Italy's SIAE partners with Algorand to launch a blockchain-based rights management platform

 By Emmanuel Legrand

Italy's rights society Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori (SIAE) has launched more than four million non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through blockchain specialist Algorand, as part of a project to create a blockchain-based open platform that allows transparent and efficient management of authors' rights.

  The four million NFTs will digitally represent the rights of the more than 95,000 SIAE members authors. SIAE said that NFTs will be used for the first time to represent author’s rights of SIAE members.

  "We are not interested in building technological infrastructures to generate profit," said Gaetano Blandini, General Manager of SIAE. "Instead, our goal has been and always will be to create value addition for our members. This is why we can afford to talk about open infrastructures and make all our know-how available to the community."

A decentralised management of metadata

  For Blandini, blockchain technology "is definitely an interesting strand to continue exploring because of its transparency and efficiency – by design– features, which are fundamental for those who, like us, manage the salary of other people's hard work.”

  For SIAE, the project, which started in Italy, has potential for international adoption. SIAE said it intends to share its project results with the broader community "to expedite the truly decentralised management of this metadata, which is fundamental for accurate and transparent management of rights."

   "SIAE has brought an ambitious project to life, where transparency and simplicity in data management are becoming a new reality for their industry," said Professor Silvio Micali, winner of the Turing Prize, MIT Professor, and founder of Algorand. 

  "SIAE is a forward thinking organisation that will open up new opportunities as they build the foundations for new economic models. I am thrilled to have SIAE a part of the Algorand ecosystem as they embrace the scalability, efficiency and security of Algorand.