Piracy within the NFT crypto space is a significant concern for artists who publish their work online. This is because anyone may take any online information and turn it into an NFT. Furthermore, the artist may never be aware that someone made an NFT from their work. Even if they do realise that their work has been pirated, by the time they request removal, the problems have likely already started. This is because those duplicating the artwork have likely already withdrawn their ether for a healthy return, meaning that it is very difficult to stop. However, last September DeviantArt came up with a way to try and prevent art theft.
NFTs Meaning 
For a proper understanding of what NFTs are, we have provided you with a two-part, ultimate guide to NFTs. But as a quick summary: a Non-Fungible token is a non-transferable digital asset that confirms unique ownership of an object but has no fixed value. It typically comes in the form of artwork, whether that be as a picture, video, 3D image, or animation. There has also been a recent rise in more obscure NFTs such as digital real estate. Owning an NFT gives you the right to display said artwork in your digital wallet.
The Piracy Problem with NFT Crypto
Geoffrey Huntley, an Australian artist and programmer, established The NFT Bay, a torrent website. This is a pun on Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular torrent site. Huntley made roughly 17 terabytes of NFTs available for download using the Pirate Bay approach. Ethereum and Solana NFTs are the two that are available on the NFT bay for anyone to access.
NFT photos, according to Huntley, are not saved in the blockchain contract. This allows anyone to right-click the image and save it as a file, which they can then download. Although some who do not own the NFT claim that downloading it gives them ownership of the image, this is not the case. Why? Because they can’t sell the image as an original NFT.
As a result, many artists have complained about their art thefts, with some art being duplicated thousands of times. People are now making money off others’ artwork. As a result, there are many important changes to consider regarding NFT crypto restriction to help detect and stop piracy.
DeviantArt Combatting NFT Crypto Theft
DeviantArt Combatting NFT Crypto TheftDeviantArt, one of the most popular digital art sites in the world, has begun to protect the work of its artists. It had sent 80,000 NFT art violation notifications as of the 4th of January 2022. With state-of-the-art picture recognition algorithms, the DeviantArt Protect programme can detect suspected NFT violations. The application looks for probable art infringements in the form of minted NFTs on public blockchains and third-party markets.
Conclusion
There needs to be more verification processes so that it is not possible to pass off the work of another as your own. If NFTs are going to continue to be successful, there must be more measures to reduce the piracy issue. Moreover, artists mustn’t be putting all their effort into their work only for someone else to reap the rewards from it.
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Amit Khanna, 7startup Founder
Amit has 18 years of experience in the industry and an MBA. He supports entrepreneurs with every aspect of their business including concept and product development, investor presentations, and fundraising. Amit & 7startup assist startups in the pre due-diligence process and help connect them to our vast network of investors. Reach out to us today and see if we’re a fit!
