Who Is the Author of an NFT Work?

⏱️ Reading time: 11 min · 📁 Category: NFT Law, Digital Copyright, Intellectual Property

🎨 Who is the author of an NFT work? (Minter–designer–platform relationship)

Common sources of confusion in the NFT ecosystem include these questions:

“Is the person who mints the NFT its author?”

“Does publishing it on a platform transfer the rights to that platform?”

“Who holds the rights if the designer and the minter are different people?”

Basic rule:
Minting an NFT does not automatically make someone the author.
The author is the natural person who creates the work. 1️⃣ Legal starting point: Who is the author?

The basic principle in intellectual property law is:

• The person who creates the work is its author.
• Authorship arises when the work comes into being.
• A blockchain transaction does not change authorship.

Therefore:

What matters is not whose wallet the NFT came from on the blockchain, but
who created the work.

2️⃣ Is the minter the author?

Technically, “minting” means recording digital content on a blockchain.

However, the person minting it:

• may not be the person who designed the work
• may simply carry out the technical operation
• may be an agency or collection manager

In this case:

• The person minting it is not the author
• Without a transfer of rights, they act only as a technical intermediary

Minting an NFT does not create authorship.
It only creates a token. 3️⃣ Is the designer (creator) the author?

If the image, music, video or digital artwork underlying the NFT
was created by a particular person:

• That person is the author
• They are the initial holder of the economic and moral rights

These rights include:

• Right of reproduction
• Right of distribution
• Right of communication to the public
• Right of adaptation

NFT production does not transfer these rights automatically.

4️⃣ Is the platform the author?

NFT platforms (marketplaces) generally:

• act as intermediary service providers
• provide hosting and sales infrastructure
• operate the smart contract mechanism

The platform:

• does not create the work
• is generally not the author

However, the point to note is:

Platform terms of use
may require certain licence rights.

The platform does not become the author;
but it may request a licence. 5️⃣ When the minter and designer are different people

The riskiest situation:

• One person designs the work
• Another person mints it
• It is sold through a platform

If there is no explicit agreement between the designer and the minter:

• Copyright remains with the designer
• The minter may be selling unlawfully

This is the most common dispute area in the NFT market.

6️⃣ Employer–agency–collection model

NFT collections often show the following structure:

• The graphic designer creates the work
• The agency organizes
• Minting takes place through another wallet

In this case, ownership of the work is determined by:

• the service agreement,
• rights-transfer clauses,
• the employee–employer relationship.

These factors determine the position.

The biggest legal risk in NFT projects:
Failing to conclude a rights-transfer agreement with the designer. 7️⃣ Collectively created and AI-generated NFTs 👥 Collective Production

If more than one person contributed,
there may be a jointly authored work.

🤖 AI-generated work

If the work is entirely produced by artificial intelligence:

• Authorship is disputed
• Human creation is essential in most legal systems

In this case, minting does not automatically make someone the author.

8️⃣ The Most Common Mistakes

• ❌ Assuming the minter automatically holds the rights
• ❌ Assuming publication on a platform transfers the rights
• ❌ Failing to make a written agreement with the designer
• ❌ Failing to specify the applicable law in international NFT projects

Conclusion: Blockchain does not determine authorship of NFT works

In the NFT ecosystem:

• Minter ≠ author
• Platform ≠ author
• Token ownership ≠ copyright ownership

The author is the person who creates the work.
If there is no transfer of rights, that does not change.

Expert Conclusion:
Technical ownership and legal ownership are different in NFTs.
Any project conducted without this distinction could turn into a serious copyright dispute in the future.

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