The tweet above has been deleted by the Associated Press after facing criticism for trying to make money on hardships of others. Many of the criticisms pointing out bad timing to drop such NFT due to the current Ukraine-Russia crisis. Until reading about this on Web3isgoingreat, I didn't even know the AP was exploring NFTs. The same day after deleting the tweets the AP tweeted an explanation.
Before the tweet with the photograph that was going to be dropped as NFT, some people were able to screenshot and archive it. Of course screenshots are not the actual NFT, and I doubt original tweet included the high quality photograph anyway.
There will always be those who will criticize actions of media and news company. What I don't understand is, why they had to reevaluate their actions and come to a conclusion of "poor choice of imagery". After all for a company that reports news, publishing photographs of real people in real situations, especially in difficult one, shouldn't be embarrassing. When it comes to NFTs there is money involved. Making money, as long as done in a honest way, shouldn't be a problem. They have the right to earn the money to do their work and support good journalism. There are news sites that charge monthly fee for their content. Nobody complains about that.
I am not suggesting the AP does good journalism. I don't read them. I have no idea. But I know there is a lot of confusion in the world. All and any efforts to support good and honest journalism are welcome.
At the same time it seems to me crypto and in particular NFTs can be a solution to support the future of journalism that can be self-sustaining and doesn't rely on money from interest groups, hence able to do their work and report in an unbiased manner.
News brands like the AP that is recognized worldwide usually do a proper research and planning before they publish and/or announce anything. This makes me think deleting of their announcement of this new NFT drop was political one. Just like many pointed out, bad timing. Why should it be bad timing though? If an action is wrong, wouldn't/shouldn't it be wrong at any time? Especially when it comes to journalistic reporting, even if it is in an NFT form. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong or missing something.
I hope to see emergence honest and decent journalistic efforts in the future that is supported and powered by web3, cryptos, and NFTs. It is also good to see global news organization like the AP experimenting with NFTs. They have started their NFT market place just recently at the end of January. At first glance, it looks like purchasing and trading AP NFTs is only available on their APmarket platform. Currently, AP NFTs are cannot be transferred or traded to other platforms. There are also restrictions what owners of NFTs can or cannot do with the NFTs.
What are my rights as the owner of an AP Marketplace NFT?
- You may display your photograph for personal use including on your personal social media accounts.
- You may resell your NFT through the AP Marketplace.
- You may use unlockable content for personal use and display, however if you resell your photo, you must delete all unlockable content from all your devices and destroy any prints made using unlockable content.
- You may not create derivative work or use the AP image to sell a product.
- You do not receive copyright to the AP photojournalism. Copyright always remains with the photojournalist and the AP.
This NFT endeavor is new to AP and many. It ok to have restrictions while experimenting with new ideas and avenues to fund their work, journalists, photographers. There is no one answer, there is one good way of doing things. By experimenting we learn, and improve and hopefully come up with system that actually work better. Feel free to visit their NFT platform explore more what they are trying to do.
Their NFTs are currently only sold on the AP Marketplace. They are minted on the Polygon blockchain. They say part of the profits they make go the photographers. I was trying to find if there was a royalty for the photographers to earn every time NFTs changed owners. I couldn't find yet. Maybe they will/can implement something like that as well.
What do you think about news media companies or any other companies or organization getting into NFTs and monetizing the digital assets they may already work with as part of conducting their normal business? Let me know in the comments.