IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 69
Can Smart Contracts
Learn from Digital
Rights Management?
Nicholas Paul Sheppard
W
hile blockchain technology
is best-known for cryptocurrencies, some chains also
tout their ability to implement
so-called "smart contracts."
Ethereum, which bills itself as
a "blockchain app platform,"
defines smart contracts as applications that run exactly
as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference (http://www
.ethereum.org).
©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/METAMORWORKS
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2020.2967515
Date of current version: 2 March 2020
For their more enthusiastic proponents, smart contracts provide a way of efficiently and effectively
enforcing an agreement between two parties, without
the onerous and messy details associated with the
legal system that is used to enforce traditional contracts (e.g., [1], [2]).
The term "smart contract" itself dates back to work
of Nick Szabo in the mid-1990s [3], but does not seem
to have attracted very much interest until taken up by
blockchain developers. In another context, however,
copyright owners hoped that automating license agreements for software, music, books, and film would
ward off widespread copyright infringement. This technology was known as digital rights management.
MARCH 2020
∕
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
0278-0097/20©2020IEEE
69
http://www.ethereum.org
http://www.ethereum.org
http://www.ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/METAMORWORKS
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020
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