You have bought an NFT and you are wondering: What is it for? What rights do I have over the work? Do I have a license to create derivatives? . The acquisition of these 'Non-fungible tokens' generates many questions related to copyright and it is convenient to emphasize that the rights of the original author and those of the buyer must be differentiated. Here we are going to try to clarify what happens with NFTs and how the rights to the work on which they are based remain.

What are we really buying by paying for an NFT

Buying an NFT means getting hold of a crypto token. Without going into details about blockchain, it can be understood as a public and unique code linked to the original work , because the creator himself has determined so. One of the similes used is that it is as if we had a "limited edition with autograph", a stamp where the author tells the rest of the world that we have the most valuable copy, the good version and most importantly the original.

The development of NFTs do not revolve so much in the value of the work as such, but in the exclusivity and trust that the creator generates by giving us the NFT. The difference between having a JPG of a digital work and having a JPG next to the NFT is that in the latter case we have the confidence that the author will give the maximum value to our NFT, above any other version of his work .

Technically the author could create new NFTs on the same original work, but this would make the creator lose all credibility. The very idea of ​​NFT, which is technologically unique, is basically based on the trust generated by the author.

With the purchase of an NFT you get a "seal of authenticity" from the creator of the work, but the authorship does not change and no copyright is transferred.

That said, the author of the work remains the original creator. The authorship does not change , only when selling the NFT what is allowed is that the buyer can do business with it. When we speak of author we refer to the "creator of the original expression in a work". This person is also the owner of the copyright, unless there is an agreement whereby the copyright is transferred to another person or entity.

Copyright laws were not created with NFTs in mind, but they do establish a whole series of measures that contemplate them. As described by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) , there are economic rights and moral rights . Among the patrimonial rights, it is contemplated that the author can prohibit or authorize the reproduction of his work, interpretation, recording in various formats, broadcasting, translation and adaptation. In the case of moral rights, the right to claim the authorship of the work and the right to oppose any modification that may harm the creator's reputation is recognized.

Both economic rights and moral rights remain in the hands of the author of the work and the purchase of the NFT does not transfer any of these rights . Still, various government agencies and IP registries such as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) are intensively studying the possibilities of blockchain .

The purchase of an NFT may be associated with an additional contract, where specific clauses are established, including the transfer of some rights. However, this is a one-time thing and is not necessarily linked to the purchase of an NFT.

As a comment, obviously the creation of an NFT belongs solely to the original author. If someone outsider creates an NFT of a work outside of him, he is infringing copyright . Equivalently, those who bought this illegal NFT would also not get anything in return. This is the case of MetaBirkins , who has sold a "tribute to Hermes" collection through OpenSea, with some tokens reaching the equivalent of $24,000. However, Hermes subsequently accused the seller of infringing on his copyright.

The creation of NFTs from other people's works is one of the problems that is affecting platforms like OpenSea, where digital authors see how their works are being minted (the process of minting an NFT) by strangers and have problems getting the platform to block them.

The only right that seems to matter with NFTs is Royalties

The concept is closely linked to the media success that these tokens are having are right to royalties or ' royalties ', that is, a percentage that can be left on a subsequent sale. These royalties are reflected in the smart contract that is made when selling the NFT and is one of the explanations why there are investors betting on NFTs.

Due to the very construction of the NFTs, all subsequent resales are reflected in the blockchain and the allocation of royalties can be done automatically. That is, the original author of the work can get to collect a percentage of each subsequent sale, but not only him. Also the holder of the previous NFT can obtain royalties with each subsequent sale .

The automation of royalties with each subsequent sale is the great advantage that can be achieved with NFTs. Due to this percentage obtained by the previous owners, many investors (or companies that want to generate business) have been attracted.

One of the sectors that is approaching NFTs is video games. The creation of these tokens is a mechanism to generate income. If to date we had micropayments to acquire digital goods, the implementation of NFTs associated with each object or character can favor traceability and, above all, boost resale . However, the reaction of certain communities has not been very positive, as is the case with 'STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl' , which has finally paralyzed its commitment to NFTs.

One of the criticisms of NFTs is that many are built on a house of cards . There are different ways to obtain an NFT, but in some cases they are hosted on web servers. At the moment the web has problems, the NFT gives an error.

Purchases and transactions with NFTs are anonymous, but this also serves as criticism since it can be taken advantage of by the author himself or by the original buyers themselves to artificially grow the value of the NFT, acquiring the NFT at ever higher prices. to make other people believe that that NFT has a growing value.

Again with NFTs, and in many other investment fields, everything is based on the trust that can be generated. Other criticisms that serve to reflect how NFTs work is when there were companies that allowed you to buy a plot on the Moon. There was no right associated with that purchase. What is the difference? The idea is that while the organization that sold those parcels had no right to the land on the Moon, the original author of the work does assure us. Of course, being "owner" of the work will only help us to obtain the approval of the original author, in addition to the possibility of reselling that NFT and obtaining royalties.

Some buyers of NFTs do not want other users to download copies of the original work. While other buyers like Vignesh Sundaresan, who purchased the NFT of Beeple's work for the equivalent of $69.3 million, don't mind everyone downloading the work for free , understanding that the value of their NFT is not subject to the use that the rest make of the image .

NFTs are nothing but a technology through which an author can guarantee exclusivity. These development of NFTs allow certain transactions to be automated and open the door to a future with many options based on them, but currently their greatest value is that they promote resale. Some movements that some see as a bubble and others see as a way to value digital creations. Regardless of how the use of NFTs evolves, it is important to note that they are not linked to the transmission of intellectual property .