged to more easily implement a compulsory-licensing solution. This time around, rather than simply discuss why this solution is favorable, this Note will focus on how it can be implemented

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Contracts Ex Machina

Smart contracts are self-executing digital transactions using decentralized cryptographic mechanisms for enforcement. They were theorized more than twenty years ago, but the recent development of Bitcoin and blockchain technologies has rekindled excitement about their potential among technologists and industry. Startup companies and major enterprises alike are now developing smart contract solutions for an array of markets, purporting to offer a digital bypass around traditional contract law. For legal scholars, smart contracts pose a significant question: Do smart contracts offer a superior solution to the problems that contract law addresses? In this article, we aim to understand both the potential and the limitations of smart contracts. We conclude that smart contracts offer novel possibilities, may significantly alter the commercial world, and will demand new legal responses. But smart contracts will not displace contract law. Understanding why not brings into focus the essential role of contract law as a remedial institution. In this way, smart contracts actually illuminate the role of contract law more than they obviate it

The political imaginaries of blockchain projects: discerning the expressions of an emerging ecosystem

There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain’s ‘disruptive’ and ‘transformative’ potential concerning every industry. However, there is an absence of scholarly attention given to identifying and analyzing the political premises and consequences of blockchain projects. Through digital ethnography and participatory action research, this article shows how blockchain experiments personify ‘prefigurative politics’ by design: they embody the politics and power structures which they want to enable in society. By showing how these prefigurative embodiments are informed and determined by the underlying political imaginaries, the article proposes a basic typology of blockchain projects. Furthermore, it outlines a frame to question, cluster, and analyze the expressions of political imaginaries intrinsic to the design and operationalization of blockchain projects on three analytic levels: users, intermediaries, and institutions.</p

Blockchain Layer 2 scalability solutions : a framework for comparison

Blockchain technology is disrupting the norm across a large number of industries. However, for it to have large-scale adoption, scalability needs to be improved. As various efforts to ameliorate scalability are on the rise, Layer 2 solutions seem to be the escape velocity the blockchain scene needs for success. Most of them being launched in 2021, Layer 2 solutions’ TVL has risen 119% (denominated in ETH) this past 2022 [20] evidencing that not only they are technically a virtuous solution but also widely demanded, as numerous decentralized applications are migrating to these protocols. This thesis aims to study the more prominent Layer 2 protocols by, firstly, comparing the thesis surrounding them with the actual scene values and, providing an assessment of metrics considered relevant when analyzing blockchain protocols, especially for Layer 2 protocols. Therefore, the most relevant frameworks of study concerning these solutions are analyzed and further metrics not considered in them are presented. In the study, to validate the proposed additional metrics, a study regarding their validity and relevance is done. The importance of these solutions’ community in terms a directly precursor of value is assessed comparing to their inherent value as a blockchain solution. Moreover, the ecosystem of decentralized applications is assessed, while also analyzing the theory of fat protocols [6]. Finally, the major investors in the L2 ecosystem are studied, as well as the total funding amount the solutions have gotten over time. The results of this study are, firstly, a framework that can be used to assess layer 2 solutions, mainly general-purpose rollups, beyond technological intricacies, and give perspective on which protocol has more usability and success currently, and which may succeed or might be more widely used in the future. Secondly, the study reveals that community, measured in social media following, does not directly impact the valuation metrics of these protocols; that there are few major investors in the space with a lot of value accrued across this layer 2 space; that the protocols that have gotten higher investment (zk rollups) are not those with higher TVL (optimistic rollups); and, finally, that the dApps ecosystem is gaining value within the protocols, as all types of dApps are present in all the different protocols no matter the underlying used technology (optimistic or zk rollups). Also, it clarifies that DeFi continues to be the ruling category within dApps. Lastly, this study can set the grounds of further analysis regarding scalability-enhancing solutions