Works by American digital artist Beeple (Picture source: Internet pictures)
On August 16, Tencent , a digital collection platform under Tencent , issued an announcement that Huanku will stop the issuance of digital collections. At the same time, all users who have purchased digital collections through their platform can choose to continue holding or initiate a refund application. There have been rumors about the exit of
. In June this year, many digital collections of illusion cores were unsold, and the update of the public account "Tencent illusion core" was also stopped on June 27.
once released digital collections that were sold out in a few seconds, and seem to be no longer so popular. Under different statistical calibers, the number of digital collection distribution platforms in my country ranges from more than 500 to more than 1,000. The overall trend is increasing. However, since the end of June this year, news of the issuance platform being closed or running away has been heard one after another.
On the download interface of some digital collection applications, some users left comments such as "Don't come, you're trapped to death" and "I'm willing to accept the loss, there's nothing to say" on social media. Some veterans advised novices, "You can get it for free, and don't join the game if you spend money."
When the popularity has dropped significantly, did the former buyers suffer? Is the digital collection of just a flash in the pan?
Buy digital collections, what are you buying
In early 2021, American digital artist Beeple formed a digital art work "Every Day: The First 5,000 Days". This work was sold for US$69.34 million. This is the first piece of art auctioned by the auction agency Christie's in NFT.
In August of the same year, American NBA star Stephen Curry bought an NFT work for about 180,000 US dollars and replaced one of its social platform avatars with the work, bringing a "trading fever" of NFT digital collections. What is the digital collection of
? What is NFT? NFT refers to a non-fungible token based on blockchain technology , which can be regarded as a proof of ownership of digital assets using blockchain technology. NFT is like an ID card of a digital asset, which can identify any content such as games, artworks, trophies, tickets, etc., making it a digital asset with property rights attributes and can be traced and preserved.
The "digital collection" mentioned in China can be understood as localized NFTs, which are related to NFTs, but have essential differences. First of all, it is also a digital voucher, corresponding to a specific work and artwork.
as a digital voucher, how does it correspond to works and art? Liu Lei, the head of the " digital economy and financial technology team" of Beijing Yingke (Shanghai) Law Firm and lawyer, described the digital collection as a puzzle.
"It can be assumed that a painter handed over one of his paintings to a platform to cast a digital collection and distributed 10,000 copies. Then, the consumer purchases a digital collection as a equivalent to buying a puzzle piece in the puzzle piece of the painting that was split into 10,000 copies. Holding this puzzle means owning one-tenth of the intellectual property rights of the painting. The puzzles look different, and are similar to digital collections. Blockchain technology can ensure that each digital collection is collected. The product is as unique as each puzzle. However, although digital collections are unique, the rights granted as certificates of equity are the same. "
Domestic digital collections are different from foreign NFTs in that foreign NFTs are based on public chains, and public chains are open to everyone, not regulated, and can be bought and sold freely, while domestic digital collections are based on alliance chains, and many alliance chains are infrastructure built by the government to facilitate supervision. domestically regulated digital collections must be reviewed before they can be published on the link, and most platforms do not open to secondary market transactions.
In fact, it was not until October 2021 that many domestic platforms associated with NFTs cancelled the use of "NFT" and changed it to "digital collections".This name change weakens the financial attributes of digital collections and highlights their cultural and creative value, which is completely different from the essence of foreign NFTs highlighting commercial value.
This year, the domestic digital collection platform has grown rapidly, and the digital collections issued involve many industries and fields such as intangible cultural heritage, sports, film and television, aerospace, and well-known artists. At present, digital collections include digital pictures, music, videos, digital souvenirs, etc., which are quite popular among the "post-90s" and "post-00s" groups.
Day Eye Check data shows that as of September this year, there were about 90 domestic companies related to digital collections, of which nearly 50 were newly established in 2022.
As the field of digital collections grew rapidly, some "myths" frequently broke the circle. In June 2021, the two digital skins, Dunhuang Feitian and Jiuselu, released by Alibaba and Dunhuang Art Institute, were sold out after they were launched. The initial issue price was 9.9 yuan plus points from 10 platforms, but they were once speculated to more than 1 million yuan.
In September of the same year, the original price of 39 yuan , the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games digital torch was priced at 3.149 million yuan on the auction platform. In February this year, the Bingdun digital collection issued by International Olympic Committee immediately triggered a rush to buy after its release, and the secondary transaction price reached about 1,000 times the selling price in a short period of time.
When digital collections are very popular, many young people complain on social platforms that they still cannot get the alarm clock card on the platform, and they cannot get the lottery purchase. There are more experiences and secrets for buying only in a small range in the same group, and even need to pay to buy.
Young people are very popular with digital collections. Do you just buy a picture on your mobile phone that you can click on at any time?
"Consumers actually buy digital collections, but their core value lies in their uniqueness, irreplaceable and inseparable. Each collection is identified by a unique 256-bit ID. The scarcity and uniqueness of artificially created makes the works pointed to by digital collections have the economic value of distribution, collection, use and circulation ." Associate Professor, School of Law, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing Science and Technology Innovation Zhao Jingwu, deputy director of the Xin Research Base, said, "The ownership of digital collections is quite clear and may become an important commodity form in the future digital economy market." Infringement disputes are not uncommon
However, if the "painter" does not authorize the platform from the source, or if a user publishes digital collections cast based on other people's works, there may be legal disputes in intellectual property rights.
On April 20, the Hangzhou Internet Court held a public hearing on the dispute between the plaintiff Qice Company and a defendant technology company infringed on the Internet information dissemination rights of works, and pronounced a verdict in court, ruling that the defendant immediately deleted the "Fat Tiger Vaccination" work published on the platform involved, and at the same time compensated Qice Company for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 4,000 yuan. This is the first lawsuit in my country regarding digital collections.
In this case, the cartoon image of "I am not a fat tiger" created by cartoonist Ma Qianli is a popular IP that has been widely popular among users in recent years. However, on the "Metaverse" platform run by the defendant, a user cast and released the "Fat Tiger Vaccination" digital work, priced at 899 yuan. This digital work is exactly the same as the illustrated work posted by Ma Qianli on Weibo, and even has the author's Weibo watermark in the lower right corner.
It is not uncommon for infringement to be similar. On May 28 this year, Xu Beihong Art Museum issued a statement on the sale of digital collections related to Xu Beihong works by Tencent's phantom nuclear platform without legal authorization, and the original works of the related digital collections may be counterfeit works or cannot provide complete traceability infringement.
On July 12, Zhang Jingyuan, a descendant of the famous Chinese painting master Zhang Daqian, said that the "virtual" digital collection trading platform operated by a digital trading company in Hangzhou, sold the digital collections of Zhang Daqian's works without the authorization of the relevant copyright owner, with a total sales amount of more than 1.3 million yuan, and one of the collections had no corresponding original work and was a fake.
user uploaded the infringing work. Does the platform have the obligation to review it? Do you have to bear joint and several liability?
Lawyer Liu Lei believes that "unlike the general 'notification and deletion obligation' of search engine companies, digital collection platforms should bear higher obligations for review. Given that some platforms will charge management fees, and some will take commissions during transactions, this shows that they should pay more attention to the compliance protection of intellectual property rights."
related data shows that the currently relatively mature domestic data-zang platform iBOX, whose registered users charge management fees at 10 yuan/id card/30 days. The cooperative payment agency Yibao Payment, with the estimated monthly income of this project alone, has exceeded 10 million yuan.
In the case of "Fat Tiger Vaccination", the Hangzhou Internet Court held after trial that the defendant, as a digital work trading service platform, failed to fulfill his duty of care for review and had subjective fault, and his behavior constituted assistance infringement.
Court also clearly pointed out that the digital work trading platform not only needs to fulfill the responsibilities of general network service providers, but also should establish a set of intellectual property review mechanisms to conduct preliminary review of the copyright of digital works traded on the platform.
Procuratorate of the Haidian District Procuratorate of Beijing believes that digital collections are a combination of underlying goods and technology. The issuer and purchaser should protect the intellectual property rights of underlying goods in the digital collections to avoid infringing on the intellectual property rights of underlying goods.
On June 30, under the leadership of the China Cultural Industry Association, nearly 30 institutions jointly launched the "Digital Collection Industry Self-Discipline Development Initiative" in Beijing. The participating parties include professional institutions and associations in the cultural and tourism industry, cultural central enterprises, IP institutions, as well as Internet technology companies such as Ant , Tencent, Baidu , JD , and JD . It is currently the self-discipline convention with the widest coverage of the industry.
The self-discipline convention proposes that the capacity building of intellectual property protection should be strengthened. "The digital collection platform and all links of the industrial chain should strictly abide by Copyright Law and other intellectual property laws and regulations, and respect the intellectual property rights of the right holders. Oppose the casting and issuance of digital collections that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, and strengthen the review of the legality and compliance of intellectual property authorization, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of creators in accordance with the law."
In addition to intellectual property disputes, digital collections may also involve various legal disputes.
In April this year, singer Jay Chou posted on social media that his digital collection "boring ape" was stolen. Based on the price at that time, the digital collection was worth more than 3.2 million yuan.
Li Tao said: "The legal risks faced by digital collections can be summarized into two types. The first type is the risk of technology itself. As a data, it naturally faces the risk of hacker theft; the second type is the risks brought by application scenarios, such as intellectual property disputes. Some digital collections are issued activities may involve criminal risks such as illegal absorption of public deposits, money laundering, fundraising fraud, MLM, etc. "
On February 24 this year, The Supreme People's Court issued the "Decision on Amending the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in the Trial of Criminal Cases of Illegal Fundraising", and revised and improved the conviction and punishment standards for the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits and fundraising fraud in the original judicial interpretation. Combined with new judicial practices and new forms of crime, a new type of illegal absorption of funds, virtual currency transactions, has been added, providing a basis for punishing illegal fundraising crimes in this field in accordance with the law.
collections become "air", can you tell me
In April this year, China Internet Finance Association and other three associations issued an initiative on preventing NFT-related financial risks, advocating the bottom line of behavior, preventing financial risks, not issuing and trading financial products in disguise or carrying out token issuance and financing , not providing centralized trading , continuous listing trading, standardized contract trading and other services for NFT transactions, and setting up trading venues in disguise.
According to regulatory requirements, my country's major Internet platforms do not open to secondary market transactions of digital collections. Some platforms have opened a bonus function, and some platforms require that they can only be transferred after holding it for 180 days. Although emphasizes that the conversion and increase function does not support any form of disguised hype, in the relevant communication groups, some buyers and sellers continue to trade by signing the transfer and bonus agreement offline.
Sina 's consumer service platform Heimao complaints were used to search, and there were more than 1,500 complaints involving "digital collections" and nearly 1,000 complaints involving "number collections". The complaints include false marketing, inability to refund, and cash withdrawals cannot be withdrawn.
Many complaints said that the platform customer service had no response, the web page could not be opened, the relevant groups were disbanded, and it was suspected that they had run away from making money. Some consumers also found that the platform has modified its social media avatar and nickname and is preparing to continue to deceive others, hoping that the platform can censor it.
On June 20, WeChat updated the " WeChat Public Platform Operation Standards ", adding the " Virtual Currency and Digital Collection Trading Act", saying that if the account involves virtual currency-related issuance, transaction and financing, such as providing transaction portals, guidance, issuance channel guidance, etc. "Once such violations are discovered, the WeChat Public Platform will order the violation public account to be rectified within a time limit and restrict some functions of the account until permanent account ban."
"Objectively speaking, my country's domestic digital collection market is not fully developed, and specific content such as transaction models and security measures have not formed a typical business model promoted by the entire industry." Zhao Jingwu believes that the topics that really need to be clear at this stage are the legal nature of digital collections, whether digital collection trading activities are protected by law, and under what circumstances are regulatory agencies involved in the business activities of digital collection hype.
Zhao Jingwu said that the objective reason why many platforms announced the closure is that the technology itself is still not mature enough. Unlike the public chain model abroad, the alliance chain adopted by domestic platforms has high security risks. Once the technology has security loopholes, the platform's liability for compensation for damages is immeasurable.
"Most consumers use the form of buying art collections. In fact, they hope to make profits by speculating and speculating. They expect buyers to buy their collections at a higher price in a short period of time." Lawyer Liu Lei said that at work, he has also received many legal consultations on investing in digital collections to lose money and hope to pass legal rights protection, but very few people eventually entered the judicial process.
" Most buyers who want to protect their rights bought some digital collections at a high price but found that they could not sell them. In the mode of passing the flowers through the drum, some buyers became the final buyer, and the collection in their hands eventually became 'air'. These buyers hope to claim that the contract is invalid by "violating the public order and good customs of ", but it is difficult for the current contract validity of investing in digital collections to apply to virtual currency related. Legal terms are interpreted. "
On September 15, 2021, People's Bank of China and 10 other departments issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Disposing of the Risk of Speculation in Virtual Currency Transactions", which for the first time clearly stated that "if any legal person, non-legal person organization and natural persons investing in virtual currencies and related derivatives violates public order and good customs, the relevant civil legal acts are invalid, and the losses caused by this are borne by them."
Lawyer Liu Lei said that if the buyer insists on going to court, it may be difficult to obtain the support of the court, and he will also face high litigation fees, lawyer fees and other fees. Therefore, it is recommended that "consumers should still abandon speculative psychology and return to the artistic attributes of digital collections." .
Li Tao believes that digital collections are a new industrial field. It is not only a new form of digital cultural and creative products, but also a concrete manifestation of the concept of science and technology for goodness. It also proves that NFT technology can play a positive role in promoting the digitalization and digital industrialization of industries. "But the development of industries cannot be separated from supervision. Any industry that is out of supervision will inevitably evolve into a state of disorder and chaos. Not only will it not achieve the purpose of science and technology for goodness, but it may also evolve into a tool for illegal and criminal activities."
Li Tao also suggested that when users should choose a legal trading platform to purchase when purchasing digital collections, avoid payment through virtual currency, retain relevant evidence such as fund payment, purchase records, etc. If they encounter criminal acts such as fraud, they should call the police in time.
There is currently no national-level legislation
At present, there is no national-level supervision and legislation in the field of digital collections, and various self-discipline conventions issued in the industry have no legal effect. However, Zhao Jingwu believes that as the product of market economy , the future development direction of digital collections still needs to be explored by the market itself. Regulators and legislators cannot replace market entities to preset the trading model or development path of digital collections.
"However, one thing that can be confirmed is that the technical principles of digital collections can be used to confirm traditional civil rights such as ownership and copyright, and use smart contract technical solutions to ensure that the transfer of ownership complies with contract agreements and legal mandatory requirements."
The domestic digital collection market is also exploring from chaos to orderly. On July 12, the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Digital Economy in Shanghai", which mentioned that "support leading enterprises to explore the construction of NFT trading platforms, study and promote the digitalization of NFT and other assets, the global circulation of digital IP, and digital rights protection and other related business formats in Shanghai."
Li Tao looks forward to the future to have complete relevant technical standards. He believes that regulators and legislatures should fully consider the application prospects and risks of NFT technology in the future, and give room for development in the field of digital collections through dynamic and phased policy adjustments to prevent the "one-size-fits-all" order from having a significant impact on the market.
In Zhao Jingwu's view, digital collections are not short-lived. "'s prosperity is indeed the result of the combination of technical solutions and artificial guidance, but digital collections, as one of the typical ways of blockchain technology application, reflect the powerful functions of blockchain in the fields of rights attribution authentication, copyright registration protection, etc. ."
(For more content, please pay attention to Fangyuan’s last issue in September)
The original title of this magazine: "Digital Collection, What is hidden"
This article is an original manuscript of Fangyuan magazine. When reprinting, please indicate the author in a conspicuous position and indicate the source: Fangyuan (ID: fangyuanmagazine).
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