The NFT that pays treasure to put on sale does not transfer work copyright, is this reasonable?

Comment: 0x13, beat BlockBeats

Recently, the payment code NFT skin launched by Alipay based on ant chain has attracted wide attention from all walks of life. Someone grabbed the NFT with 9.9 yuan in Xianyu hanging tens of thousands of yuan high; Some people argue that this isn't NFT at all, it's just a JPG image; There is an unprecedented level of optimism about NFT's prospects.

People repeatedly read the explanation and introduction of NFT given by Ant Chain, and launched a heated discussion. For example, Ant Chain defines NFTs as "digital works" rather than "non-homogeneous tokens", translates the "T" of NFTs as "tokens" for compliance reasons, and currently these NFTs are not transferable or transacted. While most of these discussions have yielded a consensus, there is one issue that many people are still confused about.

"The copyright in NFT's digital work is owned by the publisher or creator of the original work, and you are not allowed to use NFT's digital work for any commercial purpose except with the written consent of the copyright owner," reads Article 4 of the User's Need to Know and Use Rules.

  This sentence made the already lively discussion burst into a pot, and some people even directly blasted Alipay for not conforming to the spirit of blockchain. The point was that "Alipay has changed the copyright property of NFT" and "is quite different from the NFT in the field of blockchain that we are familiar with". Even some crypto artists and collectors have little understanding of copyright issues.

Do you really know what copyright is and what ownership is?

What is copyright?

Let's start with copyright. In the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, copyright and copyright are the same concept. The scope of copyright includes music, fine arts, photography, audiovisual works and other common forms of NFT art.

Copyright is divided into two parts, namely the personal right of works and the property right of works.

Let's start with personal rights. Works of personal rights is also called the work spirit of rights, it is a kind of intellectual property, refers to the author for his works enjoy a variety of linked to personal or inseparable and no direct content of property rights, the author through creative performance style work and shall have the right of reputation, reputation rights and maintain the integrity of the work. This right shall be enjoyed by the author for life and shall not be transferred, deprived or restricted.  

Then there's property rights to works. The property right of works is also called "the economic right of copyright", which includes the right to use, profit and dispose of works. The most important part is the right to use the work. The right of use includes the right to reproduce the original work in material form, the right to disseminate the work to the public and the right to deduct the work. The right to profit and dispose of a work is an essential part of the property right of a work. The copyright owner may license others to use the work in the aforesaid manner and obtain remuneration therefor.

To put it simply, the personal right of a work guarantees the spiritual rights and interests of an artist, while the property right of a work guarantees the economic rights and interests of an artist. Both domestic and foreign laws stipulate whether the personal right and property right of works can be transferred. In general, most national laws believe that the property rights of works are transferable, but the personal rights of works are not transferable. In addition, a written contract is required when the property rights of works are transferred.

What is ownership?  

Ownership refers to the right of the owner to possess, use, profit and dispose of his property according to law. It is the most important and complete right in the real right, with three characteristics of absoluteness, exclusivity and perpetuity, and its specific content includes four rights and powers such as possession, use, profit and disposal.

Simply put, the object of ownership is a figurative object, such as a cup with a picture on it. You own the cup and can drink from it, rent it or sell it for a profit, or smash it and destroy it.

What do we get when we buy NFT digital art?

Article 18 of China's Copyright Law stipulates that "the transfer of ownership of the original works of fine arts and other works is not regarded as the transfer of the copyright of the works". Therefore, what we get when we buy NFT digital art is only the ownership of the art, not the copyright. This is not "Alipay changed the copyright property of NFT", this is the law.

One might question whether the laws and regulations that apply to traditional art should apply to the new technology of NFT. So let's take a look at what the major crypto art trading platforms are doing.

Let's open the official relevant documents of SuperRare, the most prestigious cryptographic art platform. In the document, it says: "NFT Ownership ≠ Copyright Ownership", and SuperRare also makes a further explanation:

"Copyright is not the same thing as ownership of any physical object (i.e., a painting) or digital asset (i.e., NFT) that represents or is embedded in the work. Under our terms of service, artists do not lose copyright protection for their work when they sell it on SuperRare Marketplace, Unless the parties have expressly agreed in writing to the copyright interest as part of the transfer."

We can see that even in the field of public chain NFT that we are familiar with, the practice of NFT trading platform is no different from that of traditional art field regarding copyright and ownership issues.

So in a nutshell, you buy a piece of NFT art and what you own is this painting, this painting on this new medium of NFT art, and the medium and the pattern work together to make this "painting." That doesn't mean you can print the motif on other media for commercial use. Even if you buy one of Fewocious's most powerful pieces, you can't print it on clothing and sell it without his authorization, because that would violate the artist's copyright.

So what can we do when we buy NFT? We don't own the copyright, so we don't make any income from the merchandising, but we do have ownership, and we can sell it on the secondary market, rent it out, display it for rent, use it as collateral, and if you want to destroy it, of course.

The issue of NFT digital art copyright does not transfer Alipay is not the first, but the legal provisions, whether in the field of traditional art or block chain NFT art should be complied with.  

Take Bored Ape Yacht Club, the hottest NFT project at the moment.

First we acquired ownership of an NFT digital work when we bought it. We can display it, post orders to the trading platform for trading, or even destroy the NFT.

One might say, well, why do I see people putting monkeys on their clothes and selling them to other people?

This is because Bored Ape Yacht Club grants the rights to the works in the copyright to NFT Digital Works holders, which is explained in detail in the project website's terms and conditions. However, the owner only owns the property in the digital work of the ape he owns, and the use of other apes requires authorization from the other owner.

In addition, the owner does not have any personal rights to the digital works and, in short, cannot claim to be the original author of the apes.

Copyright and ownership are always confusing concepts, but it is necessary to make a clear distinction between them. With the entry of Alibaba and other big companies into NFT, it is bound to bring a large number of new users. These new users need correct guidance to have a correct cognition of NFT and promote the development of NFT towards a healthy direction.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia