Thread by @rugpullfinder

As stated previously, We do not believe @tmntnft owns the rights to the IP they claim to own, and unless they can get cooperation from Viacom for the release of their collection, it will absolutely be a rugpull. 🧵

2/Being they do not have that authorization yet, per their letter, we are leaving our post up. Publishing a letter from their attorney does not constitute publishing official documents to prove their legitimacy.

3/Let's dive in:

Skemme Productions (Squemme) was registered July of 2021. Their current business dealings have been exploiting all works and products within cinema and publishing.

4/ Poly Productions has a similar story. Founded in 1990, they similarly exploit other publishers works, largely through the obscure 2012 French law “The Act on the Exploitation of Out of Print Books of the Twentieth Century”, which include TV shows, music, and so on.

5/France specifically outlines Authorship Rights and Moral Rights within Articles L121-1 to L123-12 of the attached as it relates to Intellectual Property Codes wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/…

6/In the US and EU, the laws are very clear that the rights holders of any print medium extends to digital media for the purposes of commercial rights and to restrict free use.

7/The US Congressional Budget Office paper explaining how these rights were implemented through the Digital Millenium Copyrights Acts (copyright.gov/legislation/dm…). Here is the EU’s take (eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…) which went into effect across all EU member states in June 2021.

8/Specific to IP in the US, Eastman and Laird maintained the rights for clothing, which expired in 2000 when Mirage Studios closed its doors, but was not picked up by either Fred Wolf or Viacom.

9/In the US, the rights to this logo and brand, representing the 1987-1992 TMNT franchise (currently being used by @tmntnft in their PFP) were and still are wholly and exclusively owned by @VIMN_PR /Viacom

10/These rights cover all entertainment services (including tv shows and electronic games) and also covers all paper goods and printed matter (which based on the DMCA extends to digital material that can be printed).

11/Where this becomes complex and rather obscure is that Skemme/Squemme is exploiting the French copyright laws, where there are no copyrights in place by Viacom specific to 1987-1992 images. But, with the new EU copyright code competing with French law, which prevails?

12/One layer deeper, the French CMO, which governs fair use and copyrights specific to authorship, has outlined that under “most” cases, this only covers the non-commercialization of these works without modifying the original works.

13/It is also confirmed that Poly Productions nor Skemme/Squemme currently do not hold any copyrights or patents specific to TMNT franchise which their original tweet claimed.

14/Now, they claim to have the licensing rights specific to NFTs and have hired Marc-Olivier Deblanc as their IP rights attorney. A smart hire - He has a history of complex legal battles where his clients are alleged to have exploited the commercial rights of IP rights holders.

15/It is a telling statement based on their wording that they are going to market, without fully verifying with the true IP rights holders. They are in the process of making sure its copasetic with Viacom International, Inc, but have yet to get that approval.

16/The wording of Mo's message is important - based on our understanding and extracted clauses above, they cannot release a generative collection of NFTs, but only extract out images from the original series in the form of NFTs (a '87 show will have 1000's of stills)

17/We do question their violation of the above specific to their promo video. If Mo’s statement reads true, then their promo video is in direct contradiction to that statement, as Mo said – they have acquired the right to extract in the form of NFTs, not to create video content.

18/Where this gets extremely murky... they have acquired these rights from Squemme/Skemme through the French INPI and CMO. The rights, including logos and branding from the 1987-1992 series are still maintained by Viacom in the US, and the majority are also maintained in France.

19/@opensea and @VIMN_PR are US companies. Specifically listed in Opensea’s Terms of Service is the right to remove a collection for DMCA violations. Their current PFP would directly violate that DMCA, regardless as to whether they have the rights to NFTs or not.

20/Again, a letter from their IP Rights defense attorney is not official documentation of them owning the licensing rights of this IP. Until they can provide either that documentation, or the approval of Viacom to move forward, we are leaving our initial post up.

21/Crazy plot twist