Earlier today, the Sad Frogs District NFT collection was removed from OpenSea’s marketplace. In lieu of an extended eulogy (which is probably unnecessary), let’s take a look at what happened here.
Sad Frogs District is one member of the horde of generative NFT art collections that have been released in the wake of projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gutter Cat Gang, and The Wicked Craniums.
SFD’s launch checked all the boxes for us: a functional and well-made website, a (relatively) smooth minting process, an active community, and art that is — dare I say it — kind of endearing: 7,000 algorithmically generated Pepe-esque frogs with a cyberpunk vibe.
So what went down? Cash grab rug pull lol fuck you? Disappearing dev team?
Neither. The collection seems to have been taken down by OpenSea itself in response to a DMCA claim from Matt Furie, creator of the 2005 comic Boy’s Club (AKA the creator of Pepe the Frog). That cartoon frog’s rise in popularity and subsequent adoption as a symbol of hate — which was truly unfortunate but neither here nor there in regard to this post — prompted Furie to launch a flurry of copyright claims on the character’s likeness being used.
As of right now, it looks like the SFD team is working its way through the issue:
The team has already sent on over the counter DMCA to OpenSea, please be patient with us while we await a response. If you have any questions, please join our discord linked in our bio and we will assist your questions as best we can. #FreeSadFrogs — SadFrogsD on Twitter
In the NFT realm, it’s easy to be insulated and forget about the rules and institutions that run the real world. There’s a real sense that you’re operating within a whole ‘nother world technologically (which may be true), financially (which won’t be true for long), and legally (which isn’t true at all).
OpenSea’s status as the space’s premier trading platform has, in the wake of today’s action, led to questions about the decentralization of the NFT space in general. If they need (or feel the need) to bend to the whim of any DMCA claim or legal action (leaving Sad Frog holders to trade on lesser-known and lower-prestige exchanges), are we really operating in a decentralized environment?
Is that good or bad? Depends on who you ask.
Way back when, a core feature (philosophy?) of the crypto/NFT space was that trading was largely unmolested by pesky exchange commissions, legislative assemblies, and so on. There’s something wild and romantic about that, but it is fundamentally incompatible with reality. We both think copyright is important and we don’t think artists should get ripped off. Is that what happened here, though? That’s not for us to decide.
Crypto and NFTs boomed in 2021 largely because so-called n00bs entered the space and brought lots of money with them. Every next mainstream media piece about NFTs (the New York Times wrote about Pudgy Penguins for god’s sake), will bring more in, and then more, and then more still. It would be foolish to assume regulation isn’t far behind.
OpenSea is a business, and makes money when people buy and sell things. It doesn’t care about centralized vs. decentralized, it cares about money. As such, you can argue that it is in OpenSea’s best interests to be the Wild West and just as easily argue that there’s more money to be made by being as “legitimate” as possible.
— rrn pitched most of the game here, and hotel closed it out
