Can you get sued for screenshotting an NFT?

NFT craze has been skyrocketing over the past few years. Last year with the sale of some projects for millions of dollars the industry has attracted many more towards it. But we should know the concept of these assets. In recent developments, we can see NFTs in almost every sector including games, sports, entertainment, and art. These tokens claim to provide the ownership of some one of a kind art pieces. But still there is speculation whether these assets truly provide the ownership.

How does NFTs work?

Digital collectibles are a unique digital certificate that is stored on a blockchain and provides certain ownership rights in an asset. These assets store a few different fields such as a unique identifier, the blockchain wallet address of its current owner, and a link where the actual piece of art is associated.

As any transaction on blockchain is fully transparent anyone can view an NFT and its underlying information. As a buyer purchases and receives the NFT in its digital wallet the transaction is effectuated on the blockchain. And hence it is believed that with the transfer of the Non-Fungible Token, the users are acquiring a certificate of ownership as well.

But It is notable that the tokens only represent a link where the actual artwork file is saved. Indeed, the question arises whether these NFTs truly provide the copyright of any art work.

Is screenshotting an NFT legal

Anyone in the world of NFTs can access the art pieces online with just a few clicks. Still they consider that the property is owned by whoever created them. Notably, there are laws surrounding the industry and the ownership rules to prevent Non-Fungible assets from being unrightfully stolen.

However, it is yet legal to screenshot any digital collectible. According to some enthusiasts screenshotting an NFT is legal until we do not sell the asset somewhere else or pass it off as our own or post somewhere online or wherever we want to make a physical copy of the asset.

Notably, if someone is caught doing such things then the authentic owner of the asset could sue for copyright infringement. Moreover, if someone tries to do something like that then the person would have to face other criminal charges.

According to Zach, the founder of Mintable, taking a picture of Mona Lisa at the Louvre is not exactly the same as owning a piece from Leonardo da Vinci. Notably, the same concept could be applied in this case as well. Taking a screenshot of Non-fungible Token does not make us the rightful owner of artwork.

However, if someone would want to screenshot an NFT to remember what it looks like, or save it for inspiration then that is legal. Indeed, the legal or non-legal scenarios are subject to intention. But yes there are rules and regulations that help protect the ownership of any NFTs.