NFTs are one of the foundations of web3. This series will introduce NFTs through 30 short articles, allowing everyone to understand and master the relevant knowledge about NFTs from scratch.
NFTs exist as a form of digital asset, and we can own NFTs. However, can anyone use NFTs in their own business?
NFT Intellectual Property Rights#
Here, we need to introduce the concept of intellectual property rights. Just like in other creative fields, there are intellectual property rights in the NFT space. When we purchase an NFT, we only acquire a digital asset. It is more important to understand what rights we have when owning these NFTs. In this article, we will focus on the issue of intellectual property rights related to NFTs, hoping to provide you with a more comprehensive understanding of NFTs.
After purchasing NFTs, most people use them as their avatars, art collections, or items for trading and profit. However, many people are not clear about the rights they have when holding these NFTs. Simply owning an NFT does not mean that we can use it freely. Just like when we purchase a movie or music CD, we cannot freely copy or charge others for playing it. NFTs also have similar permission divisions. When we own an NFT, we only have the "rights belonging to the holder" as written by the creator in the smart contract.
Restrictive NFT Intellectual Property Rights#
Like other types of assets, NFTs have their own ownership. Ownership includes the rights to copy, distribute, and display the work, as well as potentially creating derivative works based on the original work and commercializing your own NFTs based on your own desires. However, all of these depend on the rights declared by the NFT creator in the smart contract. Each NFT has different permissions open to the holder in terms of intellectual property rights.
Let's take CryptoPunks as an example. They state on their official website, "You own the NFT, the creator owns the copyright and licenses it to you. You can create derivative works and profit from them. However, the copyright of the NFT is always held by the creator." This kind of control over NFT copyrights happens in most NFT projects because they want to have some control over the development of NFTs. Otherwise, if any holder can freely create and use NFTs, it would disrupt the narrative of the NFT project. In order to have a longer future for NFT projects, the project owners will hold more rights and only authorize their use by the holders.
CC0#
Of course, there are also projects that hope to stimulate community curiosity and creativity by adopting the CC0 model. CC0 stands for Creative Commons Zero, which means that anyone can use NFTs to create and profit. The project completely opens all permissions of the NFT to the users.
Implementing CC0 has its pros and cons. Anyone can create derivative works based on NFTs, sell derivative works, create graphic and video works containing NFTs, etc., without obtaining permission from the NFT issuer or paying fees to the NFT issuer. NFT holders have all the rights, but others can also freely use the NFTs, and no one protects the copyright of your NFT.
In this case, a large number of NFT-based creations either bring negative effects to NFTs, causing the price to drop, or strengthen the dissemination and positive influence of NFTs, causing the price to rise.
Distinguishing Copyright and Trademark#
In the above content, we discussed the issue of NFT copyright. Different projects have different levels of openness regarding NFT copyright. We need to understand the permissions of the NFTs we hold in order to use them better. In addition to intellectual property rights, we also need to distinguish between copyright and trademark. Copyright is part of intellectual property rights, while a trademark is the exclusive right registered by a brand.
To facilitate understanding, let's take the Moonbirds NFT project as an example. Because this NFT implements CC0 copyright, anyone can use "Moonbird," but cannot use "Moonbirds" because "Moonbirds" is a registered trademark of PROOF Holdings, Inc. (the issuer of Moonbirds).
Conclusion#
The issue of NFT intellectual property rights is a developing field. As the NFT space evolves, the understanding and implementation of NFT intellectual property rights will also change dynamically. It is difficult to accurately describe what NFT intellectual property rights are, but we can only describe the intellectual property rights of already issued NFTs.
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