NFT copyright is still a total mess 🫣


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Web3 Creator

The next internet era.

It's September!

A licensing deal between Mars and music label UMG means Bored Ape NFT images are now printed on M&M’s chocolate candies.

Mars is releasing limited-edition M&M’s candy featuring Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT imagery on it.

The deal is between Mars and Universal Music Group’s 10:22PM label, which licensed the Ape NFT images from a notable collector.

In this newsletter, you'll find:

Are NFTs entrainment's new fan engagement tool?
Dating in the metaverse
NFT copyright is still a total mess
After $177 billion in investment, why do metaverse graphics still suck?
When NFT drops go wrong...

WHAT'S NEW?

More than $100m worth of NFTs stolen since July 2021, data shows.
Solana now has a beer. Sold out beer.
Aitch's Close To Home becomes the first NFT project to enter the UK Official Albums Chart.
Seattle NFT Museum launches exhibition on fashion’s place in the blockchain.

Are NFTs entertainment's new fan engagement tool?

Entertainment companies have worked for decades to engage fans, whether this is through contests, giveaways, limited edition products, and so on. As we enter the web3 era, NFTs are fast becoming the new way by which companies create fan engagement.

From sentimental collectables for fans to practical tools for giving out benefits and access to the public, NFTs have found their place in entertainment.

NFT engagement on the rise...

In the case of collectables, NFTs are often used as tie-ins for the launch of new projects to get fans excited and to reward them for engagement.

For example, DC Comics created collectable NFTs of all the iconic Batman cowls to tie in with the release of The Batman earlier this year. These collectables not only rewarded fans for being loyal to the franchise but helped to build more buzz around the newest film. NFTs have also been used as scavenger-type hunts for fans.

More than sentiments

But while there is a plethora of options in the market for users to engage with their favourite franchises with NFTs, there are also many NFT collections that offer more than just nostalgia and an emotional attachment to media.

The Bandit Project is an NFT collection with 3,000 assets that offers its holders a chance to profit off their purchases. Based on the Binance Smart Chain, each NFT given to a buyer is chosen at random while the ecosystem revolves around the native $BANDIT token. Those who hold the token can make a passive income from it by minting their NFT.

Dating in the metaverse 👀

Virtual reality-powered metaverse dating is here and it's growing, as Madeleine Aggeler writes for The New York Times — and frankly, it sounds, uh, super weird.

Nevermet is one of several up-and-coming VR dating services, which, like Tinder or Hinge, works to match users in digital spaces.

But Nevermet takes digital dating a few steps further. Unlike Hinge's motto — "designed to be deleted" — suggests of the classic phone apps, Nevermet has faith in a future where entire relationships will be lived in headsets.

The benefits of these spaces seems somewhat unclear at present.

On one hand, they can be havens for those who want a safe place to explore their sexual identities; Mullen told the publication that taking virtual forms can allow users to "feel like their best self."

Others, however, say these spaces aren't always so welcoming.

What are your thoughts on Metaverse dating?

THE VERGE

NFT copyright is still a total mess, says report

Misleading, confusing, or total nonsense.

The Galaxy report analyzes the terms of major NFT projects, including the Yuga Labs project Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends, and World of Women as well as the “metaverse” social platforms Decentraland and Sandbox.

It concludes that “the vast majority of NFTs convey zero intellectual property ownership of their underlying content,” and many of their operators (including Yuga Labs) “appear to have misled NFT purchasers” about the extent of their rights.

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After $177 billion in investment, why do metaverse graphics still suck?

The metaverse has been touted as the place where we’ll spend our lives in the future—but the visuals still leave a lot to be desired.

A billion of us are due to enter the metaverse by the end of the decade, if Mark Zuckerberg has his way, while research bank Citi says that the metaverse industry will prop up an economy that could be worth anything from $8 trillion to $13 trillion by the same date. It's eye-popping figures like this that have attracted over $177 billion in investment to the metaverse since the start of 2021, according to McKinsey.

There’s just one problem: the graphics of the platforms being heralded as at the forefront of that future look about the same—if not worse—than the 20-year-old Second Life.

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Bots, crashes and ‘copymints’: When NFT drops go wrong

Big budgets and tech know-how can’t guarantee a smooth NFT drop. Here's why even top brands face snags in the new era — and how to solve them.

No budget or know-how can completely mitigate risk in such a new area:

Gucci, which has been the Web3 leader of luxury, has been given an all-out bot raid. Eager fans were prevented from receiving the pieces.
Louis Vuitton’s return of Louis the Game NFT faced a fake site that promised rewards to those who added their wallets.

“It’s almost like people coming to a house party that isn’t quite ready yet. A lot of user functionality and blockchain needs to work,” says McFarland, VP of Customer Success at Mojito.

A lot of brands want to provide the same customer service as they do in the physical world, and this leads them to turn away from any metaverse plans. Which they shouldn't. The most important thing is to be prepared, and know what can go wrong and why.