N issues of NFT and copyright protection

Recently, more and more artists and music publishers are using NFT to maintain more control over copyright and to NFTize their works, which may be another outlet in the cultural and artistic circle.

Using blockchain technology, NFTs can be "minted" to record digital ownership of the underlying physical or digital asset and constitute a unique certificate of authenticity. As a work of art, NFT represents the unique ownership certificate of digital assets. Buyers of NFTs expect NFTs to be real. But in reality, NFTs can be faked. Users who upload works of art such as songs and paintings on NFT platforms may first upload infringing works and mint them into NFTs that are assumed to be real. At this point, buyers can quickly pay for what they believe to be an authentic NFT, only to end up with a fake.

BitKeep's built-in NFT market migrated from Wyvern protocol to Seaport: On December 16th, the built-in NFT trading market of BitKeep wallet has completed the migration from Wyvern protocol to Seaport protocol, which will provide users with a lower-cost NFT trading environment. BitKeep said that currently users trade multi-chain NFTs such as Ethereum, BNBChain, Polygon, and Arbitrum in the App, and each transaction is expected to save more than 50% of Gas fees. At the same time, new users will no longer need to pay account registration fees. [2022/12/16 21:48:05]

Not long ago, an executive in charge of the legal affairs of a well-known American comic company sent a letter to artists, saying that the company was exploring the NFT field, warning artists not to use the company’s comic characters in NFT, and auctioning NFT with the company’s intellectual property rights, emphasizing that artists When using elements related to the company's comic characters, they should first contact the company and obtain authorization.

U.S. Federal Agencies Issue Legal Advisory on NFT Investments: On July 20th, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) issued a legal advisory whose main goal is to require senior government officials to disclose NFT investments representing “property,” such as real estate. [2022/7/20 2:25:55]

So the first question comes, is there an obligation to obtain permission from the right holder to use works protected by copyright law in NFT? The answer is yes. Although the scenarios are different, people who create NFTs using other people's works should ensure that they obtain permission from the copyright owner. The "Copyright Law" stipulates that the copyright owner of a work enjoys multiple rights, including the right of reproduction, distribution, public performance, and information network dissemination. A recording producer needs to obtain permission to mix and sell music that others own the copyright of lyrics and music. Similarly, the author of NFT also needs to obtain the permission of the copyright owner of the work embedded in NFT and offered for sale. Therefore, as a creator who uploads works on the platform and sells NFTs, he should ensure that the uploaded objects have the right to legally disseminate and sell them on the information network.

JPEX launches Crypto Punk & REDHARE NFT INDEX to provide risk hedging tools: According to news on June 28, JPEX recently launched Crypto Punk & REDHARE NFT INDEX. The entire series of contracts can provide 40 times leverage, providing mainstream NFT holders with an investment tool for hedging risks. As a Crypto Punk asset holder, when there is a certain trend in the market, users can short the Crypto Punk index contract through JPEX, and obtain income by hedging the risk of spot assets.

It is reported that JPEX has previously launched the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) index, CryptoPunks index, and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) index. (BeInCrypto)[2022/6/28 1:36:55]

If you are someone who is considering investing in NFTs, you first need to consider what you are buying. On the NFT platform, a special agreement is generally adopted to clearly limit and restrict the buyer's rights to NFT. For example, a certain platform claims to allow buyers to purchase the underlying package of copyrights while purchasing NFTs; some platforms also prohibit the commercial use of NFTs purchased on their platforms. Each NFT is unique, and NFT buyers should consider the relevant rights restrictions of each NFT platform and each specific NFT before purchasing to avoid the risk of infringement.

Because blockchain technology remains largely unregulated, and the anonymous nature of blockchain lockers and wallets, rights holders face significant challenges in defending their rights. On the one hand, authors who sell NFTs cannot prevent resale to other countries where they may have little or no intellectual property protection, and on the other hand, it is difficult to prevent works from performing works publicly, because the anonymity of wallets makes it difficult to trace the purchase of each token. The real identity of the person who owns the coin.

Since NFT projects are basically created by creators, for most NFT platforms, there are users uploading infringing, illegal offensive or other destructive content. Therefore, although the platform can restrict this uploading behavior through user agreements, it will be more effective to take technical measures to detect and delete prohibited content. Otherwise, the sheer volume of banned content-zce can deter users and draw regulatory scrutiny.

What Will Digital Rights Tokens Change for NFTs?

NFT is destined to bring about great changes and at the same time meet a new round of challenges. For example, whether the same artwork can be uploaded to several blockchains and be bound by multiple different NFTs without exclusive rights, and whether the author's rights are exhausted after selling NFTs are still to be explored.

If the owner of the NFT publishes the work purchased by TA on a social networking site, can the author freely visit the social networking site, submit a takedown notice, and ask the owner of the NFT to delete it? Can the author resell his physical work to another buyer offline after selling multiple tokens on an NFT platform? Or sell another 10 tokens on another NFT platform, can the buyer on the first platform claim compensation from the author? The relationship between NFT and copyright in real life, and the court's protection of intellectual property rights involved in NFT deserve our continued attention.

The above is today’s sharing, thank you readers!

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