In this week’s newsletter, read about how NFTs using the 1928 depiction of Mickey Mouse topped the trending list on OpenSea. Following this, a lawyer warned the community about the limitations of using the character, whose copyright recently expired. In other news, find out how Web3 professionals feel about NFTs' challenges in 2024 in one of Cointelegraph’s New Year specials. And don’t forget this week’s Nifty News, featuring former U.S. President Donald Trump cashing out his NFT profits.
Early version of Mickey Mouse becomes top NFT on OpenSea after copyright expires
The copyright on the 1928 depiction of Mickey Mouse in the short film Steamboat Willie expired and became available to the public on Jan 1. Several nonfungible token (NFT) collections related to Steamboat Willie appeared at the top of the NFT marketplace OpenSea’s 24-hour trending list the following day.
One “Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024” collection had a 24-hour trading volume of around $1.2 million. This put the collection on OpenSea’s “top” list, joining prominent collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Pudgy Penguins.
Lawyer on Mickey Mouse NFTs: ‘You cannot suddenly make your own Mickey products’
As Steamboat Willie’s copyright expired, a lawyer reminded the crypto community that there are limitations on how they may use the Mickey Mouse character. In an interview with Cointelegraph, lawyer Oscar Franklin Tan said that people cannot use the 1928 depiction of Mickey to make anyone think that their work is affiliated with Disney.
As Tan explained, “Mickey Mouse, the trademark and brand, separate from the character, is still private.” The lawyer also said that in countries where the legal countdown is different, the 1928 depiction of Mickey is still private.
NFT predictions for 2024: Trends and challenges coming next year
Cointelegraph contacted various Web3 professionals to get their predictions on what trends and challenges could be expected in 2024. From real-world asset tokenization to regulation, the Web3 executives shared their takes on the future of NFTs.
One such prediction revolves around gaming. Jason Lau, chief innovation officer at crypto exchange OKX, told Cointelegraph that a new wave of Web3-enabled games would expose a broader range of gamers to new ways to use NFTs.
Nifty News: Trump cashing out NFT earnings, Ordinals debate goes to ‘shit’ and more
A crypto wallet affiliated with former United States President Donald Trump transferred about $2.4 million in Ether (ETH) to crypto exchange Coinbase on Dec. 8. Trump earned the ETH from his NFT collections, including one of the mugshots captured when he surrendered to authorities in the state of Georgia in August 2023.
Meanwhile, Bitcoiners’ debate about the Ordinals protocol just became nastier. Maximalists who are against Ordinals have started to use words like “shit” and “farts” to describe Bitcoin NFTs, arguing that it’s bad for the network.
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Thanks for reading this digest of the week’s most notable developments in the NFT space. Come again next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively evolving space.