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The United Kingdom\u2019s government is in danger of regulating nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in a way that doesn\u2019t suit the true nature of the nascent technology, says Mintable CEO and founder Zach Burks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Burks said he believes a recent report from a U.K. parliamentary committee<\/a>\u00a0significantly exaggerates the role NFTs play in copyright infringement and fails to recognize that they are more than just volatile digital pictures. <\/p>\n \u201cNFTs are in a transition phase where they\u2019re moving away from the speculative boom of PFPs, and now it\u2019s going into utilities of brands implementing NFTs across a whole range of different things,\u201d Burks explained. <\/p>\n In the Oct. 11 report, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee urged the government to take action to protect artists and content creators from copyright infringement associated with NFTs.<\/p>\n NFT marketplaces need to do more to address the scale of copyright infringement on their platforms.<\/p>\n We’ve published our report on “NFTs and the Blockchain: risks to sport and culture”.<\/p>\n Find out more: https:\/\/t.co\/4pYE6gAngw<\/a> \u2014 Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsCMS) October 11, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Burks acknowledged that copyright protections and intellectual property rights for artists are of paramount importance, pointing to Mintable\u2019s own IP protection algorithm it uses to prevent plagiarism on its platform. <\/p>\n However, he explained that while these issues should be a top priority for all NFT platforms, they\u2019re not exactly NFT-specific concerns. <\/p>\n \u201cThese are problems inherent to the internet, not to NFTs.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cRegulators say, \u2018Well now, NFTs are being used for copyright infringement.\u2019 Well yeah, so is WordPress. So is YouTube. So is Spotify,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd how do you combat that? Well, you have some of the largest, most advanced companies in the world, like Google, working on this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got hundreds of billions of dollars, and they can\u2019t solve the problem of combating copyrighted material on YouTube. It\u2019s not like this problem just came up out of thin air because NFTs were created.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Burks, who personally corresponds with U.K. government officials on NFTs on a weekly basis, said that while NFT platforms should be doing their utmost to protect artists, it falls on regulators to embrace a more nuanced view of NFTs as a whole. <\/p>\n Was such a great time speaking at the 40th International Symposium on Economic Crimes at Cambridge University in the UK! <\/p>\n Learned so much, met some amazing people, and hopefully educated the people who listened to my many panels about NFTs and the blockchain space! pic.twitter.com\/txExSVqTIb<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Zach Burks (@ZachSpaded) September 14, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThere are so many ways that you can utilize NFTs, whether it\u2019s for your car records, for your property records, whether it\u2019s a bank settlement document, whether it\u2019s a backup layer, whether it\u2019s a full supply chain system or a biofuels company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a piece of artwork or a financial instrument. [\u2026] An NFT is effectively a website.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cIf my website is used to sell books, I\u2019m governed by the laws that are used to sell books. If I sell drugs on my website, then you don\u2019t need new laws. I\u2019m still just selling drugs, right?\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n In Burks\u2019 view, NFTs are an extremely broad technology capable of a vast array of different functions, and having a committee declare that they be regulated as pieces of digital art could be a significant setback to unveiling the true utility of the technology.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [committee] said the government should implement the EU 17 copyright directive on NFTs, which is bad in the sense that it\u2019s a really broad umbrella,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n
Read our report: https:\/\/t.co\/XIj0LYlcrX<\/a>@cj_dinenage<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/GTbtOJCM8m<\/a><\/p>\n\n