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When I buy an NFT, what do I get? What rights do I get?
When I buy an NFT, what do I get? What rights do I get?
Voice Community Team avatar
Written by Voice Community Team
Updated over a week ago
  • NFTs come in many forms. Digital art NFTs (an example of those on Voice) generally have two parts to consider when it comes to your rights as a creator or collector:

    • 1) there’s the “non-fungible token”—the digital record on the blockchain that represents your ownership of the NFT; and

    • 2) there’s the digital media linked to that token.

  • If you have any rights to display, copy, or otherwise use the digital media, that will depend on the terms and conditions of the platform where you buy the NFT, and any terms of the sale set by the creator(s) of that NFT.

  • Be sure to read the full terms and conditions and other policies of the platform where you’re buying the NFT (here are ours on Voice), as well as description of the NFT on its display page and any other attached terms, before you buy it, to understand the rights you do and do not have to use it.

  • When you buy NFTs on most NFT platforms, you typically only get a few limited rights by default, like the right to sell the NFT to someone else, or to show off your NFT for “personal use.” That might mean, for example, that you can display the NFT privately on a monitor inside your home. But, you generally don’t have the right to copy, distribute, or display that NFT publicly—for example, on a gigantic monitor in Times Square, in a museum exhibit, or even on your social media account. (Unless those rights are mentioned in the sale terms.)

  • For example, unless you own the copyright to the media linked to an NFT, or you have been given full rights to use the NFT in any way you want under a, based on the license from the creator(s) gave you... you can’t, for example, create and sell T-shirts featuring the media linked to your NFT (monetizing), or create a TV show based on the NFT artwork media (creating a derivative work).

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