The much awaited ICO of Kodak handled by WENN Digital will kick start on 21st May. Kodak has given exclusive rights to WENN to handle its ICO in exchange for a licence fees of $750,000. The ICO is set to begin this month after a few initial hiccups that delayed the plans. Kodak and WENN are making sure all compliances and licences are in place.
Public filings show that WENN has agreed to pay 750k in for exclusive rights to use Kodak branding on its DRM platform. The will be in addition to a common stock owned by WENN which is valued at $1.25 Million. Eastman Kodak will also get 3 million Kodak Coins and royalties.
Kodak is over a century old and it learnt very bitter lessons during the onset of digital age. Kodak is like today's Facebook. They were arrogant and not ready to change in the 80s and 90s. This time around, Kodak is preparing to be smarter than its peers. The century old photo company is joining hands to capture a market that is widely misused by pirates using blockchain.
Most digital photo assets are used by publishers, corporates and individuals without paying a lot of royalty or licence fees. Pirate publishers use photo assets with no permission or fees even. With blockchain, that trend can be reversed. Photographers can contribute their assets to a common pool of digital assets that will be able to used only if a fee is paid. So ideally if you want to procure a photo in the future from the online market place, you'd need to have KodakCoins.
Cam Chell, Chairman of KodakONE, said:
Around 1.2 trillion images were posted online in 2017. The majority without copyright holders' permission. And as a result, today's photographers have been left with more work to do and less money<
Blockchain technology will ensure copyright compliance is met. Finally, content creators will have an edge over their posts and Kodak is finally treading on an unchartered path even before Facebook and other platforms get there.