Copyright Metadata Proposal: 1st Draft

[rickmanelius]

This is an attempt do open up #1 for peer review and feedback.

[edowling]

Thanks for the first draft! I agree with the problem, scope and overall approach. My main question is how we resolve conflicts between what is onchain and what is offchain? What happens if they differ?

[mpeyfuss]

A few thoughts here.

1. Would simply adding a rights field to NFT metadata JSON spec be a good first step to cover most use cases going forwards? I'm not a lawyer so not sure how legally binding that is but Objkt does that on their platform.
2. If trying to put this on-chain, it seems like an EIP extending the NFT standards would be appropriate, similar to ERC-2981. And then it would be possible to create a registry for backwards compatibility, similar to what Manifold has done with the Royalty Registry.
3. Having an api might seem good on the surface but as @edowling mentioned, how do you resolve conflicts on-chain and off-chain? This would also be an issue for NFTs with schemas specified in the metadata spec. I think you almost have to choose between off-chain and on-chain in a way so that conflicts aren't an issue.

Anyways, definitely want to keep this conversation going!

[rickmanelius]

Hi @mpeyfuss!

Responses:

• A singular field would be better than nothing, especially if it was CC0. I think in situations where it's a bit more complicated (e.g. "Attribution 3.0 United States"), it would need the ability to specify addition fields for attribution. Or if it was a non-commercial license, a pointer to where inquiries could be made. But yes... in the spirit of the 80/20 rule, just having a singular field would get most people 95% of the way there. I just want to not overlook the next to extend.
• Glad you mentioned ERC-2981! This was inspired by a conversation with them where they shared their work on that. The question remains whether the data should initiative within tokenURI as a sane default with a global registry as a larger umbrella. But first, I want to get to an agreement on the metadata structure + components before I tackle that (and it relates to the 3rd bullet).
• On vs off-chain and precedence. I think this is where I need to get more input from legal/lawyers. I would bet this acts in many ways like a will, where the last version is the one (however, I think this has to be balanced with something not being able to go backwards from public domain back to all-rights reserved). So if it was CC0 once, it's CC0 forever (on or offchain). And if it's something else, then we look at blockheight.

Love the feedback! Keep it coming if something I said sparked and idea or pushback.