18/01/2022 Gaming YouTubers have had their likenesses stolen and sold as NFTs

Gaming YouTubers have had their likenesses stolen and turned into NFTs.

The NFTs cropped up on auction site OpenSea, including an image of the content creator and a unique URL for the cards that's merely the YouTube channel address.

The user StakeTheWeb appears to be making NFTs of influencers across social media, including gaming YouTubers James Stephanie Sterling and Caddicarus who tweeted their disapproval.

"Shilling off a profile picture for a collection you can just make yourself on a Facebook photo album is honestly a new level of pathetic," said Caddicarus.

"Frankly not surprised that some freeloading leech turned my channel into an NFT," said Sterling.

"As gross as it is, I find it justifying - I did not consent to this, I do not want this, and it demonstrates everything I've said about how disrespectful and exploitative this market is. Scum."

Not only is this practice theft, creator and writer at Sony Santa Monica Alanah Pearce has had her image used in pornography by a different user on the platform.

"In extremely predictable news I've just been informed that somebody has taken an image of me, that *I* own, added a trademarked porn logo to it, and 'minted' it to sell for profit as an NFT. Naturally, I was not asked for permission," said Pearce on Twitter.

"I cannot wait for the lawsuits".

An OpenSea spokesperson responded toTheGamerwith a statement.

"OpenSea supports an open and creative ecosystem in which people have greater freedom and ownership over digital items of all kinds. One of our operating principles is to support creators and their audiences by deterring theft and plagiarism on our platform.

"To that end, it is against our policy to sell NFTs using plagiarised content, which we regularly enforce in various ways, including delisting and in some instances, banning accounts (as was the case in this instance). We are actively expanding our efforts across customer support, trust and safety, and site integrity so we can move faster to protect and empower our community and creators."

While the Alanah Pearce NFTs appear to have been taken down, the James Stephanie Sterling and Caddicarus NFTs (as well as others) remain available at the time of writing.

Arts

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-01-17-gaming-youtubers-have-had-their-likenesses-stolen-and-sold-as-nfts

Interesting NFTs
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
Fuku-Shiva
The term “Fuku” refers to fortune or good luck. “Shiva” refers to the Hindu deity who represents strongly polar qualities, both severe and delicate. On a beach inspired by adventures on Phi Phi island in Thailand, three youths cavort. Two are representational figures and the third is psychologically rendered. A dynamic relationship ensues between the triad; a reciprocity of active and passive states. The boy on the right engages in maneuvers of evasion, defense, and is dressed in a speedo which reiterates the colors and symbolism of the caution tape on the left and upper right frame of the composition. In concurrent reaction the psychedelic figure shoots out a rocket powered paper airplane. The nude boy seated in the froth and sand approaches in passive repose, and is met with active attention but equal physical reserve by the psychedelic being. Perhaps the most naked figure is also the least representational. Looming large, dynamic, and active, it engages its companions playfully. Various symbols interject into the otherwise naturalistic scene, most notably a beach ball and two contaminated barrels nested in the sand. The upright barrel reads “FukuShima” in Kanji. The barrel laying down reads “Dharma”. To the left the scene is bounded by caution tape, reiterating the danger of the nuclear waste while also hosting alien archetypes, whose presence, as is the nature of these entities, runs up and just behind the consciousness of the psychedelic figure’s eggshell-like skull.
#53922
By OthersideDeployer
Crypto Toy Coin
This piece represents the creation of a new "Visual Toy", a term created by me to encompass my unique and exclusive GIF-Arts. The latter, "Crypto Toy Coin" is the only and first in the cryptocurrency theme. In it I represent the fast-paced world of finance in the virtual environment, the Internet with its universe of colors and infinite visual impact, an optimistic and exciting future, a world of possibilities that opens before us. These "Visual Toys" invite you to imagine, that is their function, that is the game. The ultimate goal is that you imagine, that it is you who gives it meaning. There are no good or bad answers, just the projection of each one. I've only created the trigger, the piece where you can project your imagination and let it fly.
CryptoKitties
What's up! I'm Kitty #342897. I'm a professional Ventriloquist and I love hamburgers. I would give it all up to be on Oprah. Can you make my gorgeous dreams come true?