OpenSea faces RIAA complaints about ENS domains
Important takeaways
- OpenSea has removed several Ethereum Name Service domains after receiving trademark complaints from RIAA.
- The domain names in question refer to various large record companies as well as individual managers.
- Yesterday, OpenSea announced that they would lay off 20% of the workforce due to poor market conditions.
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The NFT marketplace OpenSea received trademark complaints from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today and has removed several insulting tokens in response.
OpenSea removes infringing NFTs
It’s been a tough week for OpenSea.
A letter from the RIAA claims that OpenSea’s marketplace has several Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains with names that refer to the recording association and its members. OpenSea has now removed the offensive ENS domain names from its non-fungible token marketplace.
The RIAA said that the sale of the abusive domains constitutes “dilution, confusion and / or tariff” of trademarks. It added that the sale of such domains violates laws on cybersquatting, public law rights and unfair commercial practices.
The letter lists 89 domain names including those referring to Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, Warner Music Group, Parlophone Records and Virgin Records.
Several other domain names refer to individual music managers. These domains refer to Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob String, Columbia Records CEO Ron Perry, Alamo Records CEO Todd Moscowitz and UMG CEO Lucian Grainge.
One person named in the letter was RIAA Chairman Mitch Glazier. In March, Glazier raised the issue of trademarks in the NFT industry. He noted that the RIAA had taken action against the NFT platform HitPiece for infringement.
OpenSea is preparing for recessions
Today’s news comes shortly after OpenSea announced it that is, up to 20% of the workforce in response to market conditions.
OpenSea CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer wrote on July 14 that the “unique combination of cryptocurrency winter and broader macroeconomic instability” means that OpenSea must prepare for a possible “long-term downturn”.
General crypto market conditions have caused the value of the NFT market to fall dramatically this summer.
Compared to the massive market downturn, it is unlikely that RIAA’s complaints will do significant damage to OpenSea alone. Nevertheless, the possibility of legal action and the compulsion to remove tokens are likely to affect trading volumes to some extent.
This is not the first time OpenSea has removed items. It removed former ENS domains that referred to fashion designer Calvin Klein, and it also removed a collection called Not Okay Bears, which imitated another NFT line called Okay Bears.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH and other cryptocurrencies.
