Digital Speech Acts Retain Control of Copyright with People, Not Platforms
How cryptographic signatures let creators keep copyright away from platforms
When people cryptographically sign their own content on their personal devices, they establish legal ownership and authorship in a way that existing U.S. copyright law already protects — unlike centralized platforms where creators must surrender copyright control in Terms of Service agreements. The researchers show that this approach, built into decentralized grassroots platforms, keeps both ownership and physical possession of content with the person who created it, with no corporation in the middle.
Today's major platforms (Facebook, TikTok, YouTube) legally own or control the content creators produce, giving them power over what gets shown, removed, or monetized. Cryptographically-signed content that creators control themselves could shift that power back: creators would own their work outright, decide how it spreads, and keep the benefits. This matters for anyone who posts, writes, or creates online and wants genuine ownership of what they make.