论数字作品非同质代币化交易的法律意涵

The Legal Implications of Non-Fungible Tokenized Transactions of Digital Works

非同质权益凭证(NFT)是用来标记特定数字内容的区块链上的元数据。数字作品非同质代币化交易模式的出现改变了传统的线上作品传播与利用生态,与此同时,也带来了关于权利归属、著作权侵权与否的困惑。同一数字内容在流通领域具备数字作品与数字商品的双重属性。从数字商品的角度,非同质代币化交易模式使其能够像实体商品一样发生财产权的移转,区块链上的即时权属信息变更发挥着公示的效用。从数字作品的角度,作品的非同质代币化交易虽不发生著作权的转让,但发生了作品的复制、发行与信息网络传播。未经许可将他人作品代币化构成著作权侵权,但著作权人或经其授权被代币化并已被首次交易的数字作品除外。在符合特定条件下,权利穷竭原则可延伸适用于数字作品交易场景。

Non-Fungible Tokens(NFT) are a group of metadata in the blockchain in order to mark a specific digital file. The emergence of tokenized digital works is changing the traditional ways of disseminating and using online copyrighted works, and meanwhile, it has caused confusion about the ownership of NFT works as well as copyright infringement. The same digital content has dual attributes as both copyrighted works and digital merchandise when it is distributed in the market. From the perspective of digital merchandise, the tokenized transaction enables a transfer of property right like the physical product, and the real-time ownership information change on the blockchain plays the role of public announcement. From the perspective of copyrighted works, there is no transfer of copyright in the NFT transaction, but reproduction, distribution and online dissemination of the tokenized works. Thus, unauthorized tokenization constitutes copyright infringement, except for digital works that have already been tokenized and traded for the first time by the copyright owner or authorized by him. Subject to certain conditions, the principle of exhaustion of rights can be extended to the transaction of digital works.