Blockchain and the Disintermediation of Music

Author(s):  
Tonya M. Evans

The “Downtrodden Artist Stands Up to Big Bad Music Mogul” trope makes for a heartwarming plot line in movies and television, but how often does the artist prevail in real life? The music industry is plagued by issues with content management, rights management, and royalty distribution, yet legislative efforts such as the Music Modernization Act of 2018 fail to provide meaningful solutions because they continue to uphold the power structure in which the Big Bad intermediary thrives. As an alternative, this chapter argues for the disintermediation of the music industry, and consequent empowerment of the individual content creator, through the use of blockchain technology. It discusses the ways in which smart contracts, blockchain ledgers, and a global copyright database could help to support more efficient and secure payments to artists, track usage and sales data, and protect copyrights, all without the need for traditional intermediary roles. In effect, this chapter provides a technical yet comprehensive explanation of the ways in which—as well as the policy implications of—implementing decentralized blockchain technology can help maximize the value of music for creators, improve the music experience for consumers, and reduce friction, waste, and fraud in the music industry.

Author(s):  
Srinivas Mahankali ◽  
Sudhir Chaudhary

Every individual undergoes a series of educational programs and acquires skills and pedagogical certifications throughout his/her life from various educational and skill development organisations across the world, including the companies they work for. It is imperative that there is a comprehensive record of these certifications that can be authentically verified by those wanting to employ the individual for these respective skills accredited through certifications. In this chapter, the authors explore the utility of blockchain technology-led digitization, automation of trust, and disintermediation in education sector. They examine some of the prominent use cases and challenges faced by blockchain technology. They also look at the current state of blockchain technology-enabled applications in related domains and its implications for the education sector in India along with a real-life illustration with implementation using AuxCert on Auxledger, a permissioned blockchain platform from Auxesis group.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (92) ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
G.Yu. Tereshchenko ◽  
I. V. Kyrychenko ◽  
N. V. Bilous

This article examines the potential and limitations of blockchain technology and  lockchain-based smart contracts in relation to copyright. Copyright has long been enforced through technological means, specifically Digital Rights Management. With the emergence of blockchains, many are now predicting a new era regarding the administration and enforcement of copyright through computer code. The article introduces the technology and related potential and limitations while stressing its capacity to act as a form of normative ordering that can express public or private objectives.


1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Magnusson

A description of two cases from my time as a school psychologist in the middle of the 1950s forms the background to the following question: Has anything important happened since then in psychological research to help us to a better understanding of how and why individuals think, feel, act, and react as they do in real life and how they develop over time? The studies serve as a background for some general propositions about the nature of the phenomena that concerns us in developmental research, for a summary description of the developments in psychological research over the last 40 years as I see them, and for some suggestions about future directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 130 (629) ◽  
pp. 1384-1415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Hertwig ◽  
Michael D Ryall

ABSTRACT Thaler and Sunstein (2008) advance the concept of ‘nudge’ policies—non-regulatory and non-fiscal mechanisms designed to enlist people's cognitive biases or motivational deficits so as to guide their behaviour in a desired direction. A core assumption of this approach is that policymakers make artful use of people's cognitive biases and motivational deficits in ways that serve the ultimate interests of the nudged individual. We analyse a model of dynamic policymaking in which the policymaker's preferences are not always aligned with those of the individual. One novelty of our set-up is that the policymaker has the option to implement a ‘boost’ policy, equipping the individual with the competence to overcome the nudge-enabling bias once and for all. Our main result identifies conditions under which the policymaker chooses not to boost in order to preserve the option of using the nudge (and its associated bias) in the future—even though boosting is in the immediate best interests of both the policymaker and the individual. We extend our analysis to situations in which the policymaker can be removed (e.g., through an election) and in which the policymaker is similarly prone to bias. We conclude with a discussion of some policy implications of these findings.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5307
Author(s):  
Ricardo Borges dos Santos ◽  
Nunzio Marco Torrisi ◽  
Rodrigo Palucci Pantoni

Every consumer’s buying decision at the supermarket influences food brands to make first party claims of sustainability and socially responsible farming methods on their agro-product labels. Fine wines are often subject to counterfeit along the supply chain to the consumer. This paper presents a method for efficient unrestricted publicity to third party certification (TPC) of plant agricultural products, starting at harvest, using smart contracts and blockchain tokens. The method is capable of providing economic incentives to the actors along the supply chain. A proof-of-concept using a modified Ethereum IGR token set of smart contracts using the ERC-1155 standard NFTs was deployed on the Rinkeby test net and evaluated. The main findings include (a) allowing immediate access to TPC by the public for any desired authority by using token smart contracts. (b) Food safety can be enhanced through TPC visible to consumers through mobile application and blockchain technology, thus reducing counterfeiting and green washing. (c) The framework is structured and maintained because participants obtain economical incentives thus leveraging it´s practical usage. In summary, this implementation of TPC broadcasting through tokens can improve transparency and sustainable conscientious consumer behaviour, thus enabling a more trustworthy supply chain transparency.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Vivaldini

PurposeConsidering the importance of a safe food chain for consumers and the advent of blockchain technology (BT), this research studies a food service (FS) distributor. The research aims to understand the implications related to the functional processes of distribution in FS in which it would be possible to use blockchain to achieve agility, transparency of information and improvements in food safety.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, theory regarding blockchain technology in the supply chain (BT-SC) and FS was analyzed to contextualize the theme conceptually. A single case study including 11 supply chain companies was applied in a BT implementation study in an FS distributor.FindingsInvestment in infrastructure is often identified as a barrier to adoption of BT-SC. This was, however, not found in this case. Furthermore, the validation of users was only necessary for those parties directly participating in the process or information input. Finally, findings differentiate between qualifying criteria and operational processes when considering BT projects in FS.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are restricted to this single case that provided an in-depth understanding of the topic. Statistical generalization is not possible at this stage of the research.Practical implicationsThe study is a practical example and can provide several insights to anyone looking to implement BT in their SC.Social implicationsThe social importance of the study lies in the importance of FS in the food sector, and by presenting ways that contribute to mitigating risks to consumers.Originality/valueReal-life cases of application of BT-SC illustrate its functionalities in operational processes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (122) ◽  
pp. 20160414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Moussaïd ◽  
Mubbasir Kapadia ◽  
Tyler Thrash ◽  
Robert W. Sumner ◽  
Markus Gross ◽  
...  

Understanding the collective dynamics of crowd movements during stressful emergency situations is central to reducing the risk of deadly crowd disasters. Yet, their systematic experimental study remains a challenging open problem due to ethical and methodological constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the viability of shared three-dimensional virtual environments as an experimental platform for conducting crowd experiments with real people. In particular, we show that crowds of real human subjects moving and interacting in an immersive three-dimensional virtual environment exhibit typical patterns of real crowds as observed in real-life crowded situations. These include the manifestation of social conventions and the emergence of self-organized patterns during egress scenarios. High-stress evacuation experiments conducted in this virtual environment reveal movements characterized by mass herding and dangerous overcrowding as they occur in crowd disasters. We describe the behavioural mechanisms at play under such extreme conditions and identify critical zones where overcrowding may occur. Furthermore, we show that herding spontaneously emerges from a density effect without the need to assume an increase of the individual tendency to imitate peers. Our experiments reveal the promise of immersive virtual environments as an ethical, cost-efficient, yet accurate platform for exploring crowd behaviour in high-risk situations with real human subjects.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan W. Link

Much recent, national attention has centered on financial sanctions and associated debt burdens related to criminal justice. Scholars and practitioners alike have argued that financial debt among the incarcerated, in particular, exacerbates a transition home already defined by difficulties. This article takes a step back and assesses who is at risk of these adverse consequences in reentry by examining the extent of debt burdens that resulted from financial sanctions, its sources, and the individual-level factors that are associated with owing criminal justice debt. Relying on the Returning Home data ( N = 740), results from descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and negative binomial models show that a large proportion of respondents owed debts and that debt was strongly linked with being mandated to community supervision. In addition, debt amount was predicted by employment, income, and race. Policy implications in the realm of financial sanctioning by courts and correctional agencies are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document