JP2022156869A - Publication management system and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a publication management system or the like for enabling bookstore users or the like to sell electronic books.SOLUTION: In a publication management system, a second terminal device reads electronic books corresponding to NFT (non-fungible token) 1 owned by bookstore users based on operations of the bookstore users and processes review contribution. When receiving review contribution, an off-chain AP server checks a contribution history for a target content and sets the number of NFTs2 to be newly issued if there has been no previous contribution and the contribution is the first one. A smart contract saves a contribution timestamp, address information of an owner of the NFT, electronic book content data to be reviewed, and selection information of a paper book publisher in the case of a bookstore user for a set NFT2 block chain as history information of review contribution, generates N pieces of NFTs2 for the NFT1, and registers the generated N pieces of NFTs2 on the NFT market in the block chain.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to, for example, a publication management system and program.

The sale of books in a bookstore and the receipt of money associated therewith are performed, for example, as follows. Many books are distributed from publishers to bookstores in the city via distributors. The type and number of books to be distributed at this time may be determined by the publisher. Then, when the bookstore receives the books, it pays the publisher a predetermined price for all the books it has received. In addition, in this type of publication management, when a certain period of time (for example, several months) has passed since a book was distributed and unsold books occur, the bookstore can return the unsold books to the publisher, and the returned books can be distributed. Any money paid at that time will be refunded.

In addition, the publication management of e-books, which is expanding these days, involves registering the content of e-books on e-book sites operated by publishers and other companies. A general user accesses the electronic book site, purchases the electronic book by paying money or other consideration, downloads the electronic book to the electronic book site or to his/her own terminal device, and browses it. The price paid by the general user is usually covered by the operating company of the electronic book site.

In the publication management of paper books, as mentioned above, bookstores need to pay for all the books that have been distributed once. As a result, there is a risk of earnings deterioration. In addition, bookstores may order books individually, but as for the books that are distributed regularly as described above, the publisher decides, so for example, there is no feeling for the received book, or it is truly It may not be the book you want to sell, or it may be unclear how much it will sell, that is, whether the distributed book can be sold out in a short period of time.

Publishers, on the other hand, determine the number of copies to be published, but they are not necessarily based on the expected number of sales, but may be based on various other conditions. Therefore, the actual number of sales is much lower than the number of copies published, and the return rate may be high. In other words, even if it is known that the book will not sell, for example, the number of copies to be published is determined by various factors, and after a few months there may be a pile of returned copies. Such a high rate of book returns entails enormous costs such as binding and delivery costs, storage costs for returned books, and disposal costs for the books, which are reflected in the price of the books. Therefore, the user who actually purchased the book bears the cost associated with such return, which is not preferable.

Also, e-books are sold on e-book sites, and local bookstores cannot be involved. Therefore, for example, even if the number of e-books sold increases, the profits associated with sales do not go to bookstores. If the number of sales of paper books declines as the number of sales of electronic books increases, there is a risk that bookstores will go out of business.

Furthermore, electronic books are generally managed on electronic book sites using a digital rights management (DRM) system. However, in the management by the DRM system, there is an inconvenience that the purchased e-book content data cannot be referred to when the e-book service ends.

The above-mentioned problems are described as independent ones, and the present invention does not necessarily have to be able to solve all of the problems described above, and it is sufficient if at least one problem can be solved. In addition, we intend to obtain the right for the configuration to solve this problem by filing a divisional application or making an amendment.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the publication management system of the present invention provides (1) a publication management system that manages the trading of electronic books in a blockchain network system, wherein the ownership of the electronic book and the electronic book By purchasing an NFT (non-fungible token) that records data that makes it possible to view the review data about the electronic book that the user who purchased can own the electronic book is posted on the blockchain, the smart contract operates, a new NFT for the e-book is additionally issued, and the new NFT may be sold.

(2) The content data of the e-book is recorded and held on a server outside the blockchain network system, and the data that enables the e-book to be recorded in the NFT is address information for accessing the server should be

(3) It is preferable that the user who additionally issues the NFT is a bookstore user set in the bookstore, and the publisher user can issue the NFT without posting the review data.

(4) The bookstore user who purchased the NFT can make a request to publish the electronic book that the review has been posted as a paper book on the condition that the review data is posted, and the paper book is issued. , the smart contract will run and issue the publication rights for the paper book, allowing publisher users to purchase the publication rights.

(5) The smart contract may register the number of publication rights and ownership information of the publication rights in the state database within the blockchain.

(6) It is preferable to provide a function of making a payment in digital currency from the publisher user to the bookstore user when the publishing right is purchased by the publisher user.

(7) When the publisher user who purchased the publishing right binds and distributes the paper book based on the publishing right, it is preferable to distribute the price when the distributed paper book is sold. .

(8) It may be a program for causing a computer to implement the function of the system according to any one of (1) to (7).

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, there exists at least 1 effect shown below. For example, a bookstore user can participate in the trading of electronic books by purchasing NFTs, posting reviews, and additionally issuing new NFTs. Since e-books are bought and sold using the blockchain network, it will not lead to a situation in which purchased e-books cannot be referenced due to the termination of e-book services. Since paper books are bound and distributed based on a request from a bookstore user, there is a high possibility that the paper books will be sold and the book return rate can be lowered. Bookstore users, for example, receive paper books based on their own requests, so they feel strongly about them. Easier to create and other sales strategies.

1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of a publication management system according to the present invention; FIG. It is the functional block diagram. FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining an electronic book registration function; It is a figure which shows an example of the registration screen of an electronic book. FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a function of additionally issuing NFT; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic book selection screen for selecting an electronic book for review posting; It is a figure which shows an example of the review contribution screen for making a review contribution. FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a process in which a general user purchases NFT2 on the NFT market additionally issued by a bookstore user based on NFT1. It is a figure which shows an example of the purchase book selection screen for selecting the electronic book to purchase. It is a figure which shows an example of a purchase book screen. FIG. 4 is a flow diagram for explaining a paper publication publishing function; It is a figure explaining profit distribution based on trading of NFT1. It is a diagram explaining the distribution of profits based on the trading of NFT2. It is a figure explaining distribution of profit based on buying and selling of a paper book.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the present invention is not to be construed as being limited to this, and various changes, modifications, and improvements can be made based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[1. System overview]
The publication management system of this embodiment uses a non-fungible token (NFT) issued by Ethereum, which is a blockchain platform, to manage ownership rights of electronic books. An NFT is, for example, a token issued according to the Ethereum Request for Comments (ERC) 721 standard. An NFT conforming to the ERC721 standard is hereinafter referred to as an NFT-721 token. Ethereum is a platform for building decentralized applications and smart contracts.

A smart contract is a computer protocol for automatically executing a protocol, such as a contract, on a blockchain. NFTs are operated by a smart contract on the blockchain, such as changing the owner. In Ethereum, the history of smart contract execution is recorded on a blockchain on a P2P network. For this reason, the use of smart contracts can ensure the transparency of contracts.

Then, by buying and selling NFTs in a blockchain network system system that includes NFTs that record the content data and ownership of e-books, the ownership of e-books is transferred to the user who purchased the NFT. Users who purchase NFT can obtain and view the content data of e-books recorded on the blockchain. The content data recorded in the blockchain may be the data itself, or may be information for acquiring the data (for example, the URL or address of the server where the content data is recorded), and the content data may be recorded directly or indirectly. It is better to record

In addition, in this embodiment, a smart contract executed by the operation of the NFT owner can be called to additionally issue a new NFT, and a new e-book with the same content based on the newly added NFT can be created. It has a function to issue.

Users who purchase this NFT include general users and bookstore users. A bookstore user is a user account that a bookstore uses to operate the blockchain. A general user is a user account used by a general consumer who is not a bookstore user to operate the blockchain. These general users and bookstore users can purchase NFTs of e-books, own the content data of e-books, sell the NFTs they own, and additionally issue the above new NFTs. can.

In this way, by giving ownership of e-books using blockchain and allowing the number of NFTs with ownership to increase, it becomes a system that allows anyone to sell e-books. In other words, conventionally, only an operating company of an e-book site could sell e-book content on its e-book site, and general users who purchased e-book content and bookstore users could contribute to sales. Although it was not possible, in this embodiment, general users and bookstore users can also sell. Therefore, bookstores can sell not only paper books but also electronic books and earn profits. And since the ownership of e-books uses blockchain, it is not tampered with, transparency and fairness can be guaranteed, and in an open network system, NFT owners can be transferred with peace of mind and e-books can be bought and sold.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, a predetermined user who has purchased an e-book NFT can issue "publishing right ownership information to be stored in the block chain" as a book of rights for bookbinding of e-books. That is, by implementing the smart contract 151 as an array (database), the array can be provided with ownership information, and a technique of rewriting it can be easily performed. The predetermined user is a bookstore user in this embodiment.

Therefore, a bookstore user can issue a publication right as a rights book for binding an electronic book. That is, bookstore users can own and transfer the right to publish a paper book, which is a bound version of an electronic book. The publishing right to publish the paper book is purchased by, for example, the publisher user. This publisher user is a user account that the publisher uses when operating the blockchain. The publisher user purchases and receives the publishing right to publish the bound version of the e-book from the bookstore user, the smart contract is executed, and the paper book publishing contract based on the e-book between the bookstore and the publisher is automatically processed. be.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, it is assumed that user operations are performed from a front-end Web application that can refer to content data of electronic books. User operations from this application execute the business logic of off-chain AP servers implemented outside the blockchain.

In addition, business logic includes transactions between NFT user accounts that are the ownership of e-books, transactions between NFT user accounts that are the publication rights book of e-books as paper books, and business logic executed by off-chain AP servers. issues transactions via front-end applications to blockchain platforms. By issuing this transaction, the blockchain calls the smart contract corresponding to the user operation and creates a record of the transaction request and result as a block.

[2. System configuration]
In order to realize these functions, the devices and devices existing on the network operate mutually as shown below. As shown in FIG. 1, the publication management system includes a first terminal device 11 used by bookstore users, a second terminal device 12 used by general users, a third terminal device 13 used by publisher users, and an off It comprises a chain AP server 14 and a plurality of blockchain nodes 15 for managing the blockchain, which are connected via a network 16. The network 16 is, for example, a public line, the Internet, or the like, and should be accessible even from remote locations. Further, each terminal device does not need to be connected to the network at the same time, and each terminal device is connected at an appropriate timing and performs predetermined processing based on NFT, for example. A plurality of blockchain nodes 15 cooperate with each other and manage the blockchain by, for example, an existing management system.

The first terminal device 11, the second terminal device 12, and the third terminal device 13 include, for example, an input unit, a control unit, a display unit, and a communication interface for connecting to the network 16 as a hardware configuration. For example, it is realized using a normal personal computer or the like.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram focusing on functions. The front-end application 20 performs various processes according to instructions from the user, and is installed in the first terminal device 11, the second terminal device 12, and the third terminal device 13, respectively. The illustrated front-end application 20 includes an electronic book registration function 21 , a review posting function 22 , an electronic book purchase/sale function 23 , and a paper book publishing function 24 . Some or all of these functions are active depending on the terminal that implements them. Also, depending on the terminal device to be installed, unnecessary functions may be originally not installed.

The front-end application 20 also accesses the blockchain node 15 and causes the blockchain node 15 to execute the smart contract 151 for each function. Also, when executing each function, there are cases where processing on the off-chain AP server 14 side is required. The front-end application 20 that receives the result passes it to the blockchain node 15. For example, the off-chain AP server 14 is interposed between the front-end application 20 and the blockchain node 15, the off-chain AP server 14 analyzes the processing contents of the user operation, and the off-chain AP server 14 executes four types of smart contracts. It may be executed by a blockchain node. However, it is preferable that the front-end application 20 directly accesses the blockchain node 15 and operates the smart contract 151 as in the present embodiment, because the private key information of the blockchain node can be easily managed. Details of each function are as follows.

<2-1. Registration of e-books: NFT registration processing in the market by publisher users>
The e-book registration function 21 registers an NFT indicating ownership of e-book content in the NFT market within the blockchain. The registration of this NFT is performed by the publisher user. That is, when initially registering an NFT, which is the new ownership of electronic book content, in the NFT market, registration is performed by a smart contract called by the user's operation of the publisher account. NFTs as ownership rights created initially are registered in the market on the blockchain by specifying the number of NFTs to be issued by the owner of the publisher account.

As shown in FIG. 3, the publisher user operates the third terminal device 13 to perform the registration operation of the NFT as the proprietary deed (S1). That is, the front-end application 20 executed by the control unit of the terminal device displays a function selection menu screen on the display unit of the installed terminal device (here, the third terminal device 13), and electronic book registration is selected. Then, for example, a registration operation screen 30 shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display unit. This registration operation screen 30 has a layout in which a function selection area 31 is arranged on the left side of the screen and an electronic book information registration area 32 is arranged on the right side of the screen. Four function selection button sections (first function selection button section 311, second function selection button section 312, third function selection button section 313, and fourth function selection button section 314) are prepared in the function selection area 31 above and below. is doing. These four function selection button sections correspond to the four functions provided by the front-end application 20, respectively. When a predetermined function selection button portion is pressed while the registration operation screen 30 is being displayed, the corresponding function is activated. The electronic book registration function 21 is assigned to the third function selection button portion 313, and the screen (for example, the top screen) immediately before the registration operation screen 30 is, for example, four buttons displayed in the function selection area 31. A menu screen having a function selection button section may be used. Then, when the third function selection button portion 313 is pressed on the menu screen, the front-end application 20 displays this registration operation screen 30 .

The electronic book information registration area 32 includes a book name input section 321, a thumbnail image input section 322, an electronic book content data input section 323, a number of copies input section 324, and the like in order from the top.
Furthermore, a registration button section 325 and a cancel button section 326 are provided below the area.

The book name input section 321 is a box for inputting the name of the electronic book, and the publisher user operates the third terminal device 13 to input the text of the book name. The thumbnail image input section 322 is a box for inputting a thumbnail image to be displayed together with the title of the electronic book when the electronic book is sold. By clicking the reference button section provided on the right side of the thumbnail image input section 322, a predetermined folder provided in the third terminal device 13 or an external server or the like is opened, and the file name of the thumbnail image recorded in the folder is entered. By clicking , the address where the thumbnail image is recorded is set in the thumbnail image input section 322 . The content data input section 323 is a box for inputting content data of an electronic book. By clicking the reference button section provided on the right side of the content data input section 323, a predetermined folder provided in the third terminal device 13 or an external server or the like is opened, and the content data (epub format) recorded in the folder is displayed. etc.), the address where the content data is recorded is set in the content data input section 323 . Furthermore, the number of copies input field 324 is a box for entering the number of copies of the electronic book issued by the publisher, and inputs an integer.

For example, when the registration button section 325 is pressed after inputting the information about the electronic book in this way, the front-end application 20 sends the information about the electronic book thus input to the off-chain AP server 14 . When the cancel button section 326 is pressed, the information input up to that point is discarded and the process ends.

When the control unit of the off-chain AP server 14 receives a registration request from the third terminal device 13 together with the registration information regarding the electronic book, it executes the application 141 and checks whether the requested electronic book is newly registered. (S2). This checking process, for example, confirms whether the NFT is registered as the owner of the same electronic book from the same publisher user in the NFT market.

As a result of this check processing, if it is not registered, it is newly registered by the branch judgment of S3, and registration is performed by the smart contract 151 of the blockchain node 15 called by the user operation of the publisher account. That is, when this off-chain AP server 14 determines that it is a new registration, it sends an NFT generation request to the smart contract 151 to the smart contract 151 via the front-end application 20 of the third terminal device 13 of the publisher user. . Also, the application 141 of the off-chain AP server 14 stores the content data and the thumbnail image received together with the new registration request in the database 142 at appropriate timing.

Upon receiving the request, smart contract 151 generates N NFTs for the electronic book (S4). The generated number N is the number of copies input by the publisher user using the number-of-issues input unit 324 in S1, and is 100 in the illustrated example.

Then, the generated N NFTs are registered in the NFT market in the blockchain (S5). Since NFT is the property right of an electronic book, N (eg, 100) electronic books with the same content can be sold in the market. NFTs registered in the NFT market in this way can be purchased by general users and bookstore users. Purchased NFTs are deregistered from the market and cannot be purchased by users. The purchase process starts from the operation of the front-end application and is executed by a smart contract called by a request from the off-chain AP server 14 to the blockchain. The NFT issuance history is stored in blocks.

Also, content data of electronic books and the like are stored in the database 142 of the off-chain AP server 14 at the time of new registration. This stored content data is linked with the information of the blockchain node 15 via the front-end application 20 . for example,
(1) Content data example of off-chain AP server: /contents/epub/<ID>/<ID>.epub
(2) URI example of NFT token of blockchain node 15: https://<node>/0x6079da09E8bfDFb3032eE0aD6f35Eb3e9aa506B6
Then, (1) is the storage destination of epub format files, which are content data, and is stored in the database 142 of the off-chain AP server 14 as described above. (2) is the address on the blockchain indicating the contract code that determines the operation of the NFT. From the off-chain AP server 14, refer to the NFT on the blockchain based on the information of (2), and from the blockchain, based on the information of (1), the storage destination in the off-chain AP server 14 Hold.

In addition, along with the registration of NFT, "content data storage destination", "NFT owner information", "history information (owner / time stamp) of content data registration", "number of copies", etc. information is registered. Based on the storage location of the content data, the user who purchased the NFT can refer to the content data of the electronic book. In addition, the NFT owner information is used as a reward destination for NFT trading and additional issuance in the NFT market. In the publication management system of the present embodiment, for example, when a user who has purchased an NFT (NFT1) registered by a publisher user generates a new NFT (NFT2) based on it and registers in the NFT market, NFT2 purchases Then, not only the user who registered NFT2 in the NFT market, but also the publisher user who is the issuer of the original NFT1 is to be distributed. Therefore, the distribution destination can be specified from the history of the NFT owner. The NFT as the ownership of the e-book will initially belong to the publisher user who issued it. Also, the history information in which the content data is registered is used for changing the owner information.

In addition, the contract code includes the token ID of the NFT to be managed and the contract code for additionally issuing the same NFT. For the additionally issued NFT, the number entered as the number of copies is generated by posting a review, and similar information is saved in the blockchain node 15. The owner at the time of additional issuance is the reviewer, that is, the owner of the additional issuer NFT.

On the other hand, the second and subsequent NFT issuances are restricted. That is, the off-chain AP server 14 performs control processing of the amount of NFTs in circulation when the NFT of the electronic book that has received the registration request has already been registered in the NFT market and the registration request is for the second time or later (S6). . This control process determines the number of NFTs that publisher users can additionally issue based on the number of NFTs in the NFT market and the evaluation of the electronic book content. As an example of evaluation, as a mechanism to control the number of NFTs issued, for example, (1) NFTs initially registered in the NFT market must be in a purchased state, (2) contributions such as reviews to e-book content and certain It is good to judge the demand for the e-book content itself based on the fact that there is an actual evaluation by the user, such as the fact that the evaluation is being performed.

In the branch judgment of S7, for example, the number of copies specified by the publisher user using the number of copies input section 324 of the registration operation screen 30 is compared with the number of copies that can be issued obtained by the above-described control processing, and the specified If the number of copies to be issued is small, the number of copies to be issued is determined as the number N of NFTs to be additionally generated, and is passed to the smart contract 151 via the front-end application 20 .

Also, if the number of copies specified by the publisher user is larger than the number of copies that can be issued, the number of copies that can be issued may be disabled. and pass it to the smart contract 151 via the front-end application 20. In this case, since the upper limit of the number of copies is exceeded, it is better to notify that the upper limit will be set, and if the publisher user accepts such notification, NFT will be added based on the upper limit (the number of copies that can be issued). should be issued. If the number of copies that can be issued obtained by the control processing is 0, it becomes impossible to issue and the processing ends. By doing so, for example, it is possible to prevent reprinting of content that is selling well but whose review content is not very good, and to increase quality content.

Upon receiving the request for additional NFT issuance, the smart contract 151 generates N NFTs for the electronic book (S8). This N is a numerical value determined through the control process as described above. Then, the generated N NFTs are registered in the NFT market in the blockchain (S9).

Although details will be described later, in this system, general users and bookstore users who have purchased NFTs generate new NFTs (NFT2) by performing predetermined processing (review posting in this embodiment), and enter the NFT market. It is registered so that it can be sold. Therefore, in the NFT market, NFT2 newly generated by the purchased user and NFT (NFT1) registered by the publisher user are mixed, and the user can purchase any one. In this way, in this system, general users and bookstore users can generate a predetermined number of new NFTs based on purchased NFTs and register new NFTs in the NFT market. Try to have some. By providing the publisher user with the function and authority to additionally issue NFTs, for example, when the addition of NFTs is entrusted to bookstore users and general users, it is possible to prevent the load on bookstore users from becoming too high.

In addition, as will be described later, in order for bookstore users to issue new NFTs, they are required to post a review on the purchased e-book. However, by creating a mechanism that allows publisher users to issue additional NFTs without posting reviews, for example, even if NFTs for a certain e-book are sold out, bookstore users, etc. cannot post reviews, so NFTs are added. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of a situation where it becomes impossible to issue.

<2-2. NFT issuance processing based on posting of reviews, etc. by bookstore users, etc.>
In this embodiment, a user who has purchased an NFT and acquired ownership can issue a new NFT by posting a review on the purchased e-book, and can sell the e-book themselves. . FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of processing functions for a bookstore user to post a review and issue a new NFT. In the figure, NFT1 is a non-fungible token as electronic book ownership, and NFT2 is an additionally generated non-fungible token as electronic book ownership.

The review etc. posting function 22 implemented in the front-end application 20 calls the smart contract 151 of the blockchain node 15 and additionally issues an NFT that becomes the ownership of the corresponding electronic book content. NFT will be issued only for the first review submission. As processing on the off-chain AP server 14 side, the number of NFTs to be issued is controlled by a variable implemented in the application by comparing the number of non-owned NFTs and the number of owned NFTs.

Posting of texts such as reviews is limited to users who own NFTs as ownership rights associated with certain electronic book content and users who have a history of past ownership of NFTs. The user information check is implemented by checking the event in the smart contract. In addition, it is preferable that the sentences and the like posted in this way can be referred to, for example, by users who have never owned the NFT of the electronic book or on the Internet. By viewing the posted sentences, etc., the user can use it as information for making a decision when purchasing the electronic book. A specific process for realizing such a function is as follows.

As shown in FIG. 5, a bookstore user who owns NFT1 for a certain e-book operates the second terminal device 12, reads the e-book corresponding to the owned NFT1, and performs a review posting operation (S11). . That is, the front-end application 20 executed by the control unit of the terminal device displays a menu screen for function selection on the display unit of the installed terminal device (here, the first terminal device 11), and reviews and other posts are selected. Then, for example, an electronic book selection screen 35 shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display unit.

The electronic book selection screen 35 has a layout in which the function selection area 31 is arranged on the left side of the screen and the thumbnail display area 36 is arranged on the right side of the screen. The function selection area 31 is the same as that arranged on the registration operation screen 30 described above. The review or the like posting function 22 is assigned to the second function selection button portion 312, and the screen (for example, the top screen) immediately before the registration operation screen 30 is, for example, four functions displayed in the function selection area 31. A menu screen having a function selection button section may be used. Then, for example, when the second function selection button section 312 is pressed on the menu screen, the front-end application 20 displays this electronic book selection screen 35 .

This thumbnail display area 36 displays thumbnail images of all electronic books that the bookstore user owns NFT1. The figure shows an example in which six thumbnail images are displayed. If the number of copies of the electronic book held cannot be displayed on one screen of the thumbnail display area 36 at once, a scroll bar for page turning, for example, is displayed. You can switch the displayed thumbnail image. The thumbnail image to be displayed may be acquired by accessing the database of the off-chain AP server 14, for example, based on the storage location of the thumbnail image recorded in the block chain corresponding to the owned NFT1. Although thumbnail images are displayed in the drawing, it is preferable to display book titles instead of thumbnail images or in addition to thumbnail images.

From among the displayed thumbnail images, the electronic book for which the NFT is to be additionally issued is selected by pressing it. Then, the review etc. posting function 22 switches the display to the review posting screen 40 shown in FIG. The review posting screen 40 includes a thumbnail display section 41 that displays thumbnail images, a book information display section 42 that displays information related to the electronic book such as the book title and author information, a review editor 43 that inputs sentences to be posted, etc. A paper book publication request box 44, a Draft button section 45 for drafting and saving the posted contents described in the review editor 43, a Post button section 46 for posting, and a scene for changing the contents described in the review editor 43. A scroll bar 47 is provided.

The review editor 43 operates the input unit of the first terminal device 11 to input an explanation of the content of the electronic book, an impression, and the like. When the Post button section 46 is pressed with appropriate content entered, the business logic for additional NFT issuance is activated. That is, the front-end application 20 requests issuance of a new NFT together with the input information.

Also, when the Draft button section 45 is pressed, the front-end application 20 saves a draft of the document being created. This draft save function is completed within the front-end application and does not send any information to the blockchain.

Furthermore, by pressing the Post button section 46 with the paper book publication request box 44 checked, the business logic of issuing the NFT as the publication rights book for the paper book operates. The function of NFT issuance as a publication rights book as a paper book will be described later.

Upon receiving the review contribution, the off-chain AP server 14 checks the contribution history for the target content (S12). Then, the off-chain AP server 14 terminates the process and does not issue additional NFT2 if the e-book linked to the same NFT1 has been posted in the past in the branch judgment of S13. In this way, since a new NFT2 is not issued for the second and subsequent review submissions, it is possible to prevent the NFT2 from increasing inexhaustibly.

On the other hand, if there is no previous post and it is the first post, the off-chain AP server sets the number of NFT2 to be newly issued (S14). The number N of NFTs 2 to be issued is determined, for example, from the total number of NFTs of the work (content with the same content) existing in the current NFT market, past sales, and the like. As a result, it is possible to prevent a situation in which an excessive number of NFTs exist and remain in inventory. This N is the number of published electronic books that can be sold by bookstore users. Also, it is preferable that the maximum value of the total number of N is restricted depending on the size of the publisher or the book.

When the value of N is determined, the off-chain AP server 14 sends the value N indicating the number of issuance as an argument to the corresponding smart contract 151 of the blockchain NFT via the front-end application 20 .

The smart contract that received the argument will provide the history information that a review has been posted to the blockchain for that NFT, such as "posting time stamp", "NFT owner address information", "e-book content data to be reviewed ', and 'Whether or not the bookstore user has selected paper book publication'.
After saving the review posting history, the smart contract 151 generates N NFT2 for the corresponding NFT1, and the N generated NFT2 is registered on the NFT market in the blockchain (S16).

Since the bookstore user can post a review by himself/herself in this system and create NFT2, the bookstore will also have the function of a publisher. At present, general bookstores cannot sell e-books. For example, they have publishers and other predetermined platforms (e-book sites). can be sold.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the bookstore user issues NFT 2 and sells electronic books, but the general user's front-end application 20 also has similar functions (excluding the paper book publishing function). By posting a review, the electronic book can be sold by the same processing procedure.

<2-3. Distribution of Digital Currency Accompanying Buying and Selling Behavior of Ownership of E-book Content>
As described above, ownership of electronic book content data is managed using NFT. NFT gives a characteristic that uniquely indicates on the blockchain network that it owns access rights to e-book content data. Proprietary NFTs can be transferred to another user account. A blockchain holds a history that a certain user account owns an NFT linked to certain e-book content data. With the transfer of this NFT, it will be sold as a market function within the application. The digital currency remitted for purchase by the purchasing user is distributed according to the predetermined distribution ratio to the previous NFT owner, past owner, e-book author, etc. according to the predetermined distribution ratio. be.

For example, FIG. 8 shows a flow diagram when a general user purchases NFT2 on the NFT market additionally issued by a bookstore user based on NFT1. A general user performs an NFT purchase operation (S21). This purchase operation is performed, for example, by pressing a button corresponding to the electronic book purchase/sale function on a predetermined menu screen (four function selection buttons displayed in the function selection area 31, etc.), as shown in FIG. A purchase book selection screen 50 in which e-books linked to all NFTs registered in the NFT market are listed in a predetermined layout is displayed on the display unit of the second terminal device 12 of the general user. In the illustrated example, two e-books are displayed on one screen, but the number of displayed e-books is arbitrary. It is better to prepare multiple placement layouts and allow the user to select. By pressing the pentagonal scroll button portion 51, the next book information can be displayed or an introductory sentence can be displayed.

In addition, in this embodiment, the book information is displayed at the top of the screen for each book, and the review and the purchase button section linked to it are provided at the bottom, and the book and its review are scrolled left and right. In this way, even if the terminal device is not a personal computer but a portable terminal such as a tablet or a smartphone, the same user interface can be used, and a common sense of operability can be exhibited.

When multiple users post reviews for an e-book with the same content (content data), the review data posted by each user for that e-book is displayed in a list as an introductory sentence, as shown in the figure. be. Then, a purchase link button section is prepared for each review (introduction document) to link from which review the purchase was made. This makes it possible to track which NFT1 owner's review was the starting point for the additional issuance of NFT2.

The general user presses the purchase link button section 52 provided in the display area of the book information that the general user wants to purchase. When the purchase link button section 52 is pressed, the electronic book purchase/sale function 23 displays the purchase book screen 60 shown in FIG. 10 on the display section. When purchasing the electronic book displayed on the purchase book screen 60, the purchase button section 61 is pressed. This completes the NFT purchase operation in S21. If the purchase is not made, for example, by pressing the return button section 62, the screen transitions to the previous screen.

When the purchase button section 61 is pressed, the front-end application 20 generates a purchase transaction on the NFT market side in the blockchain (S22), and accordingly the smart contract 151 automatically operates. That is, when the purchase button 61 is pressed, the address of the NFT to be purchased and the user information to be purchased are transmitted from the front-end application 20 to the blockchain, and the smart contract is activated.

Then, the smart contract 151 changes the address information of the owner of the NFT registered in the blockchain based on the received information to the address information of the purchaser sent from the front-end application, and the user in the NFT market processes the purchase. Issue an instruction to transfer to the front-end application 20 mounted on the second terminal device 12 of the general user who purchased the target NFT 2 (S23), and along with that, to the general user who purchased the NFT registered in the NFT market Transfer (S24).

The front-end application 20 on the general user side obtains the NFT2 (S25). When the front-end application 20 completes obtaining the NFT (S26), it sends a transfer completion return value to the smart contract via the NFT market (S27). Accordingly, the smart contract distributes digital currency within the system (S28), a portion of which is received by the bookstore user's front-end application (S29). Also, although illustration is omitted, based on this distribution processing in S28, the seller (bookstore user) of the NFT2 and the owner (publisher) of the NFT1 that is the basis of the purchased NFT2 are also included. Also, although not shown, the digital currency, which is the source of the distribution, is based on the amount of money settled by the purchaser of the NFT 2 by a predetermined means at an appropriate timing.

Then, the user who purchased NFT2 can access and browse the database 142 based on the address information of the content of the electronic book registered in the blockchain linked to NFT2. In this way, users can read electronic books by purchasing NFTs on the NFT market, and can sell NFTs of unnecessary electronic books by putting them on the NFT market.

In addition, there is a user account for the blockchain, and when the user purchases an NFT, the NFT is tied to the user's account, and when the ownership is transferred due to the purchase, the NFT relinks to the destination user's account.

<2-4. Publishing behavior of paper books>
The publication management system of this embodiment has a function of publishing a paper book based on an electronic book under the leadership of a bookstore user. That is, in general paper book sales, the publisher decides the number of copies to be issued, binds the book, and periodically distributes a predetermined number of books to each bookstore via a distributor. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, a bookstore user has the right to request an e-book to be bound into a paper book. And in this embodiment, the request for publication of a paper book is made on the condition that a review is posted to the NFT 1 issued by the publisher user. This review submission is the same as the review submission of the conditions for additionally issuing NFT2 based on NFT1 described above. Therefore, the paper book publication action may be performed at the same time as the additional NFT2 is issued, or the paper book publication action may be performed at a later date while watching the sales of the additionally issued NFT2. Specifically, each process is executed according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The bookstore user posts a review using the e-book selection screen 35 in the review etc. posting function 22 described above, and presses the Post button section 46 with the paper book publication request box 44 provided on the e-book selection screen 35 checked. is pressed to request the off-chain AP server 14 to publish a paper book (S31).

When receiving a paper publication request, the off-chain AP server 14 checks whether the bookstore user has a review posting history corresponding to NFT1 (S32). If there is no posting history, the process ends. Then, when the review posting history exists, the off-chain AP server 14 performs processing for limiting the number of publications (S33). This publishable number control process obtains the publishable number of paper books from the total number of paper books on the market, the number of sales, sales of electronic books, the number of review submissions, and the like.

If the current total number of paper publications has not reached the publishable number (Yes in S34), the publication is permitted, and the paper publishable return value is passed to the smart contract 151 via the front-end application 20. On the other hand, if the publishable number has been reached (No in S34), end processing is performed. This termination process may be, for example, a process of notifying the bookstore user that the paper book cannot be published because the number of books that can be published has been reached. Also, although a specific processing flow is not described, if there is no review posting history, it is preferable to notify the bookstore user of this fact and prompt them to post a review.

The smart contract 151 that received the above return value registers the number of paper book publication rights for NFT1 owned by the bookstore user in the state database 152 of the blockchain node 15 (S35). In other words, when instructing to publish a paper book, the block chain will receive the “number of books that can be published as a paper book”, “right ID that can be published as a paper book”, and “the number of books that can be published as a paper book”. Register the owner of the right ID. The initial value of the owner is the bookstore user's address.

Then, the number (ID) as the publication right of the paper book and the owner information associated with it can be changed by the smart contract. That is, this publication right can be traded between users in the same way as the NFT described above, and the owner is transferred accordingly. The smart contract adds data to the blockchain accompanying this transfer. Usually, the publishing right is purchased by the publisher user, and by acquiring the publishing right, the original and distribution can be performed.

Specifically, the publisher user performs the purchase operation of the publication right (S36). This purchase operation activates, for example, the paper book publishing function 24 , and the paper book publishing function 24 displays a predetermined purchase screen on the display section of the third terminal device 13 . On the displayed purchase screen, as in the above-described e-book selection screen, information on purchasable publication rights, that is, at least information specifying the book (for example, book name, thumbnail image, posted review, number of copies, etc.) , and specifies the publishing rights to purchase based on the identifying information.

When there is a purchase instruction, it is transmitted to the smart contract 151, and the smart contract 151 rewrites the publication right owner information from the bookstore user registered as the initial value to the publisher user, and the purchased publication right owner is changed (S37). As a result, the publishing right is transferred, and the publisher user acquires the right to publish the book (S38). From the front-end application, the publisher user refers to the rights information, judges that the publisher user owns the publication rights information of the paper book, and sends the publisher user the content data for printing the paper book. can be distributed. It should be noted that the purchase and sale of this publication right may be settled using digital currency between the publisher user and the bookstore user. Also, the publisher binds a predetermined number of books based on the purchased publishing rights, and distributes the number of paper books corresponding to the number of purchased rights to the bookstore user who sells the publishing rights.

In this way, paper books are issued based on requests from bookstore users with reviews attached, so good contents can be sold as paper books, and paper books that are expected to sell well can be sold. It can reduce the risk of occurrence.

Also, the number of publication rights determined based on the request of the bookstore user may be a fixed value, but may be determined by the off-chain AP server 14 according to the situation, and may be specified by the bookstore user. By allowing bookstore users to specify the number of copies, it is possible to accurately derive the number of copies that can be sold at the bookstore based on the local situation, and to sell a large number of paper books in just the right amount while suppressing the return rate. can. In other words, the bookstore submits a review of the book it thinks will sell well and requests the sales volume of the paper book, so the book that sells can be printed and sent to each bookstore, and the risk of returning the book can be reduced.

In addition, in the present embodiment, reviews of distributed paper books are posted at actual stores when they are electronic books, so the content is known, and only the amount of books that sell can be determined. Since the bookstore side places the order, the bookstore sells the books it wants to sell, and the sales motivation increases. In addition, since I will post a review, I will be responsible for the contents and sell it. By doing so, the bookstore recommends good books to general users, and acts to connect general users with books.

[3. Monetization of each user based on the sale and purchase of content]
As described above, in this embodiment, blockchain is used for management. This does not have to be a blockchain as long as the history of ownership transfer (buying and selling) and the history of NFT remain, but since the profit is distributed at the end, it is guaranteed that the history information will not be tampered with and the reliability will be guaranteed. need to Therefore, in order to make the ownership of e-books transparent, it is possible to keep all the history by saying the ownership of NFT by blockchain, and by fulfilling the contract by smart contract, the node can be distributed. A system that is not centralized like an e-book site can be created. Then, the user's profit generated with each action in the trading of electronic books (NFT) and the publication of paper books based on electronic books may be calculated, for example, as follows.

<3-1. Distribution of revenue based on trading of NFT1>
FIG. 12 shows an example of monetization when a bookstore user or a general user purchases an NFT1 issued by a publisher user. As shown in the figure, (1) the publisher user receives the content of the electronic book from the author, and (2) the publisher user issues NFT1 of the electronic book. (3) When a general user or bookstore user purchases NFT1, (4) the purchased user pays the purchase price and owns the electronic book content linked to NFT1. Payment for purchases is preferably made using digital currency. (5) The publication management system uses the purchase price (sales of NFT1) obtained from the user as the source of funds, and the rest after deducting the platform operating cost is distributed digitally to the publisher user who is the original owner of NFT1 and the author. Distribute at a predetermined distribution ratio.

<3-2. Distribution of revenue based on NFT2 trading>
FIG. 13 shows an example of monetization when a general user purchases an NFT2 issued by a bookstore user through the function of posting a review or the like. As shown in the figure, (1) the publisher user receives the content of the electronic book from the author. (2) General users and bookstore users issue NFT2 added based on NFT1 purchased from publisher users. (3) When a general user purchases NFT2, (4) the general user who purchased pays the purchase price and owns the content of the electronic book linked to NFT2. Payment for purchases is preferably made using digital currency. (5) The publication management system uses the purchase price (sales of NFT2) obtained from the user as the source of funds, and the remainder after deducting the platform operating cost is the general user or bookstore user who is the original owner of NFT2, and additionally issues NFT2. The digital transit is distributed to the publisher user who is the owner of the NFT1 that is the source of the transaction and the author at a predetermined distribution ratio.

Note that, in the illustrated example, the distribution of profits accompanying the trading of NFT2 additionally issued from NFT1 has been described, but for example, a user who has purchased this NFT2 can additionally issue a new NFT2 based on that NFT2. In this case, the newly additionally issued NFT 2 includes the owner of the current NFT 2, the owner of the previous NFT 2 that is the source of the additional issue, and the owner of the original NFT 1 as history information such as the owner. A publisher user is registered. In this case, it is distributed at an appropriate ratio to the publisher user who is the original owner of NFT1, the user who owns NFT2 (immediately), and the user who owns NFT2 (current).

Bookstore users also increase NFTs by posting documents such as reviews of electronic book content. Then, when the NFT that you have increased is purchased by another user, you can get digital currency as a reward. NFTs are additionally registered in the market by the bookstore's posting, but part of the NFT's revenue is paid to the bookstore user's wallet as digital currency by the smart contract. As a result, bookstore users will receive revenue as digital currency in their own wallets.

<3-3. Distribution of proceeds based on paper book publishing >
FIG. 14 shows an example of monetization when a bookstore user or a general user purchases an NFT1 issued by a publisher user. As shown in the figure, (1) the bookstore user issues the right to publish paper books. (2) When the publisher user purchases the right to publish, (3) the publisher user who has made the purchase pays the purchase price and owns the content for creating the paper book. Payment for purchases is preferably made using digital currency. When the publisher purchases the right to publish, a portion of the revenue after deducting the platform operating costs is distributed to the bookstore user who is the issuer of the right to publish. The right to publish is useful information about a book that sells, and is worth paying for.

Then, (5) the publisher who has purchased the right to publish binds the book and distributes it to bookstores. The published paper book is preferentially distributed to the physical store of the bookstore user who issued the corresponding publication right, and is distributed to other stores only when the store cannot accept the bookstore.

(6) The paper book distributed to the physical store is purchased by the general user at an appropriate timing, and (7) the general user pays the purchase price accordingly. (8) The sales of the paper book are distributed at a predetermined ratio to the author/publisher and the actual bookstore. In this system, the bookstore pays the publisher when the paper book is actually sold, not when the book is distributed.

[4. Quality of review submission]
For example, some current electronic book sites accept and publish reviews of books, but the posts are made anonymously, and it is possible to state that the content is completely irrelevant. Therefore, the content of the review lacks credibility. On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the transaction cannot be erased again by using the block chain, there is no need to do anything unskillful. Therefore, it is expected that reviews with good content will be posted indirectly. Also, for example, if a certain bookstore does not have good reviews, there is a possibility that the sales at that bookstore will be avoided, and the quality of reviews is directly linked to sales.

Various aspects of the present invention have been described above using embodiments and modifications, but these embodiments and descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, but to aid in understanding the present invention. Please note that it is provided for your convenience. The scope of the invention is not limited to the constructions or methods of manufacture explicitly described herein, but rather includes within its scope combinations of the various aspects of the invention disclosed herein. While the claimed features of the invention are identified in the appended claims, any configuration not presently specified in the claims is disclosed herein. For the sake of clarity, it is possible that such a configuration may be claimed in the future.

11: First terminal device 12: Second terminal device 13: Third terminal device 14: Off-chain AP server 15: Block chain node 16: Network 20: Front-end application 21: E-book registration function 22: Review posting function 23 : Electronic book purchase and sale function 24 : Paper book publication function 30 : Registration operation screen 40 : Review posting screen 141 : Application 142 : Database 151 : Smart contract 152 : State database

Claims (8)

A publication management system that manages the sale and purchase of e-books in a blockchain network system,
By purchasing an NFT (non-fungible token) that records the ownership of the e-book and the data that enables the e-book to be viewed, the purchased user can own the e-book,
When the review data about the purchased and owned e-book is posted on the blockchain, the smart contract operates, a new NFT about the e-book is additionally issued, and the new NFT is sold. A publication management system with features that enable The content data of the e-book is recorded and held on a server outside the blockchain network system,
2. The publication management system according to claim 1, wherein the data that enables viewing of the electronic book recorded in the NFT is address information for accessing the server. The user who additionally issues the NFT is a bookstore user set in the bookstore,
3. The publication management system according to claim 1, wherein said NFT can be issued without a publisher user posting said review data. The bookstore user who purchased the NFT can make a request to publish the e-book that the review has been posted as a paper book on the condition that the review data is posted,
4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when authorizing the publication of the paper book, a smart contract is activated to issue the publication right of the paper book and enable the publisher user to purchase the publication right. publication management system. 5. The publication management system according to claim 4, wherein the smart contract registers the number of publication rights and ownership information of the publication rights in a state database within the blockchain. 6. The publication management system according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising a function of performing settlement by digital currency from said publisher user to said bookstore user when said publication right is purchased by said publisher user. Claims 4 to 6, wherein when said publisher user who purchased said publication right binds and distributes said paper publication based on said publication right, the price is distributed when said distributed paper publication is sold. A publication management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A program for causing a computer to implement the functions of the publication management system according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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