Joshua Fairfield | joshfairfield.bsky.social

@TheMaineWonk Reminder: End to end encryption does not stop PEBKAC exploits. I’m on BlueSky now, where I’m still writing about tech, law, and how humans keep breaking both. Come join the conversation.

🚨 I told you all this yesterday. 🚨 SIGNAL cannot be downloaded on government phones with SIPRnet and JWICS secure networks. These idiots were using THEIR OWN UNSECURED PHONES, which are hackable with keystrokes monitored by foreign intel services. politi.co/4kZsZlg

Are NFTs private property, contracts, or something else? What kind of legal rights do NFT owners have? In this #Chainlink Research Report, @JoshFairfield argues that NFTs are private property and discusses how NFTs are a unique digital property. youtu.be/kkQZk4Gujd4

We had great fun writing this paper and researching the role that "tokens" (broadly defined) play in law. Is an NFT a solution in search of a problem? Read it to find out!

@fahmiraw @IndianaLJ Of course, please feel free to cite the work in progress. You can get it on SSRN.

I am very excited about my recent paper Tokenized: The Law of Non-Fungible Tokens and Unique Digital Property. The paper is forthcoming in the @IndianaLJ. Check it out here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Beyond excited to share my paper "Creating Cryptolaw for the Uniform Commercial Code," forthcoming with the @WLULawReview! The paper uses @LexonDigital tools to build a smart-contract based Article 9 filing system: ssrn.com/abstract=38099…

I’m grateful to @AmLawInst for highlighting my work! Still taking comments on the article before the editors @NevLawJournal start their work on it!

@schnaars @kwerb The NFT holder owns the token, the entry in the smart contract. They don't own the image, merely license it, and the license has some surprising limits, as @kwerb noted.

Finally getting around to reading @JoshFairfield's important law review article on NFTs. Crypto folks instinctively recoil against the legal system, but Josh shows how treating NFTs as personal property under the law is critical to the decentralizing Web 3.0 vision.

@Andrea_Tosato @kwerb @Prof_CarlaReyes Perhaps this has been said elsewhere: the license certainly travels with any IP component. Artwork, for instance. If the NFT doesn't convey that license, that would be problematic. Licenses may be stickier than this implies, is my guess.

@kwerb @JoshFairfield @Prof_CarlaReyes It is a common misconception that these licenses are "embedded" in the NFT itself; that the license "travels" with the NFT. This is not the case. Thus ULC will likely focus on the proprietary legal regime of NFTs in commercial transactions. Licensing law is a diff. beast... 2/2

@kwerb @JoshFairfield @Andrea_Tosato @carlissc @DrexelKline And also, I sent @JoshFairfield’s paper around to members of @UNIDROITorg digital assets and private law working group and ULC committee, so we have the issue on the radar for sure.

Some pretty perplexing takes on here about NZ being "addicted to lockdowns". You do realise that we've spent the vast majority of the past year going to cafes, pubs, shops, restaurants, gigs etc with zero restrictions? 🤷‍♂️

@tabali_tigi @wlulaw @JoshFairfield @officer_secret @SethAustinAI shared a research summary of “Convergence of Blockchain, IoT, and AI” - @philippsandner, @Jonas__Gross, and Robert Richter (@FrankfurtSchool) smartcontractresearch.org/t/579

The final post in a three part series by SCRF Researcher @tabali_tigi, diving into @wlulaw professor @JoshFairfield’s “Tokenized: The Law of Non-Fungible Tokens and Unique Digital Property.” twitter.com/SCRForum/statu…

@latimes Great exploration of how tracking people's sleep with radar through IoT devices is creepy by @davidlaz, quoting @ProfFerguson @BernsteinGaia and yours truly. latimes.com/business/story…

2. If you agree like I do with @JoshFairfield’s position that NFTs are goods subject UCC Article 2 then the platform is likely a merchant and may give an implied warranty of merchantability with a sale (although a sophisticated platform should try to waive this implied warranty).

@profjuliet That's right. With the added twist that through control of the registrars and domain name servers domain names could be transferred without the owner's consent, e.g., Kremen v. Cohen. Blockchain domains if done right couldn't be clawed back like that.

Back with another NFT/Blockchain question. Browsing the OpenSea website and see that it's peddling domain names: opensea.io/collection/dom… Can anyone tell me what blockchain adds to domain names? Domain names were kind of the OG digital asset, right @JoshFairfield ?

Law faculty recognized for scholarship and teaching, including @JoshFairfield @shaan_haan @b_hasbrouck @Alan_Trammell columns.wlu.edu/law-faculty-re…

I was thrilled to join @aya_kantor and @tomhschmidt on a Global Investor Conference panel hosted by Karim Nurani about the future of crypto and the regulation of NFTs. youtube.com/watch?v=EcvWxb…

Response to the Board of Trustees' Name Change Decision