Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Uluslararası Dijital Çağda Hukuk Sempozyumu, İzmir, Türkiye, 15 - 16 Aralık 2022, ss.412-413
NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS AND COPYRIGHT
ABSTRACT
NFT (Non-fungible
Token), is a kind of coin which emerged in 2017[1],
became popular with the spring of 2021 and rapidly reached a very high market
volume, is a kind of unique and unchangeable virtual property based on
blockchain technology and provided with security and exchange with the help of
smart contracts.
NFT,
which is essentially a part of the Ethereum blockchain, is defined as a kind of
digital certificate also. NFT, which has reached a transaction volume of 54
billion US dollars with an increase of 220 percent in the first quarter of
2022, is becoming more and more the focus of attention due to the size of the
market, the fact that people see NFT as an investment tool and the ease of
transfer it provides. However, it seems possible to experience loss of rights
due to lack of technical knowledge and misleading explanations on the subject.
It is seen that NFT, for which there is no legal regulation yet, is being
examined in terms of its legal qualifications and legal problems that may arise
from its use, and some domestic and foreign court decisions have begun to be
made.
Although
NFT is mostly mentioned in connection with intellectual property rights,
especially copyright, it is seen that NFT is not only related to intellectual
property law, but also to many other branches of law such as contracts,
securities, tax and property law. It is seen that NFT stands out in terms of
copyright due to its unchangeable nature and the reason that it will help
protect the rights of the author through smart contracts and reduce the proof
problems regarding the circuit. In this study, the concept of NFT, its legal
nature and its legal consequences for interested parties are examined within
the scope of copyright regulated by the Intellectual Property Law No. 5846.
In
the first part of the study, the concepts related to NFT such as NFT and
blockchain, cyriptocurrency, virtual tokens and types of virtual tokens will be
briefly explained. Legal problems that may arise in terms of the
responsibilities of the parties will be examined and a limited number of
domestic and foreign judicial decisions will be discussed.
Keywords: Non-fungible Tokens, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Cryptocurrency, Copyright.