{"id":5919,"date":"2025-07-27T06:48:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T06:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/licenses-or-lawsuits-the-choice-ai-giants-cant-ignore-anymore-opinion\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T06:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T06:48:15","slug":"licenses-or-lawsuits-the-choice-ai-giants-cant-ignore-anymore-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/licenses-or-lawsuits-the-choice-ai-giants-cant-ignore-anymore-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Licenses or lawsuits: The choice AI giants can\u2019t ignore anymore | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-disclaimer\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-disclaimer__icon\">\n            <svg class=\"icon icon-info\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-info\"><\/use> <\/svg>        <\/div>\n<p class=\"cn-block-disclaimer__content\">\n            Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news\u2019 editorial.        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-disclaimer --><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Innovation without imitation is a complete waste of time<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">Mike Rowe, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/mike_rowe_learning_from_dirty_jobs\/transcript\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dirty Jobs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The issue of copyright and AI is white-hot right now. In the span of just a few weeks, generative AI companies have faced a wave of high-profile lawsuits, involving <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/06\/04\/reddit-anthropic-lawsuit-ai.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Anthropic and Reddit<\/a>,<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sustainability\/boards-policy-regulation\/gettys-landmark-uk-lawsuit-copyright-ai-set-begin-2025-06-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> Stability AI and Getty<\/a>, as well as <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/06\/12\/nx-s1-5431684\/ai-disney-universal-midjourney-copyright-infringement-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Midjourney and Disney<\/a>. This is just the beginning.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_5c13d96e82357de6a1def43d920356ed\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AI\u2019s copyright crisis is exploding, with major lawsuits piling up as companies face backlash for training on unlicensed content scraped from the internet.<\/li>\n<li>The core problem? No reliable way to track ownership or permissions. Thus, creators are left out, unpaid, and unprotected in the AI data gold rush.<\/li>\n<li>Blockchain offers a real fix, enabling tamper-proof IP records, automated royalty payments, and verifiable rights without sacrificing privacy.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s time to shift from \u2018AI vs. artists\u2019 to \u2018AI with artists,\u2019 using blockchain to build a creator economy that\u2019s fair, transparent, and built to last.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>The simultaneous emergence of these cases is no coincidence. Each of them points to a systemic flaw at the heart of the AI boom: Today\u2019s AI models are built on vast troves of intellectual property (IP) that were never licensed or paid for.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thus far, many AI firms have operated on a \u201csteal now, lawyer up later\u201d approach. Their systems scraped and mined the internet for content and value to build their machines without disclosing how they did so. While tech companies can afford protracted legal battles, the real loss is borne by individual creators. If nothing changes, we\u2019re headed towards a future of litigation that will stifle both creativity and innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blockchain as the solution to the AI x IP problem<\/h2>\n<p>Every lawsuit we\u2019re seeing comes down to the same problem: there\u2019s no tamper-proof record of who owns what content and who gave permission to use it. Midjourney CEO Hold, whose company is actively fighting Disney in a \u201cfirst of its kind\u201d IP battle in Hollywood, defended Midjourney\u2019s approach to gathering data in an <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/robsalkowitz\/2022\/09\/16\/midjourney-founder-david-holz-on-the-impact-of-ai-on-art-imagination-and-the-creative-economy\/?sh=b14a0aa2d2b8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">interview<\/a> with Forbes in 2022:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c<em>It\u2019s just a big scrape of the internet. We use the open data sets that are published and train across those,\u201d Hold said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they\u2019re coming from. It would be cool if images had metadata embedded in them about the copyright owner or something. But that\u2019s not a thing; there\u2019s not a registry<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Hold is wrong. Blockchain can be the public registry that today\u2019s internet lacks. Here\u2019s how that would help solve the AI\/IP dilemma:<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Immutable proof of ownership<\/h4>\n<p>Creators can register their IP on a blockchain, creating a timestamped, unchangeable record of ownership. Each image, song, or text snippet can be hashed with its copyright info and license terms onchain. This means there\u2019s a permanent record of who created an IP and what rights they\u2019ve licensed out, one that no one can alter or backdate after the fact.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Decentralization and censorship-resistance<\/h4>\n<p>A blockchain-based registry isn\u2019t controlled by any single company. For example, if all content licenses were stored in a database run by a big tech firm like Google or Meta, that firm could change the rules or even shut down everything overnight. A public blockchain is distributed across thousands of nodes so that no one entity can censor or change the records.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Real-time royalties via smart contracts<\/h4>\n<p>Blockchains can support smart contracts \u2014 self-executing agreements written in code. We can use those to ensure creators get paid automatically, in real time, when their work is used. For example, an AI training dataset could be programmed with a smart contract such that every time an AI model pulls in an artist\u2019s image, a micro-payment is instantly sent to the artist\u2019s wallet. No intermediaries taking a cut, no quarterly royalty statements \u2014 just automated, transparent payouts. Micropayments of fractions of a cent can accumulate across millions of training instances, finally letting creators earn income at the speed of the internet.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Built-in provenance and traceability<\/h4>\n<p>Because each transaction or usage can be logged onchain, provenance becomes a core feature. An image\u2019s record would show its origin, every license or transfer of rights, and even any derivative works or AI-generated offspring that stem from it. In practice, this means an AI company could check the chain to verify it has the rights to a piece of content before including it in training. And if someone tries to use content without permission, it\u2019s far easier to spot the mismatch.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Selective disclosure with zero-knowledge proofs<\/h4>\n<p>One challenge in licensing is how to verify rights without exposing the content to abuse. Zero-knowledge proofs allow a creator to prove ownership (or that they\u2019ve licensed their work to an AI platform) without revealing the work itself. For instance, an artist could cryptographically assert, \u201cYes, I own artwork X and have agreed to let it be used for AI training,\u201d and the AI platform could verify that statement via the blockchain, before actually downloading or training on the art. This way, creators don\u2019t have to put high-resolution originals out in public just to signal their rights\u2014they can protect their work while still providing proof of license. It\u2019s consent and verification, with privacy preserved.<\/p>\n<p>In short, blockchain can operate as the infrastructure of transparency and trust that our new AI-driven creator economy desperately needs. It\u2019s a system built on guarantees.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ensuring fairness in the AI era<\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s be clear: AI itself isn\u2019t the villain here. Being \u201cpro-artist\u201d doesn\u2019t mean being \u201canti-AI\u201d. In fact, many creators are excited to collaborate with AI or license their works for AI training if they\u2019re compensated fairly.<\/p>\n<p>In a world where AI can generate endless images, text, and videos at the click of a button, these super agents are both consumers and creators. With foundations in blockchain, the relationship can become a cycle that fuels creation and replication.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>By embracing blockchain solutions for IP, we can flip the script from \u201cAI vs. artists\u201d into \u201cAI and artists,\u201d building together. Creators, seeing automatic royalties and clear attribution, will be far more willing to have their work contribute to AI projects. Meanwhile, AI developers get a reliable supply of high-quality training data that they know is legally clean. Nobody has to steal anything because there is a fair, enforceable marketplace for data.<\/p>\n<p>The recent cascade of courtroom filings is a warning sign. AI companies must decide: licenses or lawsuits. But the future of creativity doesn\u2019t have to be a zero-sum game. We can have a win-win scenario. The technology to do this \u2014 to track, verify, and pay for IP at scale \u2014 is already here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<div class=\"cn-block-author author-card\">\n<div class=\"author-card__photo\">\n<picture decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-card__image\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" ><\/source><\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-card__photo --><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-card__content\">\n<div class=\"author-card__name\">\n                Nirav Murthy            <\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-card__name --><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-card__bio\">\n<p><b>Nirav Murthy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a co-founder at Camp Network and has previous experience as an Investment Banking &amp; Growth Equity Associate at The Raine Group, advising and investing across IP, including sports leagues, franchises, music, entertainment studios, gaming, and massive global consumer brands. He also covered web3 and helped lead investments in Mythical Games as well as Zebedee Gaming. In addition, he helped launch Endeavor X, a subsidiary of Endeavor (a massive media conglomerate), which housed their new consumer engagement experiences. Prior to that, Nirav worked as a Brand Ambassador at CRV. Nirav holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-card__bio --><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-card__social\">\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/niravmurthy\/\" class=\"community-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" aria-label=\"LinkedIn\"><\/p>\n<p>    <svg class=\"community-link__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n        <use xlink:href=\"#icon-social-linkedin\"><\/use>\n    <\/svg><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/niravmurthy\" class=\"community-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" aria-label=\"Twitter\"><\/p>\n<p>    <svg class=\"community-link__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n        <use xlink:href=\"#icon-social-twitter\"><\/use>\n    <\/svg><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-card__social --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-card__content --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- author-card --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news\u2019 editorial. Innovation without imitation is a complete waste&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5921,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5919\/revisions\/5921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}