- The Economist has joined TIME magazine in selling covers as NFTs. The Economist has chosen its “Down the rabbit hole” cover for use in an NFT. According to the description, “The cover artwork was commissioned from Justin Metz, a digital artist, based on drawings by Sir John Tenniel for the first edition of “Alice in Wonderland” published in 1865.” The highest bid so far is $60,466 or 14.50 ETH. You have 1 hour 40 minutes left (on October 26) if you’d like to bid.
- The terms of the Economist’s NFT license and sale are worth emphasizing (with the HEADINGS inserted by me):
- PERMISSIBLE USES: “The buyer of the NFT will have the right to use, publicly display and copy the NFT for personal, non-commercial use and the right to re-sell the NFT.”
- BUYER GETS NO OTHER RIGHTS OR IP: “The buyer of the NFT will have no right to license, commercially exploit or prepare derivative works of the NFT or the artwork therein (the exact scope the buyer’s rights are set out in the Terms of Service). All copyright and other artistic rights in the NFT and the artwork therein are otherwise reserved by The Economist.”
- This sale of an NFT, plus a license that grants limited uses of the artwork to the buyer for “personal, non-commercial use,” is very typical. People may not really understand what’s really going on in sales of NFTs. (For my explanation, see NFT Myth Busting: Buying an NFT is NOT buying the art or content).