CryptoArt NFTs and Copyright: Bridging the Gap between the Practice and the Law

Kelley, Sophie Margaret Lee (2025) CryptoArt NFTs and Copyright: Bridging the Gap between the Practice and the Law. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

CryptoArt is revolutionising how digital artists protect and monetise their works. However, the position of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and CryptoArt within copyright law remains unclear. A lack of certainty in relation to rights, infringement and platform liability is creating inconsistency between NFT platforms and consumer confusion. Based on case study evidence from the empirical research of six NFT platforms, together with doctrinal and theoretical analysis, this thesis recommends how copyright law might, and should, be interpreted to provide legal certainty for the CryptoArt movement

This thesis concludes how, within copyright law, NFTs could be classified as tangible CryptoAssets, thereby permitting the application of the exclusive distribution right to CryptoArt. This would provide legal certainty and clarity for the transfer of CryptoArt, the better protection and enforcement of copyright for digital artists, and clarify issues of liability for NFT platforms, so increasing consumer confidence and protection.

Such a position is required to properly reflect the current practice of NFT platforms, legalise the minting and trading via secondary markets of CryptoArt, future-proof the law for further technological progress and bridge the gap that currently exists between the practice and the law. Such development is necessary to provide equality for digital artists with their non-digital counterparts, a high level of protection for rightsholders, and to further encourage business and technological development.

Whilst this position has implications for NFTs generally as well as property law, the doctrine of digital exhaustion, the creative industries and beyond, this thesis argues that such a direction of travel is inevitable and fundamental to the development of blockchain technology and NFTs. Copyright is constantly evolving and NFTs are the latest technology to challenge its boundaries. This research concludes with how copyright can evolve without regulatory change, thereby providing CryptoArt with the foundation for it to flourish.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	09 Apr 2026 08:57
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2026 08:57
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102717
DOI:

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