This seems like a pretty huge oversight!
Ape Copyright Gone
Yuga Labs, the firm behind the infamous Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens (NFTs), apparently never actually copyrighted its computer-generated primates.
This hilarious admission, which came from a legal document submission from Yuga Labs itself, stems from a lawsuit involving art world nepo baby and onetime Azealia Banks fiancé Ryder Ripps, who Yuga is suing for using its expensive ape imagery in his own NFT collection without the firm’s permission.
“Yuga Labs does not have a registered copyright,” the filing reads, “and there is therefore no imminent threat of a lawsuit for copyright infringement.”
That admission seems to go against one of the key value propositions of the crazy-expensive Bored Ape NFTs — that purchasing one gives the owner near-universal rights to use or profit from in whatever way they see fit, as Seth Green’s notorious Ape heist revealed to us last summer.
Beating The Allegations
Filed last June, Yuga’s suit is centered on Ripps’ satirical RR/BAYC collection, which he created after alleging that Bored Apes’ logo was based on Nazi imagery.
“Through months of intensive research,” Ripps’ statement on the collection’s site reads, “myself and other community members have discovered extensive connections between BAYC and subversive internet nazi troll culture.”
Along with trying to reappropriate the Bored Apes to send a message about his extremism allegations, Ripps also iterated on the collection’s website that the project is meant as a statement about copyright and ownership in the NFT space. One can only imagine his glee, then, when the very company he’s targeted admitted that it never filed any federal copyright claims.
In its filing, Yuga Labs added that it believes a “lack of federal copyright registration does not mean an entity does not own copyright,” and that “when provenance is documented… copyright protection is automatic.”
Who Owns The Apes?
In spite of this seemingly significant oversight, the company says that there is “no confusion” about its NFT holders retaining their Ape rights, and slapped Ripps with a motion to dismiss when he tried to issue a counterclaim upon the copyright revelation.
Importantly, it is worth noting that Yuga is not suing Ripps for violating copyright law at all, but rather for trademark infringement — and it does appear that the company has filed trademark claims.
But the apparent oversight regarding copyright is nevertheless pretty jarring, especially given what Yuga Labs promised to BAYC buyers. Remember: all this NFT ownership stuff still remains largely untested in court.
More on the dying NFT market: Logan Paul Says His NFT Game Isn’t a Scam, He Just Hired Scammers to Build It and They Did Some Scamming