Can we talk about the buying tweets situation? Should artists be concerned?

[KJWhitten]

So, apparently it's now possible to buy someone's tweet without their permission because of a unique bitcoin called NFT. Does this mean someone can own your art on twitter? While I'm not an artist, a friend of mine creates art for my novel so I'm concerned that someone could own the art for my book covers or some other official art of mine and my friend. Where does the money go to if someone buys it? Please discuss below because I really want to know if I should be worried or not. Thank you for any and all answers.

[DiegoPalacios]

Sounds like another reason to NOT use twitter......do you have any link to check those news?

[noenoh]

Woah now I want to delete my twitter for real. I haven't been using it for months anyway... But yeah I would like to read these news first

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I saw something about that on twitter today, and how you can prevent it

https://twitter.com/williamshatner/status/1368933593913851907?s=21

apperantly you'll be safe from someone making your tweet a "token" by blocking certain accounts, im not fully understadning this whole situation yet but there is some good info in that tweet!

[KJWhitten]

@DiegoPalacios @noenoh I found this here: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/05/974089381/whats-an-nft-and-why-are-people-paying-millions-to-buy-them

[KJWhitten]

Nice, thank you for sharing that here!

[noenoh]

thanks for sharing the info. humm then Im kinda safe?? I have my account private for ages and I only have ppl I know there, plus I dont upload my art on twitter either

[VibrantFox]

The NFT thing as a whole is a great big mess but with regards to accts that are trying to tokenize tweets this artist compiled a short list of some names/accts to block

https://twitter.com/Phillistrations/status/1369328461387472896

For the most part so long as you're able to block these accounts or any similar ones to pop up (followers, the people managing the acct, accounts they're following) you'll be okay plus i think there's a possibility for you to be able to send a take down request (though the level of credibility depends)

but here's some other tweets talking about crypto and nft
https://twitter.com/arvalis/status/1369230566843813891
https://twitter.com/_knucklebone/status/1369253222276292610

hopefully everyone can stay safe with this nu wave art theft goin on

edit: adding this thread that gives a loose explanation as to what NFTs are in layman's terms
https://twitter.com/GlitchkidJulie/status/1369303254257917952

[KJWhitten]

Ok, so I shared this with a writing friend of mine who asked their husband, who frequently buys crypto and stuff. This is what they had to say from their opinion: "You will not lose your rights. NFT is used by companies when they start up and want to build a way into crypto. They cannot buy your tweets with such a thing. This is blown up from just 1% of the reality."

Then they went on to explain that only I as an author can sell my tweets. Whether or not that's the truth idk but I'll play it safe for now and block all the accounts VibrantFox mentioned above.

[surenlicious]

Yes you should be concerned. There are plenty of tweets floating around with accounts to block in order to keep your work a bit safer, I suggest you do that.

[PapaDom]

Buying a tweet you can easily screenshot is rather dumb, in my opinion.

[Ender_Books]

Never used twitter, too young. Never going to use twitter. Buncha drama and shit.

[irresponsiblepics]

Ahh the clownworld never will stop will it?.

[Mallory]

AFAIK It's not just twitter that this is happening to. An art thief can make a token out of any webpage and any website so long as it has a unique URL, so just staying off twitter is not the magical way of staying safe. IMO this whole thing needs to go die in a techbro dumpster fire... yes, let's create a "marketplace" for "artists to make money off their art" but not require proof of copyright ownership? Lol k.

[VibrantFox]

honestly this is why i'm amazed that no kind of higher power has stepped in to regulate or shut the whole thing down because it's not really creating any kind of useful form of currency it just looks like it's destabilizing the market (gas prices for example gong haywire after big crypto investments). plus the apparent environmental impact which is an "amazing" decision in the middle of a global climate crisis

[DokiDokiTsuna]

1. No, they can't own your art; they can sell it just like any other art thief can, but they don't own it.

2. You should be worried and spread the word anyway, 'cause this whole situation sucks. Here's a pretty good explanation from someone I follow on Tumblr (https://dokidokitsuna.tumblr.com/post/645208533984542720/nfts-in-plain-english-you-know-what-a-certificate)

3. By the way, apparently ArtStation is jumping on the bandwagon and developing a section of their site to promote NFTs?? So if you were thinking of getting an account with them...don't.

4. Also btw, there are bot accounts going around (on Twitter at least) and turning people's art into these 'tokens'...make sure to block them, and the people who link them, so they can't access your stuff. Here's a thread: https://twitter.com/ZzazzPk/status/1369334302014533632

[Fedriz_Marini]

I do thank you for giving some link in regard, I proceeded to inform my mutuals (the Artist I work with included) and proceed to block all of them!

[joannekwan]

By the way, apparently ArtStation is jumping on the bandwagon and developing a section of their site to promote NFTs?? So if you were thinking of getting an account with them...don't.

They backtracked their decision to move forward on this due to backlash … for now.

A Statement from ArtStation - ArtStation Magazine

[KJWhitten]

I went ahead and spread the word on twitter already. I also blocked all of them, ty for sharing.

[thecrystalrook]

No, you're only buying rights to use the property, not the ownership of the property itself.

Still, the fact that this exists is reason enough to federally register your copyrights to have irrefutable proof that whats your is yours.