Would be very interested to see how something like this plays out here in Germany because we have what's called a <i>right to your own image</i>, meaning that taking and in particular selling a photograph of you requires your consent. Profiting of someone else's likeness without their explicit agreement can get you into trouble very quickly.<p>Now with an NFT you're not technically selling a picture and I'm still not entirely sure why someone buying an NFT of an open source picture makes any sense at all but it is kind of inherent to what's being sold, because I don't think anyone would pay the same for some random bits of information.
"A portion of sales will be donated to open source projects, collectives, and foundations featured in this project."<p>What portion? 90%? 1%? Do they also get a cut of the commission of future sales the NFT takes?<p>To me, it makes a big difference if the funds are primarily going towards open source projects Vs into the photographer's pocket.
NFT collection here: <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/faces-of-open-source" rel="nofollow">https://opensea.io/collection/faces-of-open-source</a><p>It feels very awkward to buy these, though I'm not sure exactly why.
And with this one desperate and futile attempt to extract meaningful revenue, this photographer has all but guaranteed that all future photographers who approach people in the OSS community are going to get the terms and conditions scrutinized before the subjects agree to relinquishing studio-quality shots of themselves again.<p>I'd be downright embarrassed to have my public image be hawked as an NFT, and I'd be worried about other people assuming I actually endorsed it.
kind of icky, this weird intersection of tech with art space. otoh i know a bunch of oss devs who could use the dough. can't we find a better way to pay them than plaster their face all over web3. guess not.
TLDR; The author (Kris Nova) found that a photographer who owned the copyright on a picture taken of her was put up for an NFT.<p>In other words, the photographer, who owned the copyright on a picture of the author (Kris Nova), minted an NFT on opensea.io. It sounds like Kris Nova was a bit shocked but ultimately, tentatively, supportive.<p>For people who maintain cryptocurrencies can only be used for crime, I would offer this quote from the post:<p>"""<p>I used bitcoin to pay for my HRT as a transgender woman when I first started transitioning in 2013. There was a bitcoin kiosk in Denver and that was the only way I was able to purchase estradiol on the underground pharmaceutical market.<p>"""
The language people use around nfts is a big scam. Its not an NFT of this person, its not even an NFT of the picture. Its an NFT that points to an image.<p>Hackernews loves to hate on crypto, if there is any part that should be hated on its nfts. Because they're a giant worthless scam.
Grammar nitpick: the abuse of the word "myself" in this article is distracting.<p>> an NFT of myself -> an NFT of me<p>> on brand for myself -> on brand for me<p>> photographs of myself -> photographs of me<p>> Myself, and my photograph -> Me, and my photograph<p>> open source engineers like myself -> open source engineers like me<p>> He could have done a better job at reaching out to myself -> ... reaching out to me<p>Author actually uses correct grammar sometimes,<p>> I have invested literally millions of dollars into myself<p>> there is another one of his photographs of me
It's all just scams, frauds, pump-n-dumps, and outright thefts. I really wish our industry and community would stand up and put a spotlight of shame on this kind of activity.
tl;dr The photographer that created the NFT owned the rights to the photo. She doesn't really have an issue with that, but as a transwoman, is self-conscious about her looks and doesn't really like the photo
From the blog post:<p>"""
I agree with Peter.<p>I think he is well-meaning. Given the difficulties with publishing his book I can see why NFTs make sense. As an author, I can deeply emphasize with the challenges in publishing a book.<p>Sure – it could have been better.<p>Honestly I am just honored that somebody thinks my stupid open source work is valuable enough to put my face on an NFT.<p>- Do I wish he would take another photograph of me? Yes. I hate that face!
- Do I wish he would have reached out first? Yes. But honestly I probably would have missed the email.
- Do I think Crypto is here to stay? Absolutely. There are too many hurt, and traumatized young people in the world without a viable career path otherwise. Crypto isn’t going anywhere.
- Do I think Crypto is bad for the environment? Yes.
"""