Solana ($SOL) NFT artist, John Lê, is under scrutiny from some in the Solana NFT community on Twitter for his 1:1 artwork titled ‘Chosen’. The reason: he is selling print versions of this, despite mentioning previously that the piece is a 1:1. Although this isn’t illegal, it is certainly bad ethics. The feelings from the community are that the initial piece will lose value because of these new prints.
The ‘Chosen Piece’ and What’s Happening
The initial piece, ‘Chosen’, which was referred to as ‘JL – #000’ at the time, sold for 2.8 SOL as a 1:1 on the primary market. Upon selling via the secondary market, it went for 500 SOL, or $45,000 at the time. It first sold in March of this year.
Now, @SOLMills_ on Twitter wrote a thread on his discovery that Lê was selling the piece as physical prints on a platform called InPrint. He considered the legal and ethical complications when writing this.
In summary, John Lê retained the rights and IP to the original image. No IP was assigned to the buyer, so officially he has the legal right to make copies in different formats, but wouldn’t have the right to make more NFTs of the exact image. Mills mentioned that they expected that it would “come down to a legal definition of ‘unique’, whether there was false advertising in the original sale and whether purchasers had suffered losses as a result of this false advertising.”
The bad thing about the creation of new versions is that the original 1:1 piece is likely to go down in value. This would potentially put clients off purchasing work from the artist in the future.
Mills mentioned that it will be up to the free market to decide whether John’s behaviour is unethical.
About John Lê
John Lê is an NFT artist focusing on the Solana space. Alongside his own work, he is an artist for other collections. Namely, ‘The First Collection’, ‘RAH-D’, and ‘LeDAO’. He is well loved in the Solana NFT space, with 22,000 followers on Twitter. Among those followers is Markus Magnusson, the artist of Invisible Friends. It was one of the most hyped Ethereum NFTs upon its launch.
Upon purchasing his work, many buyers have been excited about it. One user, @peters8620 said: “ It’s been a goal of mine to own @notjohnlestudio (art). Thank you for what you do!” Another, @0xKirk, added: “Extremely grateful to finally have a John Lê piece. Beautiful piece John.”
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