José Delgo, a former DC and Marvel comic book artist, was formerly best known for his running pencil Wonder Woman back in the 70s and early 80s. Now he is probably best known for making $ 1.85 million dollars by selling NFTs – or non-fungible characters—Of his drawings online, many of which appear Wonder Woman and other licensed characters. DC Comics is apparently not satisfied with this development.
Of course, the real problem is that DC is not a cut sales of art with intellectual property and is concerned that other artists – who work for DC or otherwise – may try the same. So the publisher, by the way of Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs, Jay Kogan, sent a letter to the creative teams and freelancers employed by DC, who did not let them know in any ambiguous terms NFT’s is a no-no.
After saying the company had big plans for the digital ownership market, Kogan offered a velvet glove with an iron fist tucked into it. The letter, which leaked online earlier Today (io9 reached out to DC for more information, but the company declined to comment), reads in part: ‘Since DC is investigating the complexity of the NFT market, and we are working on a reasonable and equitable solution for all parties involved, including fans and collectors, please note that the offer for the sale of digital images with the intellectual property of DC with or without NFTs, whether provided for DC publications or provided outside the scope of a contractual relationship with DC is not allowed. If you are interested in including someone from your DC Art in an NFT program, you are approached, let us know Lawrence Ganem, DC’s VP, Talent Services. ”
There’s a lot to take in here, and of course DC Comics is absolutely the owner of Wonder Woman, Batman and all of his characters, and it has every right to have dominance over the intellectual property in the NFT industry. The company is likely to do the same with physical trailer art of DC Comics characters, if at all can think of any possible way to manage it continuously.
G / O Media can get a commission
On the other hand, what do you think is the chance that the artists and writers will give these artists their fair share for work they have already completed, especially if it actually only gets someone to confirm a digital image as the one? true, official version? And can DC actually control it? Or will too many people, hoping to make a lot of money with very little effort, upload so many DC Comics images (scanned or hand-drawn) to make the NFT market unmanageable?
Non-fungible characters is too new – and too unpredictable – to know at this point. They are also new enough to be explained. To put it bluntly, it’s a system where people can “own” digital assets such as images, gifs, tweets, NBA plays, and more, even though it does not prevent anyone from having their own copies, say, on their computer, or uploaded to YouTube, or whatever. For example, I could take a screenshot with one of Delbo’s pieces, and then I have a copy of it. But the person who owns an NFT linked to a piece of digital content becomes the ‘official’ owner of a unique sign that cannot be duplicated.
I would very much like to do a tirade about the absurdity of NFTs, which will be long and contain nothing that people have not said before, and eventually the image, which someone may now own, will come down to:
However, the value of NFTs is the same as paper money. Both agreed on lies; that owning an indefinite digital asset in a closed system makes it valuable, even though it is readily available outside the system, or that slips of printed paper are valuable to themselves and can be traded for goods and services, but if you buy the paper to another country, it buys nothing for you.
If enough people realize that NFTs have value (figuratively, not literally … but I think literally too), they will have value. At present, their increasing popularity is shown by the number big companies to sign up to sell their wares definitely indicates that the NFT market is there.
And DC Comics is going to make it damn sure she gets Share.
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