Sony hasn’t always had the best track record when it comes to digital rights management, or DRM. (Look no further than its massive 2005 CD copy protection scandal.) But now, the company has announced that it’s working on a new DRM system for protecting digital content based on blockchain technology, via Engadget.
While details are still slim on how or when Sony will be implementing the blockchain-based DRM system, the project sounds ambitious. Sony says that the current system is “specialized for managing rights-related information of written works,” but it’s looking to explore other avenues to apply it to, including digital textbooks, music, movies, VR content, and ebooks.
Sony’s last adventurous foray into new DRM techniques led to illegally installing rootkit-like copy protection software on users’ computers that was almost impossible to remove. It resulted in security issues that could be exploited by actual harmful software, which led to recalls, class action lawsuits, and a general PR malaise for Sony.
