The first concern raised against NFTs sounded like “Hey! I hacked it! Right click and save and I’ve got your NFT for free”. Well that turned out to be not exactly it. For sure you can right-click and save but do you own the NFT? The answer is NO. That’s the beauty of the blockchain and the value that it adds to our digital creations. Who owns the NFT on the blockchain owns the NFT and that’s a different story than right-clicking and saving.
But what about the artwork or other work represented by the NFT? Does the buyer have any right over that besides the possibility to use it maybe as a twitter avatar and maybe resell it for a gain? Unfortunately, in most of the cases, the answer is NO.
The truth behind most of the NFT projects out there is that what you buy is something that you can resell. It gives you certaintly the joy of collecting and being part of a community but fact is that most of the artworks are still only usable for personal use.
Therefore, since a while, we had the idea to add a set of licenses to NFTMagic so that the users minting an artwork could also attach a license to the artwork itself, This would give the buyer of the NFT some additional rights.
Still users can choose to set the default license which basically reflects the previous rules of NFTMagic which were not granting any specific right to buyers over the artwork related to the NFTs besides the ability to use it for personal purposes only or tell the world that they own that specific NFT and of course resell trying to make a gain.
License-types that can be set on NFTMagic
10 – Basic NFT license.
Owner of NFT may use artwork for personal use only.
20 – CC BY-NC-ND (Social media NFT license).
Owner of NFT may use artwork for personal use. Non-commercial use (like on social media) is allowed, but artist must be credited. Altering the artwork is not allowed.
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
30 – CC BY-NC license.
Owner of NFT may use the artwork non-commercially and may alter it to make new artworks that can also be used non-commercially, but artist must be credited.
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
40 – CC BY-NC-SA.
Owner of NFT may use the artwork non-commercially only and may alter it to make new artworks, but artist must be credited. Owner of NFT must use this same license when licensing new artworks that are based upon the artwork.
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
50 – CC BY-ND license.
Owner of NFT may use the artwork commercially, but may not alter it. Artist must be credited.
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode
60 – CC BY License.
Owner of NFT may use the artwork commercially and may alter it to make new artworks, but artist must be credited.
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
70 – CC BY-SA License.
Owner of NFT may use the artwork commercially and may alter it to make new artworks, but artist must be credited. Owner of NFT must use this same license when licensing new artworks that are based upon the artwork.
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
80 – CC0 Public Domain (No rights reserved).
Author of artwork waives (or has waived) all copyright and related rights to artwork. Or issuer of NFT guarantees to NFT owner that the artwork is not protected by copyright law. Everyone (including NFT owner) can use the artwork for all purposes without having to credit the author .
Creative Commons reference: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0
90 – Custom license.
Owner of NFT may use the artwork in accordance with the custom description in the properties of the NFT only.
99 – Transfer of copyright.
The party selling the NFT holds the copyright to the artwork. Copyright to the artwork is transferred to the buyer of the NFT by copyright holder. Both original copyright holder and buyer of NFT promise to each other and to subsequent NFT owners that they will cooperate if any extra actions are needed to construct or prove a valid transfer of copyright ownership to the NFT owner.
The Licenses and the Terms and Conditions including the rules over these Licenses have gone live on the 28 January 2022.
All NFTs minted before this date are automatically assigned the License “10 – Basic License” which basically reflects the same rules in place prior to this date.
One of the things to keep in mind when using this new feature is that licenses can only be upgraded. Downgrading a license is not permitted. And upgrading a license can be done also after the NFT has been sold. It is not a bad news if the NFT you have bought now can also be used for more than just collecting it. Upgrading Licenses is not allowed for Licenses “80 – CC0 Public Domain” and “99 – Transfer of copyright”. And upgrading from one of the lower license to “90 – Custom License” is allowed only if the new custom license grants more rights than the previous license.
The minting of NFT with an intial license is a feature enabled starting with SIGBRO version 2.0.4. Upgrading licenses for old NFTs or new NFTs minted with SIGBRO versions 2.0.3 and lower is also enabled. The creator of the NFT can head to the NFT page and will find an arrow next to the assigned license that allows upgrading the license.
License upgrade is always something that the creator of the NFT can do because he/she is the holder of the copyrights. NFT buyers do not have that option except if the copyright is transferred with the NFT and therefore the new owner could decide how to handle the new copyright aquisition.
We hope you enjoy this new feature and we invite you to get in touch for questions or for any comment.
Let’s give NFTs a new purpose.