What Exactly Do You Get When You Buy an NFT? Three Lawyers Discuss - Ep.224

Olta Andoni, fintech and IP Attorney at Zlatkin Wong and adjunct professor at Chicago Kent College of Law, Tonya Evans, visiting Full Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law School and host of the podcast Tech Intersect, and Stuart Levi, co-head of the Intellectual Property and Technology practice at Skadden Arps and coordinator of the firm's Blockchain and Digital Asset practice, break down the legal issues surrounding NFTs. In this episode, they discuss:
how the law looks at non-fungible tokens (1:25)
why owning an NFT is different from owning the rights to the underlying asset making up the NFT (3:12)
problems that blockchain solves for creators  (5:09)
how corporations (aka content intermediaries) are handling NFTs (6:53)
what rights the purchase of an NFT gives a buyer (11:51)
derivative artwork, the fair use copyright law, moral rights, and how U.S. law views NFTs (15:53)
how to determine the jurisdiction of an NFT (25:00)
what type of legal recourse is available to artists whose art has been stolen and redistributed as an NFT (32:37)
the differences in the terms of services between NFT marketplaces  (36:26)
why the first sale doctrine may not apply to digital assets (43:16)
what a buyer is getting when purchasing a blockchain license (46:12)
how NFT creators should protect their work (51:43)
whether a fractionalized NFT is a security (55:25)
how NFTs will change the business of content creation (58:44)
 
Thank you to our sponsors! 
Download the Crypto.com app and get $25 with the code “Laura”: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2 
 
Indexed Finance: https://indexed.finance/ 
 
Episode Links
 
People
Tonya Evans
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IPProfEvans

Penn State Dickinson Law: https://dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/tonya-m-evans 
Relevant content:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-intersect-59-ping-prof-2-non-fungible-tokens-nfts/id1493143898?i=1000512485580

https://clarivate.com/darts-ip/blog/copyright-blockchain/ 

https://clarivate.com/darts-ip/blog/intro-to-ip-and-blockchain/ 

Olta Andoni
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndoniOlta?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Zlatkin Wong: https://zlatkinwong.com/en/ 
Relevant content:

https://www.coindesk.com/stop-tokenizing-art-you-dont-own 

Stuart Levi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartlevi/

Skadden: https://www.skadden.com/ 
Relevant content: 

https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/fin-tech/799182/emerging-discovery-issues-in-blockchain-litigation 

 
Legal Links
Fair Use Doctrine:

https://pitt.libguides.com/copyright/fairuse#:~:text=The%20doctrine%20of%20Fair%20Use,teaching%2C%20scholarship%2C%20and%20research.

First Sale Doctrine:
https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-1854-copyright-infringement-first-sale-doctrine#:~:text=The%20first%20sale%20doctrine%2C%20codified,interests%20of%20the%20copyright%20owner

Moral Rights:
https://www.copyright.gov/policy/moralrights/

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf 

Visual Artists Rights Act

http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/martin/art_law/esworthy.htm 

 
Miscellaneous Links
Banksy
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/banksy-nft-injective-destroy-art-digital-token/

Fractionalized NFTs
https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/sec-crypto-mom-hester-peirce-selling-nft-fragments-illegal-2021-3-1030250153

Dapper Labs License

https://medium.com/dapperlabs/nft-license-2-0-why-a-nft-can-do-what-mickey-mouse-never-could-27673d5f29aa 

TechnoLlama Blog
https://www.technollama.co.uk/can-copyright-teach-us-anything-about-nfts
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olta Andoni, fintech and IP Attorney at Zlatkin Wong and adjunct professor at Chicago Kent College of Law, Tonya Evans, visiting Full Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law School and host of the podcast Tech Intersect, and Stuart Levi, co-head of the Intellectual Property and Technology practice at Skadden Arps and coordinator of the firm's Blockchain and Digital Asset practice, break down the legal issues surrounding NFTs. In this episode, they discuss:

how the law looks at non-fungible tokens (1:25) why owning an NFT is different from owning the rights to the underlying asset making up the NFT (3:12) problems that blockchain solves for creators  (5:09) how corporations (aka content intermediaries) are handling NFTs (6:53) what rights the purchase of an NFT gives a buyer (11:51) derivative artwork, the fair use copyright law, moral rights, and how U.S. law views NFTs (15:53) how to determine the jurisdiction of an NFT (25:00) what type of legal recourse is available to artists whose art has been stolen and redistributed as an NFT (32:37) the differences in the terms of services between NFT marketplaces  (36:26) why the first sale doctrine may not apply to digital assets (43:16) what a buyer is getting when purchasing a blockchain license (46:12) how NFT creators should protect their work (51:43) whether a fractionalized NFT is a security (55:25) how NFTs will change the business of content creation (58:44)

 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Download the Crypto.com app and get $25 with the code “Laura”: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2 

 

Indexed Finance: https://indexed.finance/ 

 

Episode Links

 

People

Tonya Evans

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IPProfEvans
Penn State Dickinson Law: https://dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/tonya-m-evans  Relevant content: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-intersect-59-ping-prof-2-non-fungible-tokens-nfts/id1493143898?i=1000512485580
https://clarivate.com/darts-ip/blog/copyright-blockchain/ 
https://clarivate.com/darts-ip/blog/intro-to-ip-and-blockchain/ 

Olta Andoni

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndoniOlta?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Zlatkin Wong: https://zlatkinwong.com/en/  Relevant content:
https://www.coindesk.com/stop-tokenizing-art-you-dont-own 

Stuart Levi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartlevi/
Skadden: https://www.skadden.com/  Relevant content: 
https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/fin-tech/799182/emerging-discovery-issues-in-blockchain-litigation 

 

Legal Links

Fair Use Doctrine:
https://pitt.libguides.com/copyright/fairuse#:~:text=The%20doctrine%20of%20Fair%20Use,teaching%2C%20scholarship%2C%20and%20research. First Sale Doctrine: https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-1854-copyright-infringement-first-sale-doctrine#:~:text=The%20first%20sale%20doctrine%2C%20codified,interests%20of%20the%20copyright%20owner Moral Rights: https://www.copyright.gov/policy/moralrights/ Digital Millennium Copyright Act
https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf  Visual Artists Rights Act
http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/martin/art_law/esworthy.htm 

 

Miscellaneous Links

Banksy https://www.cbsnews.com/news/banksy-nft-injective-destroy-art-digital-token/ Fractionalized NFTs https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/sec-crypto-mom-hester-peirce-selling-nft-fragments-illegal-2021-3-1030250153 Dapper Labs License
https://medium.com/dapperlabs/nft-license-2-0-why-a-nft-can-do-what-mickey-mouse-never-could-27673d5f29aa  TechnoLlama Blog

https://www.technollama.co.uk/can-copyright-teach-us-anything-about-nfts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices