Smartists Licenses - II Definitions

NOTE-Sept. 2022. These are the definitions included in the INTRODUCTION of the complete oficial document describing the Smartists NFT Licenses (to be available in our WebApp in the near future).

Definitions

INTERNATIONAL SMARTISTS LICENSING AGREEMENT -I.S.L.A.-

Use-license attached to an ART-NFT designed to enable Intellectual Property holders -writers, artists, musicians, performers and digital editors- to grant copyrights of their content in their terms. 

SMARTISTS LICENSE: the sum of rules that apply for the use of an original digital art file minted as Genuine NFT on the Smartists App. It includes general and Special Terms.  

General Terms and Conditions : rules that apply by default to all licenses referred in the Genuine NFT smart contract.

Special Terms and Conditions: rules defined by the copyrights holder for every Genuine NFT. For every license, the copyrights holder will describe the uses and limitations that need to be acknowledged and agreed by the buyer at the time of payment.

TYPES of SMARTISTS NFT LICENSES for different use-cases

The Smartists “Genuine MASTER Licenses” [GMLs] are designed as “Masterpieces Licenses” for artists and creative art-users who look for P2P professional relationship based in exclusivity. During that time the author cannot mint and sell another NFT from the same art work. There are 4 levels of “Genuine MASTER Licenses” granting different use-rights of the master, and buyers have access to the underlying original Master.

The Smartists “Genuine TOKEN Licenses” [GTLs] are designed for artists and collectors who want to use NFTs for promotion or as commercial collections. There are three licenses granting only the right to Publicly Display the token, and buyers don’t have access to the underlying original Master.

NFTS, LICENSED MATERIAL and GENUINE NFTS

NFT, Non Fungible Token, is a Digital representation which identifies an asset on the web, providing proof of ownership as such unique identifier is recorded on the blockchain linking it to its creator, and whatever future owners. NFTs bring the concept of property to the web enabling transactions and thus business for their creators. These Tokens point at Master digital files. At Smartists, Genuine NFTs work as unique content identifiers defining the ‘Licensed-Material’ for the purpose of identifying art works and their authors, enabling the transfer of value in exchange for a price. NFTs minted on Smartists settle on the Bitcoin blockchain, via Stacks. Therefore, transactions of any NFT minted in Smartists can be searched and tracked.

Art NFTs are Copyrighted assets minted as NFTs to enter the new digital marketplaces of digital assets, so their transactions can be broadcasted, confirmed, timestamped and recorded in the blockchain publicly and persistently. Any kind of art can be tokenised and brought to this new market as Art NFTs.

Genuine NFTs are Art NFTs minted by the individual author of the underlying digital art file. The copyrights holders who mint a Genuine NFT declare that  they are responsible for authorship, originality and IP ownership, which is declared in the Smartists General Terms, and it is referred in the genuine NFT metadata.  Genuine NFTs are secured by Bitcoin via Stacks. These NFTs are special, because they are minted by the author and copyrights holder of the underlying the art work, who has agreed to declare and take responsibility for this in the General Terms. 

Licensed Material is the IP copyrighted material in any format or file -text, image, sound and video-. Depending on the kind of license, this can be either the Token itself, Genuine Token, for any "Genuine Token License" [GTL]; either the Genuine Master, the underlying art digital file, for "Genuine Master Licenses" [GML]. 

Therefore, for a “Genuine Token License” [GTL], this refers to the NFT itself; meanwhile for a “Genuine Master License” [GML], this refers to the the underlying digital file that is minted as Genuine NFTs.

Genuine Token The token minted as an NFT by the author and IP owners of the original underlying art work [Master]. The NFT by default provides access to a small copy when right-clicking- which includes IP rights which have to be managed by the author.

Genuine Master The original digital file used for minting the Genuine NFT [Genuine Token]. The use of such master involves locating and downloading the Master, as well as a careful management of IP rights. 

AUTHOR = COPYRIGHTS HOLDER = NFT CREATOR = LICENSOR

To use Smartists the licensor must be an author and copyrights holder (writer, visual artist, musician, performer or digital creator).

Art work author: The person who created the original material or digitized artwork to be licensed, in whole or in part. By minting a Genuine, an Art NFT on Smartists, any Art work author declares to be the copyrights holder and takes complete responsibility about the rights granted within the license. Authors are individual persons, not companies. 

Copyrights holder is the person who holds the copyrights of an IP digital asset that can be minted as NFT and is entitled to license them. This can be the Art work author or anyone with the legal ability of licensing art work copyrights. On Smartists, by using any I.S.L.A., any NFT creator declares to be copyrights holder and takes complete responsibility about the rights granted by the license. 

NFT creator is the art work author/copyrights holder who mints its NFT. NFT creators must be copyrights holders of the digital assets they are minting as NFTs and licensing with an I.S.L.A. on Smartists. By using any of our licenses, NFT creators declare Intellectual Property ownership, thus being entitled to manage the copyrights of the underlying digital asset to be minted as Genuine-NFT. 

Licensor is the individual granting rights under a license. By using any I.S.L.A., a Licensor declares to be the copyrights holder and takes complete responsibility about the rights granted by the license.

In the United States companies can be creators and original IP copyrights holders-, but this is not the case in Europe. For the Smartists Licenses we keep the European approach, and we consider as creator the  individual person who mints the NFTs. The Smartists licenses look to meet the needs of independent artists - instead of companies or general brands-. Anyway, promotional licenses can be used by independent artists to build their personal brand. 

In case of joint works Licensor and copyrights holder can act representing the rest of copyrights owners of the digital file to be minted as ART NFT. Nevertheless, in such case, the ART-NFT creator is responsible for any due diligence concerning the rest of copyrights holders, and this may require additional agreements. Therefore, using Genuine NFT for minting joint works may not be the best solution, and we cannot encourage it at this moment.

CREATIVE USER and LICENSEE

Collector: The individual interested in purchasing a Genuine NFT with a License just for Public Display or performance. This can be an individual or a gallery or a venue… and depending on their needs they may want a commercial or non commercial license, and also they may prefer it exclusive or non exclusive. Depending on the kind of license they will have access to the original master [GML] or not [GTL].   

Creative-User: The individual interested in purchasing a Genuine NFT with a license to use the content beyond just Public Display or Performance. Creative-users need to access the original Master file, they need to purchase a Genuine Master License [GML]. 

Licensee: The individual or entity effectively purchasing a Genuine NFT with a license to use the Digital asset minted as NFT, according to the terms and conditions of the International Smartists Licensing Agreement Purchasing a GML or GTL makes you a Licensee.

Signed: Smartists Legal Team

P. S. For an overview of the Smartists approach to NFTs and Licenses, you can read the article "An Intro to the Smartists NFTs licenses".