Original Title: "Introducing Story Protocol"

Written by: Story Protocol

Translation: Luffy, Foresight News

Abstract

The internet is the most powerful creative tool in human history. Creative works are connected, remixed, and distributed at zero marginal cost.

Despite the abundance of content creation on the internet, creators still struggle to develop and capture the value of their intellectual property (IP). Traditional IP models are both opaque and inefficient. Attribution and ownership are limited by the speed and scale of the internet.

By creating an IP framework that integrates the principles of openness and collaboration on the internet, Story Protocol aims to become the native IP infrastructure of the internet. In addition to supporting frictionless permissions and IP remixing modules, the protocol will also provide neutral attribution sources to track the lifecycle of IP across media and platform evolutions.

Just as Git fundamentally changed the development of open-source software by supporting the network evolution of code, Story Protocol aims to change the development of creative IP.

The New Era of Intellectual Property

Nearly 600 years after Gutenberg accelerated the replication and dissemination of creative works, the internet has evolved into the ultimate machine for idea propagation. Just as the Gutenberg press required the first copyright law, the digital age also requires a new intellectual property infrastructure.

The internet not only enhances the capabilities of the printing press but also introduces a new paradigm of networked creation. Everyone can remix and distribute content at zero marginal cost. Consider the mashups on TikTok (such as Khaby Lame's duets with other videos, making him one of the most popular accounts on TikTok), derivative stories on fanfiction.net (where "Fifty Shades of Grey" was originally published as a "Twilight" fanfiction), samples on SoundCloud (remixes that propelled Kygo, Zedd, and Diplo as popular DJs), and even the mod culture in games ("Defense of the Ancients" was a mod for "Warcraft III" and eventually inspired popular games like "League of Legends"). Former passive consumers are becoming active producers, shaping the culture of networked creative work development.

These networked intellectual properties are becoming the new norm, and artificial intelligence will accelerate this transformation, making the production cost on the internet increasingly lower. In a culture where replication is instantaneous and remixing is inevitable, we need a new intellectual property system that respects the rights of creators while acknowledging that creation on the internet is "an endless, recombining, fundamentally social process."

However, our IP system is still firmly rooted in the analog era. While today's intellectual property architecture still upholds its fundamental commitment to incentivizing creative work, it overlooks the openness of value creation on the internet. Our current IP infrastructure is too cumbersome to support remixing and other forms of collaborative creation as the basic pillars of creativity. Most intellectual property models do not lean into the fundamental power of the internet—openness—but rather emphasize a defensive stance, adding friction to the creative process.

Before we can unleash the full creative power of the internet, we must upgrade our intellectual property infrastructure to align with the development of the network, rather than resist it. This requires embracing the richness and social nature of the internet while allowing creators to be rewarded for their work. This will lead to an explosion of creative works and their development at a speed and scale unprecedented on the internet.

Requirements for Internet-Native IP Infrastructure

Building this IP infrastructure requires meeting two fundamental requirements.

First, the internet needs a standard to track the origin and evolution of intellectual property. Creation on the internet tends toward zero marginal cost, making the content space nearly infinite. This richness is one of the internet's superpowers, but it also makes it difficult for creators to be compensated for the value of their creations. If the lifecycle of intellectual property from the moment of creation to any subsequent remixes or derivatives cannot be tracked, creators cannot ensure that they are compensated for the use of their work. As high-fidelity content production becomes smoother with artificial intelligence, the need for scalable attribution solutions and sources becomes even more urgent.

Second, the internet needs a seamless and scalable licensing system. We not only need to record the origin of intellectual property but also provide tools to extend that intellectual property, allowing creators and contributors to capture the value of their work. Current licensing systems are often opaque and complex: each license must be custom-negotiated on a one-to-one basis, hindering collaboration and remixing. This high-friction licensing model is a tough battle against the recombining nature of the internet, and we need a more open solution where intellectual property owners can set parameters for their licensing rights, enabling scalable one-to-many licensing. If we can provide frictionless IP extension primitives that can be plugged into any software application, the next generation of IP will not only bring more value to creators but also bring the largest licensing rights to date.

What is Story Protocol?

Story Protocol brings IP into the internet age by providing an open IP repository and a set of modules to interact with IP in a frictionless manner.

Our open IP repository allows creative IP (text, images, audio, etc.) to record their evolution from birth to digital co-creation. Just as Git tracks code through branching and version control, Story Protocol aims to be the source layer for creative IP.

In addition to tracking the ownership during the evolution of IP, our modules also support seamless composability, allowing anyone to contribute to IP and capture the value of their contributions. Our modules add functionality on top of the IP repository, similar to how GitHub extends the functionality of Git by providing forking and pull requests.

Data Structure and Modules

To achieve this vision, our protocol architecture consists of two elements: data structure and modules. The data structure is the "noun" of the protocol, storing relevant IP metadata in an "IP Lego." The modules are the "verbs," providing a variety of functions for the IP assets registered on the protocol. The data structure of Story Protocol captures the core components of IP, while its modules represent the operations that can be performed on the data structure.

The data structure ("noun") meets the first fundamental requirement of internet-native intellectual property by providing a technical standard to track the origin and ownership of IP. Just as the creation of protocols like HTTP, HTML, and CSS accelerated the adoption of the internet by implementing reliable and structured information sharing, IP on Story Protocol will play a similar role. This standardization allows any application to easily leverage our data structure as a global IP source.

Our modules ("verbs") meet the second requirement of internet-native IP by implementing frictionless extensions of IP. Once IP is captured by our IP Lego, it can be composed and extended through our modules. The modules are functionalities that unlock a range of capabilities, such as licensing and revenue streams for derivative works. Our licensing module can generate programmable licenses with the same flexibility and expressiveness as code, similar to a programmable Getty Images for all forms of IP. Creators can transparently set license conditions to allow others to seamlessly extend their work, rather than through one-on-one legal negotiations.

Built on Blockchain

The entire infrastructure—data structure and modules—is built on the blockchain. As content proliferates on the internet, the blockchain provides origin and authenticity without the need for intermediaries. Crucially, the decentralized nature of the blockchain allows developers to create applications on the protocol without concerns about interference.

Flourishing Intellectual Property Ecosystem

Without these builders, the next era of creative IP cannot be realized. Story Protocol is designed as the foundational layer for IP applications, but it is only through the work of entrepreneurs and developers building applications on top of the protocol that we can usher in the next creative era of the internet. We envision a powerful set of applications that support the entire lifecycle of IP development needs. They represent a new category of services that will exist on top of the protocol to support capital formation, collaborative creation, remixing, and more.

If these and other yet-to-be-imagined applications can be built on top of Story Protocol, the future of IP could be vast.

New Blockbusters

Imagine the next "Game of Thrones"-level mega-franchise appearing on Story Protocol. The creators behind the series register a rich foundational text containing stories, characters, and locations and store it using the data structure on the protocol. Using the licensing module, they can quickly build a narrative universe and gain economic returns through licensing for translating works, expanding into new media, creating derivative works, producing merchandise, and more. Professional creators and true fans can obtain these licenses to develop the narrative. Fans enjoy these community-driven stories, while creators leverage their novel ideas in the emerging community.

As the initial IP accumulates and expands, the value of contributions to the IP also increases. Creators can share a portion of intellectual property or revenue through our licensing and royalty modules, providing true game skins for participants. As the IP grows, contributors (some amateurs, some professionals) are more motivated to join the network, taking on the shared mission of expanding the IP and creating network effects. Aspiring creators see the opportunity to kickstart their careers by contributing to classic works: a girl from Nigeria contributes a character to the series and earns royalties from future income; a former Disney writer creates sequel chapters, earning more income than writing a popular book; a top graduate in creative writing from the University of Southern California gives up a job in Hollywood to focus full-time on writing on Story Protocol.

The increasing value of the series allows creators to expand into the television and film industry. Netflix and HBO compete to sign licensing agreements. With confirmed interest, the negotiating power shifts to the creators. More importantly, as the IP eventually realizes income from major entertainment licensing, the earliest contributors can receive life-changing rewards.

Value from Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence is reshaping creative IP.

Imagine a Colombian YouTube star using an advanced version of GPT to create a script and using Runway AI to generate a video, making a crossover film featuring two iconic characters from different series. It becomes a hit, reaching 200 million views within a few weeks. Since the IP for both characters is stored in the data structure of Story Protocol, their usage in the AI-generated work is automatically tracked. Through the licensing module, any revenue generated by this film flows back to the studios that own each character.

In this scenario, the creators and studios are not fighting against the tide of the AIGC wave, but actively embracing the rich community co-creation by storing their IP on Story Protocol. The design of the IP is not isolated but as open as possible, serving as the foundation for hundreds of inspired works, which in turn increase the value of the underlying assets. Popular internet artists begin allowing anyone to generate images in their unique style, as any commercial derivative work can return a certain percentage of income to them. While artificial intelligence may be part of the value capture, Story Protocol makes AI part of the solution by providing proper attribution and compensation, allowing creators to capture more value from the explosive growth of AI-generated content than ever before.

Intellectual Property Liquidity

Imagine what it would be like if intellectual property became a liquid asset in the future. Previously illiquid IP is now integrated into a broader DeFi ecosystem through the composability of the global IP repository of Story Protocol. Popular IP markets provide a marketplace for creators and fans. This new "IP finance" ecosystem brings efficient price discovery for intellectual property, providing better financing mechanisms for creative works and their derivatives. A whole new world of applications has been developed around IP, providing unprecedented opportunities for creators and communities.

Bridging Standards and Law

By linking the off-chain IP world with programmable blockchain assets, Story Protocol is bridging code and law: allowing IP to integrate with the openness and richness of the internet, rather than resist it.

The internet has introduced revolutionary new methods for creating and distributing works: never-ending co-creation, participatory licensing, and AI-generated content. However, our current intellectual property infrastructure is resisting the openness of the internet rather than embracing it. Story Protocol is building an IP infrastructure for the internet age.

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