Italian Copyright Agency Selects Algorand to Create Over Four Million NFTs to Represent Author Rights

The non-fungible token fever witnessed over the last few months is catching the copyright management agencies’ attention. One of them, located in Italy, has chosen a blockchain company to create its own NFTs.

SIAE Expects to Guarantee Copyright Protection With NFTs for the Next 139 Years

According to the announcement, Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori (SIAE), founded in 1883, picked Algorand to manage the rights of over 95,000 authors in the form of non-fungible tokens. Both parties had been working on the project since 2019, said Algorand.

In a first instance, 4 million NFTs were created to represent selected SIAE authors’ rights. Per SIAE, by digitizing these rights on blockchain technology, authors could ensure that their copyrights are globally protected on a transparent, open infrastructure.

Gaetano Blandini, the general manager of SIAE, pointed out that the move seeks to guarantee protection for the next 139 years. He added:

We are not interested in building technological infrastructures to generate profit. Instead, our goal has been and always will be to create value addition for our members. This is why we can afford to talk about open infrastructures and make all our know-how available to the community. Blockchain technology is definitely an interesting strand to continue exploring because of its transparency and efficiency – by design – features, which are fundamental for those who, like us, manage the salary of other people’s hard work.

Could the NFTs Become a ‘Game-Changing’ in the Copyright Management Business?

Moreover, Italy’s largest collective management organization forecasts that such a move will open the doors to transition onto new blockchain-based platforms that “will rapidly and profoundly change the business models” in the rights management industry.

Silvio Micali, MIT Professor and founder of Algorand, is optimistic about the use of NFTs to handle copyrights, and SIAE’s maneuver can also be “a game-changing” in the business:

SIAE has brought an ambitious project to life, where transparency and simplicity in data management are becoming a new reality for their industry. SIAE is a forward-thinking organization that will open up new opportunities as they build the foundations for new economic models.