What is Copyright?

Copyright is a legal right that protects an author’s original work of intellectual property from being used or copied by unauthorized individuals.

Though copyright protects intellectual property, it does not automatically cover all forms of it like ideas, discoveries, industrial processes, inventions, brand names, slogans, logos, and many others which can be secured using other types of intellectual property protection like trademarks and patents.

Copyright majorly covers creative works like musical lyrics and compositions, novels, art, photographs, scripts, books, and more. It comes into effect once these creative works are put into tangible forms like writing, media, audio, etc. making it not compulsory for an author to register with a legal body before they can enjoy the benefits of this right. Copyright protection is not eternal and lasts for some time, in most jurisdictions lasting from the lifetime of the author till after about 50 to 100 years from their demise, while for entities like corporations 95 years after its publication or 120 years whichever comes first. Once the copyright expires the protected property goes into the public domain where everyone can then benefit from it without fear of legal implications.

Copyright offers authors of an original work the exclusive rights to

1. Reproduce their work.

2. Create derivatives of or modify their work.

3. Distribute their work.

4. Display their work.

5. Perform their work.

6. Moral right to stop the use of their work in ways that they view will damage their reputation beyond repair.

The enforceability of these rights is limited though by certain exceptions examples of which are fair use rights and the first sale doctrine.

Understanding NFTs

NFTs are unique digital tokens, holding meta-data on the blockchain, that prove authenticity and ownership of both digital and physical assets.

With NFTs, creatives of all kinds can create digital tokens that represent proof of ownership for their works. Enabling a more interesting way of transferring, selling, and distributing their works to fans and the general public with the option of cutting out middlemen, thus having direct interaction with their audience.

However the transfer, sale, or distribution of these works in NFT format does not automatically translate to a transfer of copyright, and buyers or collectors of these digital tokens might be liable for copyright infringement if not properly educated. Thus with the existence of copyright and intellectual property laws NFTs generally might have limited benefits and usefulness to buyers aside from the well-known rights to own and resell for profit. Though some NFT creators, platforms, and marketplaces have begun providing some added rights for buyers they are few compared to those who are not.

The Way Forward

Even with NFTs creators and platforms can provide buyers and collectors of their works with certain licenses to use these digital tokens beyond mere resale for profit, with few collections already providing these licenses to their communities.

Some of such licenses include but might not be limited to;

•Personal license: This enables owners to display their NFTs, especially for artworks, use it as pfp, etc. while stopping them from using it for any commercial purposes. And has been the major right provided buyers for a while now.

•Commercial rights license: This grants owners of an NFT the liberty to use their NFTs for commercial purposes.

An example of such is Dapper Labs providing owners of CryptoKitties licenses to make commercial use of their Kitties, up to the earning tone of $100,000 annually.

•Royalty-free license: This license once granted stops the creator from receiving royalties from the use or further resale of the NFTs by owners. Allowing the owners to fully enjoy their resell profits.

•Transfer of copyright: A creator can as well fully transfer copyright ownership with the sale of an NFT giving the buyer not just the ability to own but also become the rightsholder of the work. Creating diverse opportunities for collectors.

To sum up, while blockchain technology and NFTs are excellent advancements for storing, transferring, and distributing creative works, their widespread adoption could be limited without proper infrastructures in place to support and include intellectual property rights.