A16z impact on crypto deepens as it plans to release a free licensing system to aid the NFT sector in realizing its “economic potential.”
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have a licensing problem. Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm (a16z), believes it has the solution.
In an attempt to set industry standards for NFTs, the firm offers a range of legal-vetted licensing options that are similar to Creative Commons. There is a lot of confusion about intellectual property rights for these tokens.
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that provides free copyright licensing for creators to share their work. However, some issuers have already turned towards Creative Commons. A16z believes there is an urgent need to clarify how NFT owners can use them and grant permission for others to do so.
Miles Jennings is general counsel at A16z. “There’s a wide range of approaches people are using.” “A greater standardization of the industry will unleash the economic potential that this sector of the industry.”
His company – explained in a Wednesday post by Jennings and Chris Dixon (an Andreessen Horowitz managing partnership who founded its crypto arm) – is releasing a “set of free, public, ‘Can’t Be Evil’ licences. The language is available on GitHub for anyone who wants to adopt it.
Although standard licensing has been tried in the past by Dapper Labs (creator of CryptoKitties), the sector has not yet settled on a consistent approach. This is a constant source of legal uncertainty for investors and users, as well as firms like a16z.
