Here’s the article: Canadian entertainment brand allows NFT holders to own their characters (VIDEO)
We previously discussed in class the unfortunate case where a crypto investment / entertainment group purchased a copy of Dune for an exorbitant price, and the fact that ownership of the book did not confer copyright. Now we have entertainment brands that are directly conferring copyright of their character through NFTs, and the character “accrues value” by allowing the NFT’d character (if that can be used as a verb) to be featured in the episode.
Besides the overt criticisms for this practice (environmental cost of NFTs, the questionable economic values of the NFTs themselves…), this is extremely concerning to me from a creator’s perspective. It’s no secret that creative works these days, especially ones that are beholden to a conservative array of stakeholders (ahem, Disney), have exerted significant pressure against creators pursuing stories and characters that are diverse and challenge the status quo (see: ‘Encanto’ Artists Fought Disney to Make Luisa Muscular). I dread to imagine a world where individual characters and their appearance becomes further optimized as a direct source of revenue in this way.
Communications Law