NFT License
Intro - Legal
We need legal intersections to help with EIP work and to understand and support the contractual relationship.
Intro - License
The NFT License helps define the rights of both owners of ERC-721 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as artists and creators working with NFTs. The NFT License is designed to balance two concerns:
Protecting the hard work and ingenuity of creators
Granting users the freedom and flexibility to fully enjoy their non-fungible tokens
We may meet with some legal misconceptions by continuing this road.
"you own the NFT. And since you DONT OWN THE COPYRIGHT, usage is licensed to you..."
The real question is: How do we want to define ownership in blockchains that are built in the Open Source enviroment?
NFT Copyright thread
A lot of great questions but not many answers https://twitter.com/mewn21/status/1389459738291838978?s=20
License
If we are going to think about creating license then this document, or even standard should be composed out of:
Token rights
Resource Rights
For example if we are defining NFT use case as Theater Ticket the licenses should be comrpomised of:Token rights: resalable bearer instrument with constraints. Resource Rights: the bearer is entitled to attending a specific show at a specific time, subject to venues rules.
NFTs as Constrained Tokens
"NFTs are constrained tokens, which have one or more constraints that must be met for exercising any rights associated with that token. Pure bearer tokens represent rights that are conferred to the holder of those tokens without externality. Interchain NFTs are not bearer tokens. They are constrained by one or more mechanisms, the most basic is cryptographic proof of control for transfers."- RFC Author
Source: https://github.com/interNFT/nft-rfc/blob/main/nft-rfc-005.md#nfts-as-constrained-tokens
License examples:
Cosmos - NFT-RFC, NFT Rights: https://github.com/interNFT/nft-rfc/blob/main/nft-rfc-005.md Nifty license by Dapperlabs: https://www.niftylicense.org/
Dapper labs license
Helps define the ownership or a license
What am I allowed to do with the art associated with my NFT ?
What am I NOT allowed to do with the art associated with my NFT ?
Tokenart licensing
Tokenart is working on licensing NFTs and physical artworks https://en.tokenart.org/about
Rarible License
Defines what is license (shortly)
License is announcement not intended as legal advice
License is optional
License should be included in the metadata
License is legal agreement
License is tied to collectibles (images, artwork)
License is permanently tied to intelectual property of the artist
License comes in two varietes - exclusive and non-exclusive
License enforces IP rights
License recognizes how blockchain forks could affect NFTs
License respect artists freedom
NFT Licensing Protocol Idea
"fork existing NFT standards to add a "license" metadata field which stores hash of license
encourage license standardization with limited variables so that there are a limited # of hashes whose meaning can be recognized on-chain
a set of wrapper contracts is deployed; these contracts are compatible with the standard license
the wrapper contracts "know" which kind of standard license each standard NFT is associate with (i.e., how the standard license was parametrized), just by "checking" the license field of the NFT
if IP license in "license" field of NFT allows for the kind of sublicense represented by the wrapper contract, wrapper contract will accept that NFT for wrapping; in return, the wrapper contract gives the NFT owner a new NFT which means that person still owns the NFT, but the NFT is encumbered by a license ("authNFT") and gives the sublicensee a sublicense token which means that sublicensee has certain rights to use the associated IP/art ("licNFT")
if IP license in "license" field of NFT does not allow for the kind of sublicense represented by the relevant wrapper contract, the wrapper contract will not accept deposit of that NFT and will not produce authNFT and licNFT
the protocol should have a governance token so license standard can evolve and grow more parametrizable over time
the standard license MUST have the following terms (i.e., these terms must be in standard license for the protocol to function as designed):
holding the NFT (or one of the possible licNFTs) means holding the license on a "bearer basis"
I suggest the standard license SHOULD also have the following license terms (i.e., these are not essential to use of the above protocol scheme but is my personal view on a "good standard" to drive the market toward): - strong constraints on further discretionary artist use of that exact IP after initial sale of NFT
if IP is part of a "family/brand of NFTs," the "family/brand IP" is governed by all NFT holders for that family/brand
collector subrogated to artist rights to enforce DMCA takedown requests etc." - Gabriel Shapiro
NFT Rights Registry
An "Open-sourced list of NFTs according to their copyright, trademark, and other rights.
NFT standards and smart contracts do not recognize off-chain law or licensing agreements. Most NFTs are sold with no mention of copyright, trademark, or other rights given to the collector. As a result, the creator has "all rights reservered" for the "work" of the NFT.
Further Reading
Rarible license: https://github.com/rariblecom/nft-license Thread related to Rarible License: https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1419029760890609665?s=20 Half-Baked NFT Licensing Protocol Idea: https://lexnode.substack.com/p/half-baked-nft-licensing-protocol?utm_source=url&s=r NFT Rights Registry https://github.com/rara-social/NFT-Rights-Registry The IC3 NFT License paper https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4169092
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