Chinese Court Accepts Data Stored on Factom Blockchain As Evidence in the Copyright Case Between Douyin and Baidu
One of the most popular applications of today’s times for creating and sharing short videos, TikTok, is making a buzz in the crypto space. In China, TikTok is recognized as Douyin and has witnessed many videos going viral internationally until now. The company was recently in the news for winning the copyright infringement case against Baidu, a prominent name in the Chinese internet space.
The case was filed last year on 11th September by ByteDance, the parent company of Douyin, where it had sued the video platform called Huopai by Baidu. As per the reports published on 26th January 2019, the Internet Court in Beijing has taken the data stored on the Factom blockchain as a valid proof against the world’s 8th biggest internet company, Baidu.
Douyin in its complaint had claimed that Huopai not only operated but also allowed downloads of the videos on its app-platform that were originally created on Douyin. This led the company to file a lawsuit of Yuan 1 million, approximately $145,000, against Baidu. The evidence was stored by Beijing Zhongjing Tianping, a 3rd-party company, over the Factom blockchain at Douyin’s request.
China, of late, has been in the news for establishing courts to deal with internet-centric matters exclusively. The first such court was started at Hangzhou; the Beijing Internet Court being the second one by the country. It is a significant step ahead for blockchain’s implications in the actual world.
Factom’s Chief Officer of Marketing Jay Smith expressed his opinion on this new development through Twitter by stating,
Here's a real world example of the value of capturing evidence on the Factom blockchain. Video platform giant @TikTok used Factom-captured evidence to win a copyright case against @Baidu, the world's 8th largest internet company https://t.co/5CdGrAl9Sy
— Jay Smith (@JaySmithNotes) January 24, 2019
It is only the first time that a court in China has accepted data stored on the blockchain platform as legal proof in a lawsuit. Earlier, the United States’ Vermont had taken a similar step of considering blockchain-stored data as valid legal evidence. That’s because blockchain’s features are designed in such a way that it restricts human intervention to a much greater extent. Thus, it becomes extremely difficult to compromise or remove the data once stored on a blockchain platform, guaranteeing the complete security of the evidence. The positive results of this particular instance will open doors for legal proceedings in the future to utilize blockchain technology more, especially in the copyright cases.
