It was reported by Cointelegraph in Spanish on 5 January 2018 that the NEM foundation in Argentina signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with CISPREN. The agreement aimed to provide journalists with copyright protection through a blockchain-powered system.

The NEM foundation is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and blockchain platform while CISPREN is the trade union of journalists from the city of Cordoba, Argentina. The signing of the MOU also signifies the start of the development of a Proof-of-Concept for the copyright system.

Blockchain technology has already been previously utilised for copyright protection and content management in the journalism industry. For example, Civil, a blockchain-based platform, partnered with Forbes and the Associated Press (AP) in the year 2018. Forbes intended to publish content on Civil’s decentralized platform and allow writers to post articles on both Forbes and Civil by applying blockchain technology. AP utilised blockchain to track content usage and was interested in the possibility of the technology being capable of upholding ethical journalism by protecting creators’ rights to their articles.

Currently, CISPREN hopes that blockchain will be able provide journalists protection to their intellectual property rights and counter related problems such as unpaid royalties and content theft. German Guismondi, CISPREN’s press-secretary, told the news outlet that the new copyright system will supposedly allow creators to upload their articles to a blockchain where a timestamp will be created for authentication purposes. For additional safeguard, each unique content will have its own QR code and digital signature.

It is worth mentioning that NEM is also involved in PUBLISH, a news publishing project based on blockchain technology. PUBLISH is an NEM blockchain-based platform launched by TokenPost last year. The platform rewards its users reasonably and serves as an initiative to sharing crypto-related news and data. The service aims to create an enhanced version of the existing media structure, where it is self-sustaining, realistic and economically viable.