Usage, Ownership and Copyrights
NFTs have a nuanced relationship with the assets they represent. While an NFT is designed to symbolize the original asset on the blockchain, it is regarded as a separate entity from the content it contains. Throughout this article, we’ve often compared NFTs to trading cards, and that analogy holds true here as well.
Consider owning a vintage baseball card or a popular trading card from a collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering. You own a representation of the original work, but you don’t own the original work itself. The copyright for the artwork, design, and branding of the card remains entirely with the card’s manufacturer.
Similarly, while NFTs represent an item on the blockchain, owning an NFT does not transfer the intellectual property or usage rights of the original work to you. For example, if you buy an NFT containing the very first digital copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, you own the NFT, but you do not have the rights to sell Harry Potter merchandise, make Harry Potter movies, or permit others to use the Harry Potter IP for commercial purposes.
Unfortunately, NFT ownership and usage rights are often conflated, leading some buyers to mistakenly believe that owning an NFT grants them the rights to expand upon and capitalize from established IPs.
There are exceptions to these general rules. For instance, Bored Ape Yacht Club has publicly stated that all BAYC NFT owners have full commercial rights to their Ape, allowing them to monetize it as they see fit. Projects like CrypToadz and Nouns have taken this even further by releasing their IP to the public domain under Creative Commons (CC0). However, these cases should be viewed as exceptions, not the norm.
Copyrighted Content
Using self-minting platforms like NFT-tradingcards.biz, any user can mint a new NFT using copyrighted content they do not own. This poses risks for the minter, buyers, and the original artist for several reasons:
- Profiting from illegitimate content exposes sellers and buyers to legal action by the legitimate copyright holders.
- Legitimate NFTs issued by the copyright holder may be devalued by illegitimate NFTs of the same work.
- Buyers may not realize that the content they’ve purchased is illegitimate, putting them in legal jeopardy.
Concerns about legitimacy are one reason why verified NFT projects and accounts are preferable. To stay safe on NFT marketplaces, always look for verified projects and only follow links from official and verified user accounts on social media.
Leave a Reply