- Licenses provide open source codified versions of intellectual property rights
- Murky IP licensing has recently caused confusion regarding rights of NFT buyers
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’ crypto arm, a16z, released six NFT-specific copyright licenses on Wednesday as part of a free and public set of “Can’t Be Evil” Licenses, in the style of Creative Commons.
A blog post from Miles Jennings, general counsel at a16z, and Chris Dixon, a managing partner who founded a16z, ໄດ້ລະບຸໄວ້ that the firm is addressing the existing ambiguity and confusion around NFT licensing.
Their aim is to clarify an NFT creator, buyer or seller’s rights regarding the artwork of digital assets in order to “democratize access to high quality licenses and encourage standardization across the web3 industry.”
The “Can’t Be Evil” set is meant to serve as a template for NFT projects to consider when creating and selling NFTs, ຕາມ to its Terms and Conditions.
The slate of open source licenses are based on US law and relate to copyright only, excluding other forms of intellectual property, including personality rights, stated the document. US copyright laws do not automatically grant buyers of both traditional and digital assets the right to reproduce, adapt or publicly display the artwork without a license.
The six options each outline different degrees of freedom intended to help creators protect or release their intellectual property (IP) rights, especially those enabling buyers to modify the artwork or create derivative works.
The Licenses were developed in partnership between a16z Crypto and the law firms Latham & Watkins LLP and DLA Piper LLP. Available on GitHub, NFT projects are able to add a reference to a specific license directly into a smart contract.
The “Can’t Be Evil” title was inspired by Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan and puts the trust in the code, according to a16z
“Instead of trusting people or corporations to not be evil, we can ensure through code that they “can’t be evil,” the company stated.
Source: https://blockworks.co/a16z-creates-nft-licensing-framework-to-standardize-collectors-rights/