Nft Resale Royalties: Smart Contracts Copyright and the Limits of Code

54 questions on nft resale royalties, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are NFT creator royalties legally enforceable?
• Can a creator sue the marketplace instead of the buyer?
• Could a real-property servitude theory bind downstream NFT buyers?
• Do copyright termination rights help with NFT royalties?
• Does buying an NFT give you the copyright in the artwork?
• Does the United States have an artist resale royalty?
• Does VARA help an NFT creator seeking resale royalties?
• Do NFTs enjoy a First Amendment safe harbor from trademark liability?
• Do UETA and E-SIGN make a smart contract a legal contract?
• Has any court held that NFT creators have an enforceable royalty right?
• How did the royalty equilibrium collapse in 2023?
• How does the clickwrap/browsewrap line govern NFT terms?
• How does the first-sale doctrine cut against resale royalties?
• How does the Howey test apply to NFTs?
• How do the major marketplaces differ in royalty posture?
• How do two versions of the same mint compare on legal risk?
• How should a creator best protect royalty expectations when minting?
• How should a creator diversify revenue away from royalties?
• How should a creator document terms to improve her legal footing?
• What could shift the royalty trajectory without legislation?
• What did Hermès v. Rothschild decide?
• What did Yuga Labs v. Ripps establish?
• What does EIP-2981 actually do?
• What does the choice between broad and narrow license terms cost a creator?
• What does the MetaBirkins case reveal about where the law's teeth are?
• What does the NFT royalty episode teach about technology and law?
• What do Hermès and Yuga together establish — and what do they leave untouched?
• What exactly does an NFT buyer acquire?
• What happened to OpenSea's Operator Filter Registry?
• What is an NFT, technically, and why is the token not the artwork?
• What is droit de suite, and why did NFT royalties borrow its logic?
• What is the ceiling on technical royalty enforcement?
• What is the consideration problem with a perpetual royalty?
• What is the final conclusion about code and law?
• What is the privity problem in NFT royalties?
• What is the realistic goal of careful documentation?
• What is the single most important lesson for an NFT creator?
• What is the single strategic posture a creator should adopt?
• What positioning reduces a creator's securities risk?
• What technical approaches have creators tried to force royalties, and why do they fail?
• What would a durable legislative fix look like?
• Where did the royalty market actually settle?
• Why did NFT creator royalties collapse even though the code never broke?
• Why did royalties actually get paid through 2022?
• Why do downstream license terms fail against a third-party buyer?
• Why does an aggressive royalty narrative worsen a project's securities posture?
• Why does estate planning matter for NFT creators?
• Why doesn't buying an NFT transfer the copyright?
• Why does the license, not the token, determine what a buyer can do?
• Why has the royalty collapse not reversed?
• Why is an NFT resale a copyright non-event?
• Why is smart-contract royalty logic not self-enforcing?
• Why is the first sale from creator to buyer a shakier contract than it looks?
• Why should a creator invest in brand protection rather than royalty chasing?