The copyright dispute between BAYC boring ape and CRYPTO PUNKS

Bored Ape Yacht Club Value and Commercial

The BAYC Boring Ape series released by Yuga Labs has always been regarded as the most commercially applicable project in the NFT project. In addition to the well-known star Stephen Curry using him as a Twitter sticker, there are also holders who cooperate with brewers to launch co-branded craft beers ; cooperate with well-known painters to launch BAYC authorized comics ; play animations in Times Square, New York, etc. The commercial creation and utilization of the holders are full of creativity.

However, aren't these people violating copyright?

In the previous article, NFT projects have different terms of copyright authorization, and it is necessary to confirm the content of copyright authorization at the time of casting or the project website of each project. Let's look at BAYC's copyright licensing terms:

iii. Commercial Use. Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms, Yuga Labs LLC grants you an unlimited, worldwide license to use, copy, and display the purchased Art for the purpose of creating derivative works based upon the Art (“Commercial Use” ). Examples of such Commercial Use would eg be the use of the Art to produce and sell merchandise products (T-Shirts etc.) displaying copies of the Art.

BAYC TERMS & CONDITIONS

The general idea is that the BAYC project party authorizes the holder to make unlimited, global use, reproduction and display of its derivative creations, and will not charge for this commercial use. In other words, the holder can cooperate with any brand to create derivative products, such as the above-mentioned comics, beer, or even YouTube, etc., and these benefits can be included in the holder's pocket.

According to the founders, each exploit makes the brand bigger.

Crypto Punks ambiguous copyright license

As the most representative of the NFT industry, Crypto Punks is not as powerful as BAYC recently, and there are no various business cooperation projects with Punk?

The reason is the copyright license terms.

The project launched by Larva Labs in 2017 did not discuss the issue of copyright licensing at the time of its creation , nor did it provide any licensing terms for commercial use. This seems to be a big problem today. Meebits, a project launched by Larva Labs in 2021, contains detailed terms .

The ambiguity of the licensing terms of Crypto Punks has led to limitations in the use of Crypto Punks, and even the founder once said that he hoped that "every holder has the copyright rather than the authorization". In 2018, everyone didn’t think that this sentence was a little bit, because at that time, this NFT was provided for free, and no one could think that it could be sold for tens of millions. But if each holder is a copyright owner, it means that they can enjoy all the profits (movies, games, music, and any commercial use). This will have a great impact on the cooperation and operation of Larva Labs, the project party.

However, because when the project party was making this NFT, it did not comply with the relevant US laws and regulations "signed by the owner of the rights conveyed (17 USC § 204.)", so the copyright was not transferred to the holder at the time of casting. someone.

However, why did the authorized content not provide relatively strict licensing terms until 2019. 5. 17, the project party Larva Labs. However, this mandate is still quite controversial.

Yuga Labs buys CryptoPunks and Meebits intellectual property rights

Yuga Labs announced the purchase of two major NFT IPs to solve the part that Larva Labs could not solve in the Crypto Punks copyright issue. Mentioned in a statement from Larva Labs

When we created the CryptoPunks almost 5 years ago as an experiment in digital art, we didn't quite realize the level of association people would come to have with their puns. The effect was so powerful that it became some people's online identities. …. .

As we discussed ways we could collaborate, it became clear to us that what would be best for the CryptoPunks and Meebits was for Yuga to take over operations and guide them in this new, much larger world. With that in mind, we are announcing today that Yuga Labs has acquired the IP of both CryptoPunks and Meebits, along with the majority of the developer-owned Punks and Meebits. Their first action in acquiring this IP will be to grant commercial rights to the community .

Yuga Labs Acquires CryptoPunks and Meebits

Yuga Labs, which has successfully managed BAYC, bought the intellectual property rights of Larva labs and tried to solve the copyright licensing problem that could not be solved in the past. This will allow the holders of Crypto Punks to see a glimmer of light, and perhaps in the future they will also be able to commercially Use it to revive this legendary NFT project.

NFT brings a new century of intellectual property rights

In the past, the gameplay of intellectual property rights was very simple and simple.

After creators create well-known and popular characters, they do their best to protect their intellectual property rights. For example, Disney's characters have gained popularity. Disney maintains their intellectual property rights all over the world. Only they can be used as copyright authorization and profit. Party, strictly limit/prohibit other people's commercial use.

However, NFT has created a new business model. A project needs to gain popularity and need to grow, and there must be many derivative creations and business cooperation. When the project party opens up to find cooperation, it will further increase the price of NFT, so that the project party can enjoy When the price of NFT is high, the transaction fee is deducted, and you can also find business cooperation opportunities yourself.

Turning NFT into a scalable project has added a new way of creation and new gameplay to art and creation. We look forward to seeing a decentralized Disney in the future.