Crypto-bros are stealing from artists. It even happens in Medicine Hat.
Everyone knows a crypto-bro. They tell you about the blockchain, and all the options to make money in a world of digital coins and non-fungible tokens, or NFT.
An NFT is, simply put, a unique file that represents ownership on a digital ledger.
, in th past 5 years, some collections of NFT’s have been valued as crown jewels… like Alien Cryptopunks, which were generated by an algorithm, and sold for over 60 million dollars
*Cryptopunk nfts on screen
More recently NFT’s have become the ire of artists and models alike. With complaints abound of crypto-bros “stealing” their art, by downloading it from the artists collection, and then re-uploading onto various NFT minting websites like open sea.
Opensea website
I was even alerted to a local NFT crypto-bro situation. Justin Austin, who goes by SONCHO Austin here in medicine hat, was accused of using a model’s nude photos without consent. No victims have pressed charges. The photo in question has since been removed.
Image of soncho doing art
During my investigation I saw the images in question, and I am aware that the images Austin posted on opensea were reported for being exploitative, non-consensual intimate images. The distribution of intimate images of another person without their consent has been a crime in Canada since 2015. I read the reply from an admin at opensea about Austin’s contested images, who said that the images were removed as per the complaint; non-consensual use of another person’s intimate image. I contacted Austin, who claimed he hadn’t realized that he didn’t have consent to distribute the images, and that he had removed them from the website himself. According to admins at opensea, at least one of the images was removed by them. Austin could not explain the discrepancy.
Aside from non-consensual distribution of nude images, crypto bros have also been scouring websites like deviant art for lesser-known artists work, and minting it as their own NFT’s. Many crypto-bros will tell you that the breakthrough algorithm integration will benefit the artists in the end, whether they understand the revolutionary miraculous block-chain technology or not.
Many artists remain skeptical, and say they are not happy to find their original pieces on the crypto websites being hawked as NFT’s for ethereum and dogecoin.
In an effort to counter these unfair uses of original artwork, the website deviant art, which has been widely used for decades to store large format digital drawings, has implemented new software to protect artists using their platform from crypto-plundering NFT minters. The software claims it can recognize an image stolen from their website. The software can recognize images even if they are flipped, mirrored, or the colors are changed.
If you believe someone is distributing intimate images without the subject's authorization, please contact local police. If you see original artwork being minted as NFT’s by non-artists, or people who do not have rights to share or resell the images, let the artists know, and try to report it by using the website's flagging system.
