● The platform "playing method" for issuing digital collections is similar: the ways to obtain digital collections include pre-sale, auction, lottery, blind box opening, synthesis, new user registration, etc. Users can snap up for a few yuan to several hundred yuan, and the sale becomes the norm.
● As an innovative application of blockchain technology, digital collections have positive significance for spreading excellent culture. However, due to its short appearance in China, the identification and supervision standards have not yet been established, resulting in chaos. In order to prevent the digital collection market from continuing to "run wild" with problems, benign supervision and industry regulation should be established in time to make technology better serve the art.
● Before purchasing digital collections, consumers should know whether the copyright owner of the works authorizes the platform to make digital collections for distribution and limited sales, choose a regular platform to purchase them, do not click on the links of unfamiliar websites sent by the other party at will, and do not authorize them at will. They should regularly check and clean up the authorized contracts, and keep the private key safe from external disclosure to ensure the safety of assets.
□ Rule of Law Daily reporter Han Dandong
□ Fan Xiaoya, Intern of Rule of Law Daily
"The cost price is 0.99 yuan, and it is sold in 400 yuan" and "you can earn it when you buy it" … … Recently, digital collections that are "visible and intangible" have been popular.
Digital collection refers to the unique digital voucher generated by using blockchain technology corresponding to specific works and artworks, and realizes authentic digital distribution, purchase, collection and use on the basis of protecting its digital copyright.
According to the recent incomplete statistics of the reporter of Rule of Law Daily, there are more than 100 platforms for distributing digital collections in China, and the "playing methods" of these platforms are similar: the ways to obtain digital collections include pre-sale, auction, lottery, blind box opening, synthesis, and new user registration, etc. Users can buy them at a cost of several yuan to several hundred yuan, and it is normal to sell them.
Behind the popularity of digital collections, complaints have continued: up to now, there have been more than 2,500 complaints about "digital collections" on the black cat complaint platform alone. Consumer complaints mainly focus on the platform suspected of speculation and price gouging; Merchants falsely deliver goods without refund; Data loss, theft of purchased collections, etc.
Many industry experts interviewed by reporters pointed out that digital collections, as an innovative application of blockchain technology, have positive significance for spreading excellent culture. However, due to their short appearance in China, the identification and supervision standards have not yet been established, leading to chaos. In order to prevent the digital collection market from continuing to "run wild" with problems, benign supervision and industry regulation should be established in time to make technology better serve the art.
The price is over 100 times.
Collection trading routine is not shallow.
Mr. Li, from Langfang, Hebei Province, tested the water digital collection. He bought a portrait of a girl in the early Tang Dynasty for 0.99 yuan on an App, and then sold it in 400 yuan. After deducting the handling fee, the platform actually received the payment from 350 yuan.
The profit made Mr. Li taste the sweetness. Then, he spent 6499 yuan to snap up the collection of "Mei Lanfang’s Mulan Joining the Army" digital vinyl records, and sold it on the platform at 6999 yuan, while the original price of the album was 199 yuan. Soon, the platform showed that someone had taken the order, but it had not been paid. After the payment time was exceeded, Mr. Li wanted to take the goods off the shelf and sell them again when they were hot. As a result, the platform locked the order. As a result, he could not take the collection off the shelf, nor could he put it on the shelf to trade again, and the lock time was as long as 24 hours. After it was unlocked the next day, the market price of the collection dropped to about 4,000 yuan, and then dropped to 1,999 yuan a week later.
Mr. Li filed a lawsuit against the company affiliated to the platform, hoping that the other party could return the goods for a refund. Company staff replied: all losses were caused by Mr. Li’s improper operation, and the company will not bear any responsibility.
After this incident, Mr. Li found that this is a common routine of the platform: first, attract users with low-priced collections, and then raise the prices of some collections with low actual prices. When users spend a lot of money to buy and resell, the order is locked for a long time and cannot be successfully traded. After this heat, the price of the collection will continue to fall, and the user will bear the loss. The platform will draw more than 10% of the fee when the price of the collection is the highest, so as to earn the handling fee.
In the view of Wang Zhenhua, head of the legal working group of Shanghai Blockchain Technology Research Center, the trading platform of digital collections, as a network service provider, has no right to restrict users’ use of network services without authorization, and has no right to freeze users’ virtual property without authorization, thus causing losses to consumers, and should be liable for compensation according to law.
"If the platform locks the order to restrict the transaction, whether it constitutes infringement shall be subject to the specific operation content and the rights and obligations clearly stipulated in the agreement signed by both parties." Wang Zhenhua said.
He added that if the trading platform of digital collections speculates on commodities in its operation, it is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the price law: if operators collude with each other to manipulate market prices, it will harm the legitimate rights and interests of other operators or consumers; Whoever fabricates and disseminates information about price increases, drives up prices and pushes commodity prices up too high will be fined according to law, and if his behavior is serious, it may also constitute the crime of illegal business operation.
Merchants circle money to play "missing"
It is too difficult for consumers to defend their rights.
Unlike Mr. Li, Mr. Zhang from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province bought a fake on the platform. Not long ago, he bought a digital collection through a WeChat official account for 276 yuan. As a result, the pictures he received didn’t have any transaction logo and work logo, but regular digital collections would have a unique logo.
He contacted the platform to reflect the situation. As a result, he did not contact the merchant until the system automatically confirmed the receipt. The platform finally gave a reply: the online store has been frozen and there is no balance available, and the platform does not assume any responsibility.
Mr. Zhang, who suffered from YaBaKui, later discovered that there were still many people who were cheated like him. They built a social group with more than 2,000 members. "Everyone in the group was cheated for several hundred yuan."
Mr. Wang from Baoding, Hebei Province is one of them. He learned about the relevant digital collections through the internal air-drop activity of "Dayu Digital Collection" in WeChat official account, and spent 110 yuan to buy two digital collections, but the two pictures he received were without any logo. Mr. Wang contacted the platform, and the other party replied: Due to the special nature of digital collections, the after-sales authority of orders is all in the merchants.
However, the merchants who provide Mr. Wang with digital collections can’t be contacted at all.
After paying attention to the "Dayu Digital Collection" WeChat official account, the reporter clicked on the link of the official store in WeChat official account, and the blank page was displayed. Click on the purchase through the H5 link, indicating that the collection has been removed. The reporter browsed the relevant collection information and found that the sales of several previously popular collections were around two or three thousand.
According to members of social groups, the platform has been rectified at the request of relevant departments and no longer provides digital collection sales services.
In Wang Zhenhua’s view, the pictures sent by merchants don’t have any transaction logos and works logos, which obviously don’t conform to the appearance of formal digital collections and don’t belong to real digital collections. The online shop selling false digital collections is suspected of violating the law and should bear corresponding responsibilities. If the circumstances involved are serious, it may also constitute a criminal offence.
Wang Zhenhua believes that according to the e-commerce law, when there is a dispute between consumers and operators in the platform, the platform has the obligation to assist consumers to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. According to the Consumer Protection Law, if consumers buy goods or receive services through online trading platforms and their legitimate rights and interests are damaged, they can claim compensation from sellers or service providers. In addition, the platform failed to fulfill its qualification audit obligations or was imposed administrative punishment by the market supervision department.
Collection transaction implies risks.
Beware of intellectual property infringement
In addition to driving up prices and false delivery, there are also many hidden dangers in the transaction security of digital collection platforms.
Ms. Wen, from Guigang, Guangxi, bought a digital collection by recharging 80 yuan with an App. As a result, she found that the purchased goods were not displayed in her personal account, and there was no purchase record, which was suspected to have been completely cleared by the system. The next day, Ms. Wen contacted customer service for a refund until the third day.
Ms. Wen is still lucky to get a successful refund. According to her understanding, many people have encountered similar problems with her. "The money was swallowed, the customer service did not handle it, and no compensation was received from the platform." The explanation given by the platform is: "The platform database has suffered a lot of malicious attacks, and criminals have falsely purchased and stolen players’ collections, resulting in abnormal data. For the losses caused, the platform will give each player a compensation. "
In April this year, an artist posted on social media that the digital collection of paintings of ape heads that he had previously received was stolen by phishing websites. After that, on the foreign NFT trading platform, the avatar was changed hands with 130 Ethereum and 155 Ethereum virtual coins in about one hour.
At the same time, the risk of intellectual property infringement is gradually emerging. On May 28th, Xu Beihong Art Museum issued a statement stating that it was concerned that some digital platforms sold related digital collections for gimmicks in the name of Mr. Xu Beihong. Some of the original works of these digital collections were counterfeit, some could not provide complete traceability evidence, and some works had nothing to do with Mr. Xu Beihong at all.
The reporter found in a digital collection App that the platform distinguishes between the copyright market and the derivative market, and informed in the "Notice of Rights and Interests" that the purchase of works in the copyright market will obtain other copyrights of the digital artwork except personal rights (including reproduction rights and distribution rights, etc.); If you buy derivative works, you will have the right to possess, use and dispose of the digital works of art. Special note: If you are interested in commercial license and authorization of this digital artwork, it is suggested that you enter into a written Copyright Transfer Agreement with the copyright owner and register the copyright transfer.
Wang Zhenhua said that the platform is "specially prompted" because the copyright of digital works of art belongs to the copyright owner, and the buyer who buys digital works of art through the information network only enjoys the limited right to use the digital works of art, such as collection, study, research and appreciation, etc. If the buyer uses it beyond his own rights, it will easily infringe on the intellectual property rights of the obligee. Therefore, if consumers need to use digital works of art for other commercial purposes other than the agreed content, they need to sign a written agreement with the copyright owner and register them.
Zhao Shujie, a partner of Beijing Tianda Gonghe Law Firm, believes that domestic digital collections mainly make digital or physical collections into blockchain digital collections for limited sale, so the risks of domestic digital collections are more reflected in the intellectual property risks in the production and trading links. Without the consent of the copyright owner, the second creation and sale of digital collections may infringe the rights of the copyright owner. If an investor buys an infringing digital collection, it is not illegal to buy it, but through traceable transaction records, it can be shown that the purchased digital collection belongs to infringing works, and investors or consumers will suffer economic losses.
Therefore, Zhao Shujie suggested that investors should check whether the seller enjoys the copyright before purchasing the digital collection, including the copyright registration certificate, the certificate issued by the copyright certification body and other legal rights certificates of the digital collection. At the same time, the digital collection trading platform should also play the main responsibility of the platform, take the initiative to fulfill the platform enterprise review obligations, and protect the legitimate rights of the right holders.
Establish a correct concept of consumption
Choose the trading platform carefully
"Buying digital collections has potential technical risks and economic risks." Zhu Jie, a senior partner of Taihetai Law Firm, said that on the one hand, the seller used the blockchain technology that consumers did not understand to defraud consumers of their property; On the other hand, digital collections are traded through smart contracts. Hackers may steal users’ digital collections through hacking techniques, or induce users to authorize a smart contract through phishing websites, and then steal digital collections from users’ wallets through smart contracts.
Then, from the consumer’s point of view, how to maintain the safety of their own property when trading digital collections?
Zhu Jie suggested that before purchasing digital collections, consumers should know whether the copyright owner of the works authorizes the platform to make digital collections for distribution and limited sales, choose a regular platform to purchase them, do not click on unfamiliar website links sent by the other party at will, and do not authorize them at will. They should regularly check and clean up the authorized contracts, and keep the private key safe from being leaked to ensure the safety of assets.
Wang Zhenhua said that consumers must first understand that digital collections should not have any financial value, and do not try to gain short-term benefits by speculating digital collections; When choosing a digital collection platform, we should choose a platform with corresponding qualifications, strength, full positive market influence and credibility, and a stable user base. Such platforms should be information technology enterprises registered and recognized by the National Network Information Office.
"We should also pay attention to the platform agreement and transaction mode, whether the platform agreement is formal, whether the prompt obligation of key terms is strictly fulfilled, whether the transaction mode provided by the platform is legal, and whether the transaction records will be completely preserved and displayed; Whether the issuer has the corresponding administrative licensing qualifications such as network and cultural operation, and whether there are any infringements or illegal acts in the collections issued in the past. " Wang Zhenhua warned.
Comics/Gao Yue
