Law popularization: NFT digital collection copyright issuance, "CC0" and copyright transfer

In 2022, foreign NFT projects ushered in a blowout explosion. Among the massive and dizzying NFT projects, the Nouns project and the Goblinown project using the "CC0" model both stood out, leading a new wave of IP open source, and providing a basis for domestic digital collections. The industry provides a benchmark for reference.

Nouns is one of the earliest "CC0" NFT projects. It is based on some preset basic elements such as background, characters, glasses, etc., and automatically generates an NFT collection every 24 hours for auction. The founding team adopted the "CC0" model and gave up the IP copyright. Anyone can use these generated Nouns pictures. Therefore, under the fiery spread, Nouns derivative projects worth millions of dollars have been produced, which has further promoted the popularity of Nouns.

For the Goblintown project, some people bluntly called it "ugly", while others called it "one of the strangest NFTs ever", but no matter what it is, its success cannot be denied. The unique style of painting, and the "CC0" model no longer requires dissemination, and the second creation is authorized, making the Goblintown project sweep the NFT world.

Back to China. In the digital collection industry 2.0 era where digital collections are gradually moving away from high-return and high-yield gimmicks, "CC0" also happens to meet the needs of issuers for brand marketing and cultural value. In this context, some domestic issuers of digital collections are aiming at the "CC0" mode of digital collections, hoping that through the "CC0" mode, buyers can truly enjoy the copyright of the collection and obtain copyright benefits.

But in the process of communicating with many entrepreneurs, I found that people often confuse copyright transfer with "CC0". NFT digital collections in the "CC0" model and digital collections that allow users to obtain copyright benefits are completely different things. Once the digital collection project uses the "CC0" model, it will be difficult for users who purchase collections to obtain the copyright of the collection.

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What are "CC0" and copyright transfer?

Although some people call it the "CC0 agreement", "CC0" is not an agreement signed by both parties, but a unilateral statement of the original owner of the work. A similar claim is CC-X.

The statement of CC0 is to "completely, permanently, irrevocably and unconditionally waive the copyright and related rights of the work". 0 here means that the rights reserved by the copyright owner are zero, that is, no rights are reserved.

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What is the difference between "CC0" and copyright transfer

There are many differences in the form, content, and legal consequences of "CC0" and copyright transfer, specifically as follows:

Transfer objects are different. The core meaning of "CC0" is that within the scope permitted by law, the copyright owner waives all rights to the work and transfers it to the public for use. Anyone can use this work in any form and for any purpose (including commercial use) without any further license authorization. And copyright transfer means that the original copyright owner transfers the copyright of the work to a specific subject, and the subject continues to enjoy the copyright of the work. If other people want to use this work, they still need to obtain permission from this subject.

The form is different. Generally speaking, as long as the "CC0" model is added to the digital collection item, it is deemed that the copyright owner has unilaterally waived the copyright of the work. The transfer of copyright requires a written copyright transfer contract between the transferor and the transferee of the copyright of the work.

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lawyer summary

1. In my country's judicial practice, the "CC0" model itself cannot completely avoid the risk of infringement. If a work owner claims rights to the user, even if he has joined the "CC0" model, the user still needs to prove the source of his legal authorization. Moreover, the "CC0" model does not include or guarantee the waiver of patent rights and trademark rights. In addition, if the work itself involves portrait rights and other rights, there is no waiver of such rights in the "CC0" model, and there is also the possibility of infringement.

2. In general, both the "CC0" model and copyright transfer can give full play to the copyright value of digital collections and realize the empowerment of collection users. Under the CC0 mode, all users can freely spread the collection without restriction, which greatly improves the popularity of the digital collection project. Copyright transfer is to ensure that the user who holds the collection truly enjoys the copyright of the work, and the user who holds the position can freely use and disseminate the work and obtain benefits.

3. The issuer of the digital collection can comprehensively consider and evaluate the collection project to be issued from various aspects such as commercial value and legal rights, determine the expected goal of the collection project and the commercial value of the work itself, and then choose the best distribution model to effectively play the digital The cultural value of the collection.