How To Protect Yourself From NFT Scammers

3 years ago
Independent Artist Tips

Protect Yourself From NFT Scammers!


NFTs are increasingly becoming popular, but are still the wild west as an industry overall — as seen with the recent HitPiece scam that blew up last week.


We take these matters seriously and are committed to helping the creative community navigate copyright protection with our partner, Cosynd.


What happened? 


ICYMI, HitPiece, a new NFT marketplace was found to be hosting unauthorized sales of ‘virtually every song on Spotify’, as one of one NFTs without the permission of any songwriters, artists, or music owners involved. More on the story here.


What you should know about NFTs


NFTs, aka non-fungible tokens, are unique digital assets that are not interchangeable. While often associated with digital artwork and collectible items, an NFT can contain a link to images, music, videos, memes, documents, or any other file that can be stored digitally.


NFTs are recorded on digital ledgers called blockchains, allowing digital purchase transactions to be made by tokens, similar to cryptocurrency. 


How to protect yourself.


Registering your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is one of the most critical forms of legal protection you can take against infringement and misuse of your work.


Registration gives you the proof that you are the rightful owner of that underlying copyright and would therefore allow you to go after incidents of NFT theft and pursue legal action.


Why now?


In March 2019, the Supreme Court made registration a mandatory requirement before filing a lawsuit.


Timing matters. If you don't register before your content is misused or stolen, you may be leaving serious money on the table: upto $150,000 per infringement PLUS your legal fees.


There is no substitute for registering with the U.S. Copyright Office. Other types of registrations, recording it on blockchain, or mailing your music to yourself do not provide you with the same rights or benefits. 


Steps you can take immediately.


Our partner, Cosynd, makes the complicated, but necessary work of protecting and establishing ownership of all your assets (music, video, images, and literature) easy and affordable. 


  • Register your copyrights with the US Copyright Office in minutes (for just $35 + federal filing fees). Cosynd’s service includes the preparation, review, e-filing, and handling of correspondence with the U.S. Copyright Office until you receive your certificates of registration. 
  • Build an agreement ($35 per agreement) to get your collaborators on the same page about what they can and can’t do with your content — like sell them as NFTs. Without an agreement, each of your collaborators automatically owns an equal share of your work, under U.S. copyright law.
  • Do your homework. With NFT fraud on the rise, make sure you research a marketplace before choosing to buy or sell an NFT.


Start protecting your content. 


This article is made available in partnership with Cosynd.