Mintable CEO There is a risk of regulating NFTs in the UK in the wrong way

Mintable CEO Warns of Potential Risks in UK Government's Regulation of NFTs

Author: Tom Mitchelhill, Cointelegraph; Translation: Song Xue, LianGuai

Zach Burks, CEO and founder of Mintable, has expressed concerns that the UK government is at risk of regulating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a manner that does not align with the nature of emerging technologies.

In an interview, Burks stated that he believes a recent report by the UK Parliamentary Committee exaggerated the role of NFTs in copyright infringement and failed to recognize that they are more than just unstable digital images.

Burks explained, “NFTs are in a transitional phase, moving away from the speculative craze of profile picture (PFP) NFTs and now entering various different sectors to showcase the branding utility of NFTs.“

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In the report released on October 11th, the Culture, Media, and Sports Committee urged the government to take action to protect artists and content creators from copyright infringement related to NFTs.

The NFT market needs to take more measures to address copyright infringement issues on its platforms.

We have published a report on “NFTs and Blockchain: Risks in Sports and Culture.”

Learn more: https://t.co/4pYE6gAngw

Read our report: https://t.co/XIj0LYlcrX@cj_dinenage pic.twitter.com/GTbtOJCM8m

— Culture, Media, and Sports Committee (@CommonsCMS) October 11, 2023

Burks acknowledges the importance of copyright protection and intellectual property rights for artists, and highlights Mintable’s own proprietary algorithm for protecting intellectual property to prevent plagiarism on its platform.

However, he explains that while these issues should be a top priority for all NFT platforms, they are not exclusive to NFTs.

“These are inherent problems of the internet, not problems specific to NFTs.”

“Regulators say, ‘Now NFTs are being used for copyright infringement.’ Yes, so is WordPress. So is YouTube. So is Spotify,” he says. “So how do you deal with it? Well, some of the biggest and most advanced companies in the world, like Google, are working on this issue.”

“They have billions of dollars and still cannot effectively combat copyrighted content on YouTube. This problem didn’t arise just because NFTs were created.”

Burks personally communicates with UK government officials on NFT issues on a weekly basis. He emphasizes that while NFT platforms should make maximum efforts to protect artists, regulatory bodies have a responsibility to take a more nuanced view of NFTs as a whole.

It was fantastic speaking at the 40th International Symposium on Economic Crime at the University of Cambridge!

Learned a lot, met some incredible people, and hoped to inspire those in the small group discussions about NFTs and the blockchain space who listened to me! pic.twitter.com/txExSVqTIb

— Zach Burks (@ZachSLianGuaided) September 14, 2023

“You can use NFT in various ways, whether it’s car records, property records, bank settlement documents, backup layers, complete supply chain systems, or biofuel companies,” he said.

“It’s not just an artwork or a financial tool. [… ] NFT is actually a website.”

“If my website is used to sell books, I will be governed by the laws used to sell books,” he said with a laugh.

In Burke’s view, NFT is an extremely versatile technology that can serve various functions. If a committee were to declare them regulated as digital artworks, it could be a significant setback in revealing the true utility of this technology.

“[The committee] suggests that the government should implement EU Directive 17 on NFT, which in a way is a bad regulation because it is a very broad protection,” he said.

The committee stated in the report that the “most urgent issues” raised by NFT are the ease and speed of NFT minting and the risks it poses to artists’ intellectual property rights. It suggests that they should be regulated by a relatively narrow copyright directive, such as Article 17 of the EU Copyright Directive.

The recommendations put forth by the committee to the UK government. Source: UK Parliament

“When you say that all NFTs need to have this regulatory element, it’s like saying, ‘We need legislation that covers this technology,’ and that might be starting with the Edison light bulb, but now we’re dealing with Tesla,” Burke said.

“So when it comes to an overall regulatory framework for applying NFT as a system, we have to be very careful and not just look at the surface of NFT.”

In the end, Burke believes that the UK government can learn from regulatory agencies in Singapore, where the government assesses NFT based on specific use cases.

He explained, “Singapore’s regulatory agencies study what NFT really is first and then create regulations. For example, if you have an NFT for a Tesla stock, then it becomes a security.”

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