Why Ethereum NFT creators are giving away commercial rights – to everyone

Moonbirds is one of the 2022 years most successful NFT projects, generating more than half a billion dollars in trading volume within a few months. Buying one will cost you at least USD 29,000 in ETH when this is written. But the creators have now decided that you don’t need to own a Moonbird to use the images.

Prove it Web3 startup behind Proof Collective NFT group and Moonbirds – announced that it will change Moonbirds and the last ones Oddities NFT collections to a CC0, or Creative Commons Zerolicense.

Effectively, this means that no rights are reserved by the creators, and it puts the artwork in the public domain. As a result, anyone can use Moonbird’s or Oddity’s artwork and likenesses to create and sell derivative projects, merchandise, clothing – whatever.

Proof co-founder Kevin Rose, technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, posted a Twitter thread with the news today, starting by noting his co-creation of social platform Digg in 2004. The Web2 veteran said Digg’s groundbreaking features were quickly imitated and replicated by competing platforms.

“The default gut reaction is to protect what you’ve created,” Rose wrote. “But Web3 is a chance to start over and rethink everything back to first principles. A chance to say that others don’t have to fail for us to win. A chance to be more inclusive and open to everyone.”

Like other CC0 projects, Moonbirds will rely on the provenance of Ethereum blockchain to prove that the NFTs are the original creations. “The authenticity of Moonbirds will not come from attorneys enforcing trademarks,” Rose wrote, “but rather from proven provenance and single source of truth to smart contracts.”

Proof’s announcement comes just days after pseudonymous crypto artist XCOPY tweeted that they would also open up all their previous artworks to the public domain.

XCOPY makes a completely different kind of NFT art than Moonbirds – their specialty is digital singles that have sold for millions of dollars each. XCOPY had previously put their “Right Click, Save As Guy” artwork – which sold for nearly $7.1 million worth of ETH in December 2021 – into the public domain.

On Monday, XCOPY wrote that their “summer.jpg” artwork would also get CC0 status … along with anything else they made that isn’t a collaboration.

“We haven’t really seen a CC0 summer yet, but I think it’s coming,” wrote XCOPY, “I’m going to go ‘all in’ and use CC0 [to] all my existing art.”

Why CC0?

Proof and XCOPY are the latest major Ethereum NFT creators to tap into the growing CC0 movement, but they are not alone. Nouna new NFT project that auctions a single NFT per day and gives owners voting rights to a valuable DAO the treasury, is arguably the most famous CC0 project in the room.

Noun pictures, including the boxy “noun glasses,” can be used for all sorts of spin-off NFT projects—and they have, if Lil’ Noun, 3D Noun, and Nounpunk are any indication. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and we’re seeing the noun aesthetic spread to merchandise and other avenues such as the one-year anniversary of launch approaches.

In fact, it was the Substantiv glasses featured in a Bud Light commercial during the last Super Bowl. Bud Light brand owns a Noun NFT and participates in DAO votes, but it did not need to own NFT to use the glasses in the advertisement. It may be an unexpected twist, but it aligns well with the decentralized, open-source ethos of the Web3 movement.

“You don’t need copyright anymore,” Noun’s co-creator 4156 told Decrypt last November. “In the same way that academic citations make the original paper more important, citing nouns in whatever form they come in—at least this is our thesis—will make the originals more important and valuable.”

In other words, in the view of 4156 and many other CC0 advocates, the increasing use and proliferation of IP should add value back to the original NFT creations, rather than take away from them. In fact, the goal is to spread the images far and wide, like memes.

But it is NFT owners who potentially benefit from the open source IP extension.

“CC0+NFT does for the media what Bitcoin did for currency: it transforms a game of resistance into a game of cooperation,” 4156 tweeted in May, as noted by one comprehensive a16z Crypto explanation of the CC0 movement published on Wednesday.

It’s a big experiment, and with nouns it’s only been a year. On the other hand, images of nouns have already gained exposure during a Super Bowl broadcast. And beyond openly enabling and encouraging derivative works, Substantiv DAO continually uses its vast treasury to fund projects that help further expand and spread IP.

The noun auction and DAO model is unique, but there are many other CC0 projects out there, including Goblintown, CrypToadz, Mfers, Anonymice and Blitmap. Loot is another known example of the conceptas the NFT lists of fantasy gear can be used as the basis for all kinds of projects – including games and narrative products.

Unlike these projects, Moonbirds did not start as a CC0 project: it opens itself up to the public, regardless of what thousands of NFT owners think. Rose, for her part, seems at peace with the idea of ​​handing over the keys to…well, anyone and everyone.

“We can’t change our minds,” he tweeted. “We’re rooting for you and look forward to helping promote and support all of your creative endeavors.”