1st Edition

NFTs, Creativity and the Law Within and Beyond Copyright

Edited By Enrico Bonadio, Caterina Sganga Copyright 2024
    292 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have emerged as an important medium for the creation, sale and collection of art, with many major business and fashion houses creating their own NFT projects. This book investigates the eruption of NFT crypto art, and its impact on copyright law.

    Chapters address topics at the intersection between AI, smart contracts, data science, copyright law and arts administration. With snapshots of the ongoing heated debates around copyright law, the book investigates whether NFTs violate copyright and moral rights, the liability of NFTs platforms, impacts on ethical issues such as counterfeiting. The first book published on this emergent topic, this book offers a comprehensive overview of opportunities and challenges raised by NFTs to copyright law and, more generally, to the regulation and economics of the creative and cultural industries.

    The book is addressed to law and tech enthusiasts as well as academics, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in the intersection between copyright rules and new forms of technology.

    Introduction

    Enrico Bonadio, Caterina Sganga 

    1.      NFTs 101: Non-Fungible Tokens and the blockchain may not be what you think

    Eduardo Alonso, Esther Mondragón 

    2.      NFTs and Copyright: Setting the Scene

    Caterina Sganga, Enrico Bonadio, Magali Contardi, Marie Clopterop 

    3.      Non-fungible Tokens and Liability of Online Marketplaces: a European Perspective

    Zoi Krokida 

    4.      Deploying Blockchain Technology in the Copyright Office

    Peter K Yu 

    5.      All Roads Lead to Tokens – The Impact of NFTs on Galleries and Museums

    Peter Mezei, Ioanna Lapatoura 

    6.      The Past and the Future: Cultural Heritage Rules Meet NFTs

    Cristiana Sappa 

    7.      Tokenizing Attribution: NFT Marketplaces and the Enforcement of Social Norms of Authenticity

    Antoni Rubì-Puig 

    8.      Art in an Age of Non-Fungible Tokens: Authenticity, Value, and Counterfeit

    Giancarlo Frosio, Anthony O’Dwyer 

    9.      Street Art, Graffiti and NFTs: Copyright Issues on the Streets of Web3

    Enrico Bonadio, Siri-Helen Egeland 

    10.  The New Copyright Frontiers – World-Building and Advanced Technologies

    Alana Kushnir 

    11.  “If You Don’t Want Something Stolen, Don’t Put It on The Net”. Appropriation Art from Early Net Art to NFTs

    Domenico Quaranta 

    12.  From Exclusive Ownership to Zones of Exclusivity

    Martin Zeilinger 

    13.  The Emperor’s New Collectibles

    Balázs Bodó, Joost Poort 

    14.  The Banality of NFTs

    Patrick Goold 

    Epilogue

    Andres Guadamuz

    Biography

    Enrico Bonadio is Reader in Intellectual Property Law at City University of London, UK.

    Caterina Sganga is Associate Professor of Comparative Private Law at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy.

    "From a niche artist sub-culture, NFTs surged into the mainstream, drawing major businesses and fashion houses into their own projects, particularly in crypto art, creating a multi-billion-dollar market. This book serves as an essential guide to the NFT phenomenon, exploring its broader implications for creativity and cultural access. Delving into NFTs' profound influence on copyright systems and markets, the book expertly navigates the ongoing debate, issuing a persuasive call to policymakers for a fundamental reconsideration of copyright laws in the dynamic digital landscape." Ellen Loots, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.