GameStop sold NFT games without “consent,” Dev claims

GameStop has once again proven with their NFT skins that an unregulated market built on planet-destroying technology is not a very good idea, and this may shock you. In a thorough report from Ars Technica, the GameStop NFT marketplace is once again the subject of controversy as an NFT minter on the platform has been caught selling NFT-ified versions of HTML 5 games that he himself did not create and had no permission, whatsoever, to sell them . Oh, and here’s the fun part, these games will probably live forever on the blockchain now!

GameStop has had one number of matches in later years as it has tried to stay competitive and relevant. The last experiment has been to try to make waves in the NFT space, launches a marketplace for digital assets while it’s still terrible. The marketplace has not been without controversy, including a recent NFT that featured art similar to an image of a person who falls to death during the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. However, the latest round of nonsense to come out of the store involves a man named Nathan Ello and his NiFTy Arcade NFTs, which aim to bring some interactive fun to an NFT… but he didn’t seem to stop and ask if he had permission to use games developed by others for this project, much less if he had the right to make money from them.

Talking to KotakuNathan Ello declined to comment for this story.

Kotaku has contacted GameStop for comment.

NFTs have been subject to theft and questionable ownership for some time. If it isn’t an NFT previously owned by a celebrity is stolenthus throwing intellectual property into a gigantic gray area, that is someone embossing NFTs with art that isn’t theirs. The alleged security of NFTs has also been debunked phishing schemes and smart hackers. The secure and traceable future of trading via the blockchain has been very uncertain, and it has been very difficult to find bad actors. And this latest GameStop and NiFTy Arcade controversy is just another example of the mess. Meanwhile, have industry insists on sell, usingand praises NFTs despite overwhelming negative reaction and humiliating mistake.

As Ars Technica first reported today, Ello’s “NiFTy Arcade” NFTs were meant to be “fully playable from an owner’s crypto wallet” or at the GameStop marketplace itself. At least this seems to make a bit more sense than a simple JPEG. Instead of just buying a “link” to an image that you apparently “own” a part of, at least you get to play a fun little HTML 5 game while you burn the planet down.

However, that fun comes with the added bonus that NiFTy Arcade featured games entirely developed by other people who never gave permission for their work to be used in this way or profited from. In fact, many of these games, such as Worm Nom Nom can be found on Itchi.io with a very clear Creative Commons license that does not allow commercial use.

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The backlash was fierce, with several developers stating that they felt ripped off by NiFTy Arcade. Krystian Majewski, developer of Breakout Herosaid in a statement to Ars Technicathat his work was “sold for profit without my consent.”

Ello has stated on Twitter that in some cases, inconsistencies with the licensing language of other titles surely meant he did nothing wrong by simply taking them.

As Ars Technica detailed in their report, Ello has had its embossing rights suspended on GameStop’s marketplace, and the NFTs in question have been taken down from the platform.

On top of that, through the amazing magic of NFTs and the mighty blockchain, these minted games can just live on forever, where they can be bought and sold on other crypto marketplaces. GameStop’s NFTs use an “Interplanetary File System” (IPFS) which would sound cool if that technology didn’t allow others to continue buying and selling NFTs without any device to check and verify the content or legal issues surrounding them. However, it is not entirely clear how GameStop verifies or random checks the NFTs that come to market. their terms of service state that the buyer is responsible for verifying the authenticity of the NFT, not GameStop:

You are solely responsible for carrying out research on an NFT, as well as understanding the seller’s terms and conditions for the potential purchase or sale of NFT, before buying or selling. Such research includes, but is not limited to, verifying the authenticity and veracity of the seller’s claims and description of the NFT, such as ownership, uniqueness, intellectual property, licenses, scarcity, rarity, value and functionality. None of the GameStop Entities (defined below) endorse any NFT or make any claims regarding authenticity, ownership, uniqueness, intellectual property, licenses, scarcity, rarity, value, functionality and/or other attributes or rights thereto.

However, although there is a thorough vetting process on GameStop’s end, through the blockchain, IPFS file hashes can be accessed on any active node across multiple servers. It’s a Pandora’s box of art theft.

It may be the nature of the NFT beast, but GameStop isn’t completely off the hook here. As Ars Technica found out, you can still access the unlicensed NiFTy Arcade games on GameStop’s servers. All you need is the right link and you can continue to access these NFTs regardless. Joseph White, the creator of the PICO-8 game engine that powers the pixel games that Ello licensed for its NiFTy Arcade games, has spoken out against GameStop, telling Ars Technica that the video game retailer does not offer any kind of clear way to remove an NFT that infringes on someone else’s copyright. He has filed DMCA requests, but they seem to have hit a dead end.

Kotaku has contacted Joseph White for comment.

Guess you’d have to be a bit more wealthy for a DMCA takedown request to have any sort of effect; for a fair system! Maybe if I make some Metallica songs, Lars Ulrich will step in to put an end to all this nonsense.