The popular NFT project, Moonbirds, has turned to a public domain usage model. The change in copyright status has irked some of its holders!
On Thursday, Moonbirds co-founder Kevin Rose explained that Moonbirds and its sister project, Oddities, will move to the Creative Commons CCO copyright code.
This change implies that the NFT project will now be in the public domain and can be freely distributed, augmented and commercialized even without the owner’s permission.
Rose further added that in the coming time, ‘true ownership is decided by what is recorded on-chain’, the way it should be, and not by a record hosted by a government or a corporate entity.
After this move, the project’s terms of services will also be updated. Thus, DAOs handling the Moonbirds and Oddities will be created to prevent scams, hate speech and violence connected to these collections.
However, the decision to move to the public domain hasn’t gone well with some NFT owners!
Some of the members argued they had invested into these NFTs thinking they had exclusive rights to their NFT. But with the latest decision, NFT owners feel they have been stripped of their rights without prior notice.
Twitter user Loopify tweeted, “Not sure if that was the right move tbh”. While another user Cathsimard argued, “Would have been nice to implement a voting mechanism for holders”.
Justin Taylor, a Twitter executive said, “I disagree with the decision to go with CCO months after launch, taking rights away from holders,” further mentioning that he himself doesn’t own a Moonbird. “Artists and creators, I believe, should make the decision upfront, as consumers bought with an expectation”, Taylor added.
Moonbirds has the legal right to waive the project’s copyright through a creative commons license, according to Sohaib Mohammad, an NFT-focused intellectual property lawyer. However, Mohammad said the decision to not notify holders before waiving the copyright highlights a lack of protection for NFT buyers.
The co-founder concluded that the community will also host a full debrief and Q&A at this Friday’s Moonbirds parliament.
Also Read: Moonbirds’ Proof Collective Unveils Acquisition of Divergence Team
