THE STATE OF DIGITAL ART THEFT

The state of digital art theft online has become a pervasive and multifaceted challenge for creators, platforms and the broader digital-economy ecosystem. With the advent of easy global sharing, high-resolution uploads, and large open marketplaces, digital artworks can be copied, reposted, altered and commercialised without the creator’s consent at an alarming rate. [1]

Particularly troubling is the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other blockchain-based mechanisms which enable individuals to mint or list digital art that they do not own — placing false “ownership” claims onto works and profiting from them, while the original artists may never be acknowledged or compensated. [2] Compounding matters, the legal frameworks and enforcement infrastructure have struggled to keep pace: creators report major burdens in tracking, policing and removing infringing uses, especially when operations span multiple jurisdictions and platforms. [3]

At the same time, the misuse of collector hype and the opaque mechanics of online marketplaces mean that art theft not only harms individual creatives financially, but also undermines market trust and devalues the notion of provenance and authenticity in digital art.

1.(Achona) 2. (context.news) 3. (redpoints.com)