Video game focused YouTubers are having their likenesses stolen and “minted” as NFTs, with the images being sold for profit and without their consent.
Many of the affected YouTubers find their identities have been included as part of an NFT assortment called the “Top YouTubers Collection”, seemingly uploaded by a user calling themselves “StakeTheWeb” and sold on the NFT marketplace OpenSea.
Despite NFTs – or Non-Fungible Tokens, effectively digital receipts that can point to a particular image but which confer no real ownership – being something of a buzzword at present, many creators are deeply opposed to them, citing the environmental destruction associated with the energy costs of processing transactions and the exploitative nature of the market.
YouTuber “DreamcastGuy” highlighted the problem of likeness theft for NFTs in a video posted over the weekend (January 15), though many other creators have been experiencing the issue.
As highlighted by Eurogamer, other creators including Jim ‘Caddicarus‘ Caddick, James Stephanie Sterling’s The Jimquisition, and Alanah ‘Charalanahzard‘ Pearce have all had their likenesses used without their permission.
On Twitter, Sterling said they were “frankly not surprised that some freeloading leech turned my channel into an NFT”, adding “I did not consent to this, I do not want this, and it demonstrates everything I’ve said about how disrespectful and exploitative this market is”, and calling the uploader “scum”.
Jim ‘Caddicarus’ Caddick , “At least, AT LEAST, if you stole my shit and tried selling it off, make it a t shirt. A mug. A clock. A thing. That you can use. And enjoy. Shilling off a profile picture for a collection you can just make yourself on a Facebook photo album is honestly a new level of pathetic lol”.
