Key facts
- Sony argues that traditional property law protections do not apply to digital assets.
- Centralized platforms retain control of digital assets, making user ownership revocable.
- Blockchain and Web3 technologies are proposed as solutions for digital ownership.
- Early NFTs had limitations, including reliance on centrally hosted files and public metadata.
- Encrypted NFTs aim to solve issues of privacy and exclusive control over digital assets.
- Wider adoption of privacy technology is expected to extend to NFTs.
Sony's recent court argument that players do not own the digital games they purchase highlights a broader issue of digital ownership across various media. This stance challenges the traditional understanding of ownership, suggesting that digital assets are more akin to licenses that can be revoked or altered by platform operators.
This dispute echoes past incidents, such as Amazon remotely deleting ebook copies of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" in 2009 due to rights issues. Similar purges and remote edits have affected other digital content, including books by authors like Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie, and films and TV shows removed from digital libraries. Streaming music platforms have also shifted consumption from ownership to access, impacting the artist-audience relationship.
Experts like Primavera De Filippi, Director of Research at CERSA, explain that when a digital asset is purchased from a platform, the platform ultimately retains control, and the user's 'ownership' is merely a revocable database entry. Without traditional property law protections, platform operators can modify or seize digital assets with simple code changes.
Blockchain and Web3 technologies are presented as a potential solution to this problem. Jess Zhang, founder of Canoe, believes these technologies offer a clear path for consumers to truly own digital copies of games, songs, or movies. NFTs were initially seen as a way to provide public, verifiable ownership records. However, early NFT implementations faced limitations, such as relying on centrally hosted files and public metadata, which allowed content to be easily copied.
Guy Itzhaki, CEO of privacy blockchain Fhenix, argues that for true digital ownership, NFTs need to incorporate access control, allowing owners to manage who can view the underlying data. Encrypted NFTs, utilizing technologies like conventional encryption or trusted execution environments (TEEs), are being developed to address these privacy and control issues. While technical feasibility has been proven, broader integration with existing wallets and marketplaces has been a hurdle. Itzhaki anticipates that as privacy technology gains traction, it will naturally extend to NFTs, leading to clearer standards for private NFTs and enabling genuine digital asset ownership.