The Need for Data Ownership in Media and Entertainment
When the internet first came to life more than fifty years ago, it was all about connecting machines and sharing data and not really about connecting people. As time went on, the rise of Web2 shifted the focus to making money, often at the expense of user control, turning us into mere resources for surveillance capitalism. Our personal data is constantly being collected, manipulated, and turned into products by centralized entities.
Large language models operate on a similar principle: they gather and learn from all manner of creative content and replicate human expression on a massive scale to power various commercial products. If we don’t implement some structural changes to AI and data ethics, AI could further undermine our sense of agency. That’s why digital rights — what Jaron Lanier refers to as data dignity — need to take center stage.
Web3, despite mixed results, has brought forth blockchain-based systems for identity and provenance that suggest a way to rebuild integrity and trust. The challenge of promoting digital rights is not purely technical; it’s also about ethics. We need to move from a mindset of exploitation to one of empowerment when it comes to valuing data ownership.
Data Dignity: Restoring Human Agency
Data dignity is all about reshaping the digital economy by giving people a say in how their data is used. Instead of just being passive sources for data extraction, individuals should have the power to choose when, how, and where their data and creative work are utilized, and they should be compensated for it.
Lanier and Glen Weyl laid out this idea, in 2018, arguing that digital contributions and the use of people's data deserve acknowledgment and fair economic exchange. In our current AI-driven world, this issue is more pressing than ever: creative works are often seen as free resources for training models, leaving artists and media creators without any compensation.
As Lanier has pointed out, AI shouldn't take the place of creators; it should uplift them — if we set up the right incentives. We need to rethink the internet's foundational principles to restore agency and dignity to its users, weaving data rights into its very core.
The Role of Provenance in the Media Industry
One of the most straightforward ways to achieve data dignity is through the strong enforcement of data provenance.
Provenance tackles three interconnected issues:
- Misinformation, which amplifies the need to verify the authenticity of content and information sources.
- AI content scraping, which involves content owners’ consent, proper attribution, and a fair flow of value.
- Economic equity, which looks to achieve the goal of returning tangible benefits to creators.
Industry organizations are starting to act. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has set up a study group focused on content provenance and authenticity to develop standards that fit production workflows. These standards include MXF file protocols designed to maintain asset integrity in a time when AI-generated content is on the rise.
For marketers, understanding data provenance is becoming just as essential. Kantar’s 2025 trends reveal that nearly 70% of marketing leaders feel optimistic about generative AI, but they also want transparency about the reliability of the training datasets. In both creative and commercial settings, provenance is set to become a fundamental expectation.
Entrenched Resistance from Tech Giants
Shifting towards user-controlled data ownership in media and entertainment clashes with the deep-rooted incentives of Big Tech. Companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google have built their empires on models that profit from surveillance capitalism. Initiatives like Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty highlight how what he calls technofeudalism benefits a select few, while leaving the majority behind.
McCourt and others caution that if we don’t overhaul the internet’s outdated design, any reforms will just scratch the surface. Regulatory efforts will face pushback from lobbyists, and established platforms will continue to reap excessive rewards from our data and digital contributions.
Toward Standards for Data Ownership and Provenance in Media and Entertainment
Establishing data provenance and ownership rights standards
The transition we’re discussing requires more than a set of technical standards; it calls for a cultural shift in mindset. At Christie’s Art + Tech Summit 2025, experts explored the idea of the “agentic web,” where individuals and creators harness digital agents to take control, on their behalf, of their identity, provenance, and compensation across various platforms.
Key aspects of this shift include the embracing data portability and interoperability. Legislation like the Digital Choice Act is designed to empower users to manage how they share and migrate their data, content and communities across platforms. But we also need to consider persistence: where will our digital context reside, and how can we ensure that it isn’t beholden to arbitrary decisions by digital platforms, and its integrity endures over time?
Let’s dive into the key pillars that will enable this shift to happen:
- Identity ownership. Users should have the ability to authenticate themselves securely without having to depend on centralized platforms. Digital identities and related context ought to be easily transferable between different services, allowing individuals to take control of their own data and digital narratives.
- Data provenance standards. It's crucial for creators and organizations to be able to verify the authenticity and history of their digital assets. This not only helps combat misinformation but also ensures that there's clear attribution when AI utilizes content created by humans. In the realm of media and entertainment, these provenance measures are essential for safeguarding archives and maintaining the integrity and value of long-tail content.
- Ownership rights standards. Creators and rights holders should have the ability to enforce their claims over the use of their data and digital works. This empowers individuals to define their own terms of use for their content and data. Ultimately, we should aim for a future where digital agents work directly for creators, athletes, and artists, negotiating terms across various platforms in real time.
Blockchain as a trust mechanism for user ownership
Blockchain technology offers a decentralized approach towards safeguarding digital property rights. Via consensus-based validation and smart contracts, blockchain technology allows for automated and transparent ownership enforcement that’s difficult to tamper with or circumvent. This concept goes beyond just digital property rights; it also covers identity verification, enabling individuals to cryptographically prove their identity and carry that proof across different platforms, which means we can move away from relying on centralized intermediaries.
For creators and media companies, blockchain offers a way to maintain direct control over how value is extracted from their digital works — whether by platforms, AI systems, or aggregators. It ensures that attribution is clear, consent is respected, and compensation is easily managed. In this way, blockchain lays down the essential trust framework for a fairer digital economy.
A Decentralized Internet
While blockchain is a powerful tool, it’s not the complete answer. Frank McCourt points out that the very underlying structure of the internet is flawed, leading to technofeudalism. In this scenario, modern tech monopolies (resembling “feudal lords”) dominate economic and social life through control of technology, data and network effects, resulting in a concentration of wealth, and cultural and economic power that strips away individual agency.
To solve this issue, he suggests the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP) — a fresh foundational layer designed to transform how data is shared and controlled online. Instead of just slapping regulations on the existing tech monopolies, DSNP envisions an internet where identity and data ownership are inherently decentralized. Users would have the power to set their own terms, and companies would need clear permission to access any data.
This idea fits perfectly with the growing regulatory push for identity portability. Take the above-mentioned Digital Choice Act, for instance; it gives users the ability to move their content and their communities between platforms and share updates in real time, no matter where their networks reside. These legal frameworks align with the technical capabilities of blockchain, paving the way for a future where individuals — not corporations — control the rules of their digital existence.
In essence, blockchain provides the trust foundation, while decentralized protocols like DSNP offer a new framework. Together, they constitute a roadmap towards a new internet where digital property rights are not only enforceable and portable but also rooted in ethical principles.
How DataArt Can Help
At DataArt, we view data ownership and digital rights management as more than just abstract concepts; they’re real business imperatives in need of digital solutions.
That’s why we built a blockchain-enabled online marketplace featuring a digital rights management system for the secure transfer and management of digital media assets. We also developed a new music publishing solution for a leading distribution company that manages music, video, and podcasts for independent creators. This end-to-end solution handles and streamlines all aspects of song representation and royalty collection. DataArt designed and developed an automated solution for claiming neighbouring rights and processing related music royalties.
The solutions we build for our clients in the music and video domains on digital rights management showcase how broadcasters, streaming platforms, and cultural institutions can set up effective systems to safeguard data ownership, promote data interoperability, and ensure their content libraries are ready for the future.
DataArt’s Music Data Foundations Accelerator enables standardized ingestion of rights, usage, and royalty data from multiple sources, along with automated validation and compliance-ready audit trails, helping ensure data remains accurate, secure, and transparent.
Learn more about the Music Data Foundations Accelerator and book a demo.
Final Thoughts
The future of data ownership in media isn't just a topic for debate - it's a pressing issue that media companies need to be grappling with. If we don't push for structural internet changes, both creators and consumers could face even greater exploitation in a digital economy being increasingly driven and powered by advancements in AI. Concepts like data provenance frameworks, blockchain-enforced digital rights, and data portability laws are all important aspects of a more human-centred, respectful internet framework with data dignity at its core.
Leaders in media and entertainment seeking a competitive edge should pursue solutions that build trust with users and consumers, weave AI and data ethics into their data strategies and products, and recognize that data provenance and digital rights have an essential role to play in the next era of the internet. The companies that thrive will be the ones that are early to embrace the move toward a more human-centred approach to data ownership.
