In order to be successful, some people do not hesitate to steal ideas. How difficult is it to prove afterwards that the intellectual property actually originated with you?
Unfortunately, it is a sad fact that about 41% of the more than 1,200 creatives we surveyed have already been confronted with conflicts over their intellectual property. I think that illustrates quite well the scope of this problem. It doesn't even have to be malicious intent. Often, ideas can simply no longer be traced back, or one was inspired and implemented someone else's idea. Moreover, the majority of works are created in collaboration and contain the intellectual property of several parties. The creation of works is a complex and often lengthy process.
In this context, securing intellectual property is difficult or impossible. The most commonly used tools, such as Dropbox or WeTransfer do not allow control or proof of the ideas and files that are shared. There is no unaltered and verifiable record of the content that was shared. With an increase in contributors and duration, a project also loses transparency and ownership becomes untraceable.
Alex, you told us that as a music producer and composer, two of your songs were stolen and released under a different name. How did that feel for you at the time?
The tragedy of such a loss is that not only do you lose your intellectual property, but you also become more cautious about who you collaborate with, which greatly limits the potential and freedom of creativity and collaboration. The danger and worry always come with it. You put a lot of passion and time into your work, and that's less about vanity and more about simply being cheated out of your work. In the end, you have little recourse and you have to have a complete chain of custody, which is simply not possible with the current tools. That's what motivated me to create a solution that gives creators more security and allows them to share their ideas and work with the world easily and securely.
How can you help others avoid the same thing happening to them? How does fuse.space work?
fuse.space and the underlying blockchain technology provide a solution to this problem. We offer a platform that bundles the most important work processes for creatives, recording all activities and data transparently and immutably and securing them in a blockchain. In the event of a copyright dispute, it is thus possible to trace at any time to whom an idea or file is originally attributed and who had access to it. Fun Fact: Interestingly, to this day, authors use a rather old-fashioned method to secure their intellectual property: they send their manuscripts to themselves by registered mail to be able to prove the date of creation and ownership by means of a postmark and sender. With fuse.space, this process is now much simpler.
Tell me about your vision – what drives you?
As creators, we experience the problems and limitations of creative collaboration first hand. Although the internet technically connects us all, we often only work in small, familiar circles and don't tap the full creative potential that exists outside our own bubble. Our vision is therefore a world where people can work freely and securely with each other on ideas and solutions without worrying about losing their intellectual property. That's why we're creating a place that replaces trust with security.
And how can CISPA support you on this path?
Our collaboration with the renowned CISPA is an excellent validation of our problem/solution approaches and at the same time an impressive proof of the relevance of our work. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to work on and continuously develop our platform in such a dedicated team and network. CISPA's expertise and feedback are invaluable to us and help us realize our vision and improve safety and transparency in creative collaboration.
