Research on the application and examination of electronic evidence preserved on the blockchain in Chinese copyright judicial practice

Abstract

In the era of smart justice, blockchain technology has revolutionized the way of preserving and examining electronic evidence.Blockchain technology has its functional advantages of distributed storage, hash function verification, and timestamp and accordingly possesses the technical characteristics of stability, integrity, and immutability. As such, blockchain technology can help alleviate the dilemma over electronic evidence due to its flaws, such as easy distortion and modification and difficulty in the collection, especially in the cases of copyright disputes where it is difficult to determine the ownership of works and fixation of evidence. The paper explores two ways of applying blockchain evidence and their distinct proving roles in copyright infringement cases. The paper further finds the similarities and differences between the two types of blockchain electronic preservation in the judicial review mechanism. In Chinese copyright judicial practice, the ambiguity in the rules of blockchain evidence, the inconsistency of different courts in examining blockchain evidence, and the disarray of blockchain evidence preservation platforms all confused and affected judicial discretion when dealing with blockchain evidence. Learning from the United States, the paper concludes with standard-related, judicial, and self-governance suggestions to pave the way for applying and examining blockchain evidence in Chinese copyright judicial practice.