Can You Love Crypto And Still Think NFTs Are Pointless?
I gotta tell you, I am slow to jump on board with new things. I remember tuning out talk of crypto for years because I thought it wasn't going to amount to anything. Well, I am right back at it. I just don't buy that NFTs, in their current function are the next big thing, or the future of collectables. If I am wrong, I will have it here in writing. Help me understand it better in the comments if I am way off here.
To start with, copyright law is not as black and white as it may seem for NFTs. Ownership and the right to reproduce a work, make it public, cash in on it can vary greatly depending on how a purchase of an NFT is made. There have been some NFTs where the buyer has been granted the right to use the copyright in a limited way. For example, owners of CryptoKitties NFTs have been allowed to make up to US$100,000 in gross revenues from them each year. In other cases, creators have specifically restricted all commercial use of the work. For example, the Kings of Leon stipulated that their NFT music was for personal consumption only.
This is another point from theconvesation.com, "Incidentally, buyers should also be aware that the blockchain cannot absolutely know whether a creative work Is authentic. Someone can take another person’s work and tokenize it as an NFT, thereby infringing the rights of the copyright owner. You need to be sure that you are buying something that originated from the creator."
An article from the Medium explains NFT ownership more as "Certificate of Authenticity." Take for example the NFT purchase of the first ever tweet:
"When Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, sold the first tweet he ever posted as an NFT for over 2.9 million dollars, the internet went wild with the question of who now owns the tweet. The buyer, Sina Estavi, described the purchase as buying a Monalisa of tweets. He received a certificate, digitally signed and verified by Mr Dorsey, and the metadata of the original tweet. In reality, the tweet remains publicly accessible on Dorsey’s Twitter page, while Mr Sina gets a certificate of ownership and a right to resell the NFT of the tweet. Thus, the debate of ownership, acquisition and resale rights may lie in the nature of the asset and conditions surrounding its sale."
Each NFT has rules associated to it as to how it can be used and how it can be bought and sold. In addition, the terms and conditions are pre-determined by the creator of NFT and may include benefits for buyers such as:
Outright ownership of the asset (digital or physical transfer included)
Exclusive access to the digital location where the asset is hosted (creative works, e.g. picture, audio, poem, tweet, GIF)
Resale right
Access to receive a percentage of bounty from a further resale
So, even if you are all crazy on NFTs, are you really sure what you actually own? Does the original creator still get a big piece of the pie if you sell your NFT? How are you allowed to profit off the NFT? And so on...
All this is great, but, even without a complete understanding of the legal aspects, my problem is that I may just be too old. I collect different types of things, I am a huge fan of an old horror movie actor named Vincent Price. I have some artwork he created and some contracts, pictures, albums and other items from his personal collection. Having an NFT of Vincent Price would just not hold the personal value to me as to owning things that he actually owned, touched and created physically.
Now, I get how since I am not on the NFT bandwagon, I could be just saying this as sour grapes, so let me know where you have had success or see the value. Especially, if it is not as simply a collectible.
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