's platform for issuing digital collections is similar: ways to obtain digital collections include pre-sale, auction, lottery, blind box opening, synthesis, new user registration, etc. Users can snap up and sell digital collections for a few yuan to a few hundred yuan. That is to say, "second light" has become the norm.
Digital collections, as an innovative application of blockchain technology, have positive significance for spreading excellent culture. However, due to the short time they have appeared in my country, identification and supervision standards have not yet been established, leading to chaos. In order to prevent the digital collection market from continuing to run wild with problems, sound supervision and industry regulations should be established in a timely manner to allow technology to better serve art.
Before consumers purchase digital collections, they should understand whether the copyright holder of the work has authorized the platform to produce digital collections for distribution. And sell in limited quantities, choose regular platforms to purchase, do not click on unfamiliar website links sent by the other party at will, do not authorize at will, check and clear the authorized contracts regularly, keep the private key safely and not leak it to ensure the security of assets
"Cost price is 0.99 yuan, resale for 400 yuan" "You can make money when you buy it"... Recently, digital collections that are "visible but intangible" have become popular.
digital collections refer to unique digital certificates generated corresponding to specific works and artworks using blockchain technology . On the basis of protecting their digital copyrights, they can achieve authentic and credible digital distribution, purchase, collection and use.
According to recent incomplete statistics by a reporter from " Rule of Law Daily ", there are more than 100 platforms for issuing digital collections in China. The "play methods" of these platforms are similar: the ways to obtain digital collections include pre-sale, auction, lottery, blind box opening, synthesis, Through methods such as attracting new users to register, users can snap up the products for a few yuan to a few hundred yuan, and it has become the norm for them to go on sale in a matter of seconds.
Behind the popularity of digital collections, complaints are coming one after another: as of now, there have been more than 2,500 complaints related to "digital collections" on the Black Cat Complaints and platform alone. Consumer complaints mainly focus on the platform's alleged hype and price gouging; merchants' false shipments and non-refunds; data loss and theft of purchased collections.
Many industry experts interviewed by reporters pointed out that digital collections, as an innovative application of blockchain technology, have positive significance for spreading excellent culture. However, due to the short time they have appeared in my country, identification and regulatory standards have not yet been established, leading to chaos. Clustered. In order to prevent the digital collection market from continuing to run wild with problems, sound supervision and industry regulations should be established in a timely manner to allow technology to better serve art.
Prices surged more than a hundred times
Collection trading routines are not simple
Mr. Li from Langfang, Hebei, tried his hand at digital collections. He bought a portrait of a "girl in the early Tang Dynasty" for 0.99 yuan on an app and later sold it for 400 yuan. , the platform deducted the handling fee, and actually received about 350 yuan in payment.
made so much profit that Mr. Li tasted the sweetness. Immediately afterwards, he spent 6,499 yuan to snap up the " Mei Lanfang "Mulan Joins the Army" digital vinyl record " collection, which was sold on the platform at a price of 6,999 yuan, while the original price of the album was 199 yuan. Soon, the platform showed that someone had placed an order but had not paid. After the payment time expired, Mr. Li originally wanted to take the product off the shelves and sell it again while it was hot, but the platform locked the order. As a result, he cannot remove the collection from the shelves, nor can he list it for trading again, and the order is locked for up to 24 hours. After it was unlocked the next day, the market price of the collection dropped to about 4,000 yuan, and then dropped to 1,999 yuan a week later.
Mr. Li filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the platform, hoping that the other party can return the product for a refund. The company staff responded: All losses were caused by Mr. Li’s improper operation, and the company does not assume any responsibility. After experiencing this incident at
, Mr. Li found that this is a common routine used by the platform: first attract users with low-priced collections, and then raise the prices of some collections that are not actually very expensive. When users spend a lot of money to buy and resell, the order is locked for a long time and cannot be successfully traded. After this heat, the price of the collection will continue to fall, and the user will bear the loss. The platform will take a commission of more than 10% when the price of the collection is the highest. fees to earn handling fees.
According to Wang Zhenhua, leader of the legal working group of the Shanghai Blockchain Technology Research Center, the trading platform for digital collections, as a network service provider, has no right to restrict users’ use of network services without authorization, nor does it have the right to freeze users’ virtual property without authorization. If this causes losses to consumers, they shall be liable for compensation in accordance with the law.
"Whether the platform's locking of orders and restricting transactions constitutes infringement shall be based on the specific operation content and the rights and obligations clearly agreed upon in the agreement signed by both parties." Wang Zhenhua said.
He added that if the trading platform of digital collections speculates on goods during operation, it is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the Price Law: if operators collude with each other to manipulate market prices and damage the legitimate rights and interests of other operators or consumers; fabrication , Spreading price increase information, driving up prices, and promoting excessive increases in commodity prices will be fined in accordance with the law. If the behavior is serious, it may also constitute the crime of illegal business operations.
Merchants are trying to make money by playing "missing" products
It is too difficult for consumers to protect their rights
Unlike Mr. Li, Mr. Zhang from Shijiazhuang, Hebei bought counterfeit products on the platform. Not long ago, he spent 276 yuan to purchase a digital collection through a certain public account. As a result, the picture he received did not have any transaction identification or work identification, while regular digital collections will have unique identification.
contacted the platform to report the situation. As a result, the merchant was not contacted until the system automatically confirmed receipt of the goods. The platform's final reply was: the online store has been frozen and there is no available balance. The platform does not bear any responsibility.
Mr. Zhang, who suffered the loss of being dumb, later discovered that there were many others who had been cheated like him. They established a social group with more than 2,000 members. "Everyone in the group was defrauded of several hundred yuan."
Mr. Wang from Baoding, Hebei Province is one of them. He learned about relevant digital collections through the internal beta airdrop activity of the "Dayu Shuzang" public account, and spent 110 yuan to purchase two digital collections, but the two pictures he received did not have any logos. Mr. Wang contacted the platform, and the other party replied: Due to the special nature of digital collections, all after-sales rights for orders rest with the merchant.
However, the merchant who provided Mr. Wang with digital collections could not be contacted at all. After
reporters followed the "Dayu Shuzang" official account, they clicked on the official store link in the official account, which showed a blank page. When they clicked on the H5 link to purchase, it showed that the collection had been removed from the shelves. The reporter browsed the relevant collection information and found that the sales volume of several previously hot-selling collections was around two to three thousand pieces.
According to members of the social group, the platform has made rectifications at the request of relevant departments and no longer provides digital collection sales services.
According to Wang Zhenhua, the pictures sent by the merchants do not have any transaction logos or work logos, which obviously do not conform to the appearance of formal digital collections and are not digital collections in the true sense. The online store is suspected of illegally selling false digital collections and should bear corresponding responsibilities. If the circumstances involved are serious, it may also constitute a criminal offense.
Wang Zhenhua believes that according to the provisions of the E-commerce Law , when consumers have disputes with operators on the platform, the platform has the obligation to assist consumers in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. According to the provisions of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, consumers who purchase goods or receive services through the online trading platform and whose legitimate rights and interests are harmed may demand compensation from the seller or service provider. In addition, platforms may be subject to administrative penalties by market regulatory authorities for failing to fulfill their qualification review obligations.
There are hidden risks in the collection transaction
Be wary of intellectual property infringement
In addition to price gouging and false shipments, there are also many hidden dangers in the transaction security of digital collection platforms.
Ms. Wen from Guigang, Guangxi recharged 80 yuan on an App to purchase a digital collection. She found that the purchased goods were not displayed in her personal account, and there was no purchase record. It was suspected that all the items were cleared by the system. The next day, Ms. Wen contacted customer service for a refund, but did not receive the payment until the third day. Ms. Wen is lucky that
was able to successfully refund the money. According to her understanding, many people have encountered similar problems to her. "The money was swallowed, the customer service did not handle it, and they did not receive any compensation from the platform."The explanation given by the platform is: "The platform database has suffered a large number of malicious attacks, and criminals have falsely purchased and stolen players' collections, resulting in abnormal data. For the losses caused, the platform will compensate each player."
In April this year, a certain The artist posted on social media that the digital collection of ape head paintings he had received as a gift was stolen by a phishing website. After that, on the foreign NFT trading platform, the avatar was traded for 130 Ethereum and 155 Ethereum virtual coins respectively in about an hour.
At the same time, the risk of intellectual property infringement is gradually emerging. On May 28, the Xu Beihong Art Museum issued a statement stating that it was concerned that some digital platforms were using the name of Mr. Xu Beihong as a gimmick to sell related digital collections. Some of the original works of these digital collections were counterfeit, and some could not provide complete traceability. Evidence shows that some works have nothing to do with Mr. Xu Beihong.
reporter found in a digital collection app that the platform differentiates between the copyright market and the derivatives market, and informed in the "Rights Notice" that if you purchase works in the copyright market, you will get the digital artwork except . Rights other than (including reproduction rights, distribution rights, etc.); if you purchase derivative works, you will have the right to possess, use and dispose of the digital art work. Special reminder: If you intend to commercially license or authorize this digital artwork, it is recommended that you enter into a written "copyright transfer agreement" with the copyright owner and register the copyright transfer.
Wang Zhenhua said that the reason why the platform issued a "special reminder" is that the copyright of digital artworks belongs to the copyright holder. Buyers who purchase digital artworks through information networks only have limited rights to use the digital artworks, such as collecting, learning, For research and appreciation, etc., if the buyer uses it beyond the scope of its own rights, it will easily infringe the intellectual property rights of the rights holder. Therefore, if consumers need to use digital artwork for other commercial purposes other than non-agreed content, they need to sign a written agreement with the copyright owner and register it.
Zhao Shujie, a partner at Beijing Tianda Law Firm, believes that domestic digital collections are mainly made of digital or physical collections into blockchain digital collections for limited sale. Therefore, the risks of domestic digital collections are more reflected in the intellectual property rights in the production and transaction processes. risk. Any secondary creation or sale of digital collections without the consent of the copyright owner may infringe upon the copyright owner's rights. If an investor purchases an infringing digital collection, although the purchase behavior is not illegal, traceable transaction records can show that the digital collection purchased is an infringing work, and the investor or consumer will suffer economic losses.
Therefore, Zhao Shujie suggested that before purchasing digital collections, investors should examine whether the seller has copyright, including copyright registration certificates, certificates issued by copyright certification agencies, and other legal rights certificates for digital collections. At the same time, digital collection trading platforms should also play their main responsibilities as platforms, proactively fulfill platform enterprise review obligations, and protect the legitimate rights of obligees.
Establish a correct consumption concept
Choose the trading platform carefully
"Purchasing digital collections has potential technical risks and economic risks." Zhu Jie, senior partner of Tahota Law Firm , said that on the one hand, sellers take advantage of consumers who do not understand the area. Blockchain technology uses fake products to defraud consumers of their property; on the other hand, digital collection transactions are conducted through smart contracts. Hackers may steal users' digital collections through hacking technology, or induce users to authorize a smart contract through phishing websites. , and then steal the digital collections in the user’s wallet through smart contracts.
So, from a consumer’s perspective, how should we maintain the security of our own property when trading digital collections?
Zhu Jie suggested that before purchasing digital collections, consumers should understand whether the copyright holder of the work authorizes the platform to produce digital collections for distribution and limited sales, choose a regular platform for purchase, and do not click on unfamiliar website links sent by the other party or authorize them at will. Regularly check and clean up authorized contracts, and keep private keys securely and not leak them to ensure asset security.
Wang Zhenhua said that consumers must first understand that digital collections should not have any financial value and should not try to obtain short-term profits by hyping digital collections; when choosing a digital collection platform, they should choose a platform that has the appropriate qualifications, strength, and sufficient market legitimacy. For platforms with influence and credibility and a stable user base, such platforms should be information technology enterprises that have been registered and approved by the National Cyberspace Administration of China.
"You should also pay attention to the platform agreement and transaction model. Whether the platform agreement is formal, whether the reminder obligations of key terms are strictly fulfilled, whether the transaction model provided by the platform is legal, whether transaction records will be completely retained and displayed, and other details; whether the issuer has Corresponding administrative licensing qualifications for network and cultural operations, and whether there have been any infringements or illegal activities in the collections issued in the past,” Wang Zhenhua reminded. (Reporter Han Dandong, intern Fan Xiaoya, comics/Gao Yue)
Source: Rule of Law Daily
