Today we’re announcing that @a16zcrypto is leading an $80M Series B financing of PIP Labs, developer of @storyprotocol.

Story is a blockchain protocol that allows creators to register their IP so they can track and monitor use, protecting their legal and economic rights. The goal is to create foundational infra that can underpin a new economic covenant between creators and platforms.

The team behind Story has deep tech and creative expertise. CEO/cofounder @s-y-lee has impressed us with big-picture vision and world-class tactical execution. Cofounder @jasonzhao  studied CS at Stanford, dove deeper into AI at DeepMind, and now leads technical development on Story.

For AI systems and creative people to happily co-exist, creators need a modern way to ensure they get compensated for their work. Story takes a proven approach — IP law — and updates it for the age of AI.

We are excited to support the Story team on this important mission.

https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/investing-in-story

This is the most ludicrous raise I've seen since the dotcom bubble

IP law is highly subjective and can never achieve objective strict global consensus - the *only* feature of blockchains

I've discussed this topic at length across multiple blog posts

not sure the idea here is to get objectivity around the ip registration, more of leveraging the tech to create a shared ledger with a common language that can support documenting ip in a modern way and utilizing it

the enforcement/social layer on top needs to be built as well, part of the challange

but they are tackling a serious problem and their vision is in the right place

This *has* to be a long game ploy to just blow up IP law.

You don’t need global objective consensus - you just need buy in from enough ip holders to make your protocol profitable until it becomes “the standard”. Having access to programmatic liquidity by being on a blockchain is a sufficiently good reason to use blockchain tech here.

Anyone who has followed the application of copyright law knows you are correct. If this protocol goes against the wishes of any court judge there will be problems. Not only this, but much of the world have no laws/conception of intellectual "property."

Hmm, you are right, and yet, it might be like Adobe Fonts or Apple Music. One click marketplace to clear IP rights (stupidly hard task now) and distribute profits for everything might be a yet another case of convenience trumping other concerns.

A16z at it again 🤪
Common Oligarch investor cabal F

I was wondering how would they enforce it, especially outside the US and especially against sites hiding behind layers of cloudflare. Sounds nice on paper but unlikely to make any difference.

I think IP law is not subjective at all. It's objectively bad. I can't think of any arguments in favor of it except for the argument that slavery in America was good if you owned a plantation.

I think IP law is not subjective at all. It's objectively bad. I can't think of any arguments in favor of it except for the argument that slavery in America was good if you owned a plantation.

https://breckyunits.com/freedom.html

I think perhaps it’s more about enabling specific areas of shared rules. Eg, can repurpose and attribute on particular platforms and then expand to an ecosystem 

I don’t think it will ever be perfect, but should, in theory, at least be better than what the state of the current internet is?