OpenSea Removes ENS Domain Auctions Following RIAA Complaints

The identical week OpenSea laid off 20% of its workforce, the highest NFT market eliminated a number of music-themed Ethereum Identify Service (ENS) area auctions after receiving a stop and desist letter from the Recording Business Affiliation of America (RIAA).

The letter argued that a variety of OpenSea-hosted ENS auctions have been in violation of US trademark legislation, though not all the domains comprise trademarked materials. 

OpenSea complied with the letter, persevering with the centralized NFT (non-fungible token) change’s precedent of honoring copyright complaints.

ENS domains function distinctive web site addresses, ending in “.eth.” Just like how the web’s Area Identify Service replaces IP addresses with strings of characters, ENS domains can be utilized to entry web sites hosted on decentralized storage answer IPFS. 

They will additionally substitute difficult Ethereum blockchain addresses, permitting customers to obtain cryptocurrency by way of their domains. Registrations for ENS domains might be transferred by NFTs, which denote possession and allow buying and selling on marketplaces akin to OpenSea. 

Within the RIAA’s letter, posted on-line by TorrentFreak, the commerce affiliation gives a listing of .ETH domains it believes violate the 1999 Anti Cyber-Squatting Shopper Safety Act. The legislation prevents the creation of net domains containing logos with “bad-faith intent to revenue.”

ENS domains have been in style of late, with 000.eth promoting for $328,000 final week.

The RIAA flagged “universalmusic.eth” and “atlanticrecords.eth” as breaking the legislation alongside dozens extra. Each ENS domains are owned by the identical handle, which paid $5 for every area in 2020. They’ve additionally acquired a swath of domains tied to in style manufacturers together with Columbia Information, Sony Leisure, Subpop and Capitol Information, amongst others.

The commerce group additionally objected to domains titled for particular person music trade executives like mitchglazier.eth and robstringer.eth, CEOs of the RIAA and Sony Music, respectively. Each domains are owned by the identical blockchain handle, which paid $5 and $15, respectively.

Neither identify seems within the US Patent and Trademark Workplace database, though the proprietor has additionally registered named ENS domains for celeb figures akin to WWE billionaire Vince McMahon, Pink Floyd famous person Syd Barrett and Columbia Information CEO Ron Perry.

Jeffrey Blockinger, common counsel at Web3 startup Quadrata, advised Blockworks in an electronic mail that OpenSea’s preliminary response to the RIAA letter signifies Web3 corporations are “changing into conscious of conventional property rights and the worth their safety can add to the event of NFTs as an asset class.”

“It’s encouraging to see an organization in an rising trade implement takedown procedures that seem designed to guard [intellectual property] rights in a method that displays accountable behaviors in additional conventional asset courses,” Blockinger stated.

OpenSea recurrently errs on the aspect of warning with mental property complaints. The NFT market eliminated a group of Hermes purse digital collectibles in December following opposition from the upscale trend firm. 

Earlier this yr, free expression activist Jillian York requested OpenSea to take away an NFT of her face posted with out her consent, and OpenSea complied.

NFTs are in style within the music trade, as streaming has made it tough for artists to monetize their music. Snoop Dogg, BTS and Steve Aoki every launched NFT collections for followers this yr. 

Institutional gamers appear to be shifting towards Web3, too. Yesterday, a Common Music Group affiliate partnered with Moonpay to permit the Bored Ape collectors band KINGSHIP followers to mint NFTs.

OpenSea and the RIAA didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.