Two weeks ago I released Moonbirds after @kevinrose stated he was working with @opensea to take down any collections with Moonbirds in the name. This was conceptual art where the intent was to highlight the heavy handed-ness of trademark and DMCA claims seeping into the space…🧵

For months now OpenSea has been growing increasingly aggressive about removing items with any corporate references, quite often when the work is undoubtedly fair use.

It’s not unexpected to see traditional companies abuse copyright and trademark claims to silence artists but…

when projects native to our space start doing so we risk this becoming the norm.

In the traditional art world DMCA is almost nonexistent. Artists use corporate logos and names in their works and titles all the time as part of their commentary or to add context. Artists such…

as Tom Sachs have largely built their career off doing so.

While Tom Sachs can comfortably launch a project like Rocket Factory knowing he has the resources and wherewithal to defend his right to do so, if a kid from Thailand released a similar collection OpenSea would take…

it down right away and they’d likely have little means to have their work reinstated.

The direction we are currently headed in ‘web3’ is towards an even more restrictive environment on artists then they have been subject to in the past. This is a very dangerous precedent.

Despite the facts that if you Google ‘Moonbird’ you will see rows of the bird featured in my collection before any NFTs, and no one possessing a valid trademark claim against my work, OS will not allow me to change my collection name to anything that contains the word Moonbirds…

It’s not hard to envision a future where any item containing a registered trademark in the title will be auto removed.

We can’t have a free and open art movement grow here with these restrictions being the norm on the primary platforms artists rely on to distribute their work…

While I don’t expect my collection to change much, I hope artists take notice and feel empowered to exercise their right to create freely regardless of the subject matter of their work.

It is only by doing so and rejecting attempts to silence that you will maintain your rights.

Seizing the memes of production is great, but don’t forget to seize your right to produce them in the first place.

If you are on the receiving end of copyright or trademark claim abuse, make your case to mastersplnter@protonmail.com and I’ll consider funding defense if valid.