Thread by @motionscape

NFTs, copyright, and licensing are the topics everyone’s debating right now. Tensions are running high, and for good reason. This issue poses nothing less than an existential threat to the cryptoart community. If we get this wrong now, there’s no going back. A thread 👇

To have this debate in a productive way, we need to be clear on the definitions. Half the arguments I’ve read don’t seem to really know what copyright is or how it works. Check out this great primer by @ankaris. TLDR: Ownership of an original copy ≠ copyright ≠ usage rights

To put that in a way that makes intuitive sense: If you buy the original manuscript of a @StephenKing novel, does that give you film adaptation rights? Of course not. Does King sell his copyright to the film production company that licenses the story? Hell no.

An NFT is the digital equivalent of an original copy. Buying it doesn’t automatically give you ownership of the intellectual property. This is cut and dry. However, the bigger question is: should it? Should the purchase of an NFT come with usage rights or full copyright?

What I’m seeing right now is a lot of pressure from certain collectors for artists to include usage rights (or even full copyright!) with an NFT at current market prices. This won’t work. If you think 5 ETH for an NFT is expensive, get ready to pay 10x or more for rights.

For an artist, selling the usage rights to your work can be a big opportunity! But there are a lot of gritty details. Are you selling the right to print your art on tshirts? To develop a feature film? To create sequels & spinoffs? Are the rights perpetual or do they expire? etc

There’s a reason why, in Hollywood, there is always an army of agents and lawyers involved. They’re not just rent seeking. There are details to be worked out. An artist who forks over usage rights without careful research is liable to get screwed.

Selling an NFT of your art is awesome! Selling usage rights is awesome! (Selling full copyright almost never makes sense). But bundling them together is a recipe for disaster. They’re two completely different assets. #dontbundle

The fact is, a world in which artists are routinely forced to give up licensing rights, copyright, etc is the one we already live in. One of the biggest value propositions of NFTs is that they let creatives more fairly capture the value of what we create.

A lot of folks in crypto talk a big game about building a newer, better world. But are we making sure this space really is better for artists? It’s cliché here to say we cant repeat the old ways. Artists forfeiting ownership of their IP *is* the old way. It's called work-for-hire

So back to my original claim about the existential threat. Two points. [1] If we normalize the expectation that artists should be turning over the rights to their work for small $$, you’re going to see a lot of career artists decide it’s not worth it and abandon this space 👇

The cryptoart community is a tiny sliver of the size of the traditional art community. All those predictions of flipping aren’t going to come true if we can’t attract more blood. Are traditional artists going to make the jump if they have to start giving up copyright? Unlikely

[2] Insisting on rights undermines the value of NFTs in general. Why are the rights necessary if an NFT has inherent value? Nobody buying a Dali painting expects or feels the need for the copyright to come with it. The original is where the value lies. Or are they just jpegs? 🤔

Artists, we have ONE chance to get this right. There are no do overs. Today’s precedents will impact all of us tomorrow. #DontBundle NFTs with the usage rights to your work. They should be separate transactions. Don’t sell yourself short. There are no checkbox solutions!

We need to spread this message far and wide throughout the community. Please RT or add comments of your own. Disagree? Let me know! We can only move the community forward by having these constructive debates.

#NFTCommunity #cryptoart

Update: In case anyone had trouble finding that thread by @ankaris, here's the direct link. Really good primer on usage rights:

https://twitter.com/ankaris/status/1410937109020438529