30/12/2022 Yuga Labs at Center of Battle Over the Nature of NFT Copyright

Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection at the center of a trademark dispute, were hit with a counterclaim, according to court documents filed on Monday.

Artist Ryder Ripps and his business partner Jeremy Cahen, known as Pauly0x on Twitter, asked the court to declare that BAYC images are not entitled to copyright protection due to “having been generated by an automated computer algorithm where no humans were involved in determining which of the 10,000 BAYC Images were selected,” in theirnewly filed lawsuit.

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal signs $11M Astrals NFT settlement
NFTs weekly sales surge 94% as crypto market continues bullish run
NFT Startup Venture Notables Draws CAA, UTA, WME as Advisors (EXCLUSIVE)

The relationship between NFTs and intellectual property (IP) has been an ongoing debate. The new countersuit comes during the ongoing Yuga Lab’s trademark infringement lawsuit launched in June against Ripps and Cahen, the founders of the RR/BAYC NFT project.

While Yuga Labsassertedthat Ripps and Cahen are selling copycat NFTs in order to mislead consumers, the defendantsclaimedthat, by definition, NFTs are “unique by design and cannot be copied.”

They further argue that Yuga does not have copyrights over the images associated with BAYC NFTs based on the project’s Terms and Conditions whichstatethat BAYC NFT holders retain all intellectual property rights in their NFTs, “from the underlying Bored Ape, the Art, completely.”

Yuga Labs previously won a small legal victory on Dec. 16 when the U.S. District Court of Central California denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case.

Ripps’ lawyers initiallyfiledwhat’s known as an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) motion against Yuga Labs in August to stop the lawsuit. The RR/BAYC project is considered expressive artistic work that should be protected by the First Amendment,” the defendants claimed.

The courtruled, however, that the anti-SLAPP motion was not applicable because “the RR/BAYC NFTs do not express an idea or point of view,” and instead they “point to the same online digital images associated with the BAYC collection.”

A Yuga Labs spokesperson told Blockworks via email at the time, that the defendants’ arguments amounted to “heinous lies” that are “unrelated to the case.”

“Our lawsuit to hold Ripps and Cahen accountable for their obvious and blatant theft of Yuga Labs’ trademarks rightfully moves forward with this ruling,” the spokesperson said.

As the new lawsuit progresses, with the possibility of going to trial, its developments are likely to set a precedent for the greater NFT ecosystem given the market value of the intellectual property at issue.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has the second-highest trading volume on OpenSea of all time, at 703,000 ETH, behind CryptoPunks with 1 million ETH worth of sales.

Arts

https://blockworks.co/news/yuga-labs-at-center-of-battle-over-the-nature-of-nft-copyright

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.
Red Dragon 3 (45 of 50)
name Red Dragon 3 img QmNgQ7VJtzRsoXw6i2337hSgHjhkXBGEsj5WhDYcffijUN cardimg QmY1hT6F8cnux25VyJpdat9mtyQZXbgmcZtPaihjP43V2f metal Gold artist Jon Trafford release CryptoFinney Genesis url writer.io
Stay Free (Edward Snowden, 2021)
This unique, signed work combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower by Platon (used with permission). It is the only known NFT produced by Snowden. Produced using open source software. This auction is on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/appeals-court-strikes-down-nsa-phone-spying-program-aclu-lawsuit
Reflection
#XCOPY #GIF #screen #time #mirror
#74635
By OthersideDeployer