Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

Published by Tamkang University Press

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Research on Copyright Protection of Yunnan Digital Cultural Heritage Based on Blockchain: Challenges and Limitations of Current Mechanisms

 2026

 Volume 32

Yirong Mao1,2, Siti Sarah Maidin1, Rui Ma2, and Yingya Zhi3

1INTI International University. Persiaran Perdana BBN Putra Nilai, 71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

2Yunnan Communications Vocational and Technical College, Kunming 650500, Yunnan, China

3Nantong Institute of Technology, Nantong 226000, Jiangsu,China

Received: December 12, 2025
Accepted: February 25, 2026
Publication Date: May 17, 2026

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Technology-Legal-Culture Trilemma in Digital Cultural Heritage Protection

 Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation:  BibTeX | http://dx.doi.org/10.6180/jase.202609_32.047  

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This studyfocusesonidentifyingandanalyzingthechallengesandlimitationsofthecurrentcopyrightprotection mechanisms for Yunnan’s digital cultural heritage. Yunnan, which is rich in ethnic diversity and cultural heritage, faces unique issues in protecting digital cultural assets amid increasing digitization. This study explores deficiencies in existing technical, legal, and policy frameworks, as well as cultural and social challenges. In addition, this study proposes a hybrid blockchain-based copyright protection framework as a complete research contribution. The system architecture and technical design are fully presented and analyzed in this paper. It also examines the potential limitations of applying blockchain technology to address these issues, laying a foundation for subsequent research on blockchain-based solutions.

Keywords: Yunnan digital cultural heritage; copyright protection; current mechanisms; challenges; limitations

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