|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cryptocurrency News Articles
PleasrDAO Sues “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli for Breaking Intellectual Property Rights
Jun 18, 2024 at 01:07 am
PleasrDAO may be one of the most crypto-native organizations, yet it's recurring to a very “trad” tactic: A good, old-fashioned lawsuit.
PleasrDAO, a collective of DeFi traders, early NFT collectors, and digital artists, has filed a lawsuit against convicted felon Martin Shkreli for allegedly breaking intellectual property rights.
The organization, legally represented as an “exempted foundation company,” which means it is not subject to income, withholding, or capital gains taxes, is suing Shkreli for making multiple unauthorized copies of the album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, recorded by famed hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, and releasing them to the public.
The collective paid $4.7 million for the rights to the one-of-a-kind album, which had only one individual copy created and subsequently sold, and hadn’t been listened to until Shkreli allegedly played portions of the album during a livestream he hosted on X over the weekend of June 8-9, in an event he called the “Wu-Tang official listening party.”
Shkreli’s move came just a couple of days before PleasrDAO had planned its own first public listening, which took place in a church in NYC on June 8.
Some in the crypto community were quick to criticize PleasrDAO’s decision to take legal action, with pseudonymous internet troll 0xMakesy writing on X after the lawsuit was filed “Drop the ‘DAO’, it’s cleaner,” which was retweeted by crypto-native lawyer, Gabriel Shapiro.
Several users agreed, including Hadron Labs general council, “lawpanda,” who wrote “hey could have just named it Pleasr Foundation, smdh.”
But Adam Miller, CEO and co-founder of MIDAO, an organization that helps DAOs & Web3 projects incorporate themselves legally in the Marshall Islands, told The Defiant that legal entities don’t inherently reduce decentralization.
“Decentralization might not even refer to the social structure but rather the underlying technology,” he said. “If organizations are using a distributed ledger for its tokens, then what’s not to say it’s decentralized?”
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams echoed the sentiment.
“People complaining about DAOs suing don’t realize Pleasr is basically a member-owned museum,” he wrote on X, adding that the DAO part is “because many of its components and assets live onchain.”
“It’s not a public DAO anyone can buy into, [and] of course they’re protecting IP rights to the Wu Tang album they spent $5 million on,” Adams said.
Miller works directly with the Marshall Islands, which is one of the only jurisdictions that explicitly recognizes the legal structures of DAOs.
And for him, these types of organizations are helpful for governments themselves, aiding with some much-needed transparency. “Governments get way more visibility into how a company operates,” he explained. It’s a tradeoff, in Miller’s mind, that despite using crypto at its core, authorities will simply have to accept.
Another jurisdiction that recognizes DAOs is the state of Wyoming in the U.S. The state recently created a statute dubbed DUNA–the Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association–which expands the already friendly legal waters for DAOs in the state.
Experts in crypto-related law gave it two thumbs up after it passed.
A number of other states also reportedly acknowledge and have passed DAO specific regulations, including Utah, Vermont and Tennessee.
While the previous examples show progress with DAOs getting more regulatory clarity in the traditional world, there are projects working towards finding legal certainty in a decentralized economy.
Kleros, dubbed the “Justice Protocol,” is an open source online dispute resolution protocol which uses blockchain and crowdsourcing to fairly adjudicate disputes.
PleasrDAO is not the only DAO to take legal action. Token holders of Aragon, a project meant to – perhaps ironically– help create and run DAOs, voted to sue the Aragon Association for allegedly offering an unfair redemption plan amid dissolution.
On Nov. 21, the DAO voted to allocate 300,000 USDC to Patagon Management, a Delaware-based company owned by Diogenes Casares, to take legal action against Aragon.
The funds allocated to support the lawsuit constitute a “highly conditional grant” that was sent to Patagon Management LLC, a Delaware-based trading firm that previously engaged in “similar legal action” against SpartacusDAO’s alleged founder, Wei Wu, on behalf of token holders.
Similar legal action against Wu refers to a $35 million freeze that a judge slapped against SpartacusDAO’s leader after SPA token holders were unsatisfied with the progress with the crypto yield project.
Francisco Díaz, a researcher at TalentDAO, who also participates in the Decentralized Science space, says legal recourse is especially important in DeSci.
“In DeSci it’s important to have that legal entity so we can register intellectual property on medical patents, for example,” he pointed out.
“If a DAO has a big influence in
Disclaimer:info@kdj.com
The information provided is not trading advice. kdj.com does not assume any responsibility for any investments made based on the information provided in this article. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and it is highly recommended that you invest with caution after thorough research!
If you believe that the content used on this website infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately (info@kdj.com) and we will delete it promptly.
-
- Securitize Enhances Tokenized Asset Liquidity Through Wormhole Integration
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- Real-world-asset (RWA) tokenization infrastructure provider Securitize has chosen Wormhole as its official interoperability provider to facilitate cross-chain
-
- Tether (USDT) Supply on the TON Blockchain Crosses $1B, Reaches 5M Weekly Active Users
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- The Open Network (TON), the network tied to Telegram tap games, reached a peak of 5M active weekly users.
-
- Tron Blockchain’s Founder, Justin Sun, Is Looking to Pick up a Fight with Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- This was revealed in a message on X on the evening of September 19. In the tweet, Sun declared: “The atmosphere is so intense; it’s making me want to have a fight with @VitalikButerin at @CryptoFightWeek.”
-
- George From Cryptos RUs Predicts Bitcoin Will Hit $250K to $300K by 2025
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- The crypto world is once again buzzing with optimism as Bitcoin edges closer to breaking the $65,000 mark. Driven by strong economic data from the U.S. and rising demand for BTC-spot ETFs, the current market trend has discussions about a massive bull run by 2025. But how high could Bitcoin go in the next cycle?
-
- Circle Plans Wall Street HQ Debut as Tether Hires Ex-PayPal Exec
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- Stablecoin issuer Circle is moving forward with its initial public offering (IPO) debut and plans to shift its headquarters to Wall Street in 2025
-
- The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave Nasdaq the go-ahead to list and trade shares of options
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- In a Sept. 20 notice, the SEC approved options trading for the iShares Bitcoin Trust under the ticker symbol IBIT on Nasdaq.
-
- Declining Usage and Network Activity
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:50 am
- Recent data from Bitcoin Visuals highlights the stark drop in the Lightning Network's capacity, which reflects a significant decline in user activity.
-
- Sky (MakerDAO) to Eliminate All WBTC Exposure over Justin Sun Ties
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:30 am
- Sky, formerly MakerDAO, will offboard WBTC over Justin Sun ties. This decision follows a governance vote that ended on Thursday, September 19.
-
- Cryptocurrency Exchange BingX Announces Withdrawal Services Will Resume on Sept. 21, 2024, for Certain Digital Assets
- Sep 21, 2024 at 10:25 am
- According to the exchange's announcement, withdrawals for Tether's US dollar stablecoin USDT $1.00, Circle's US dollar stablecoin USDC $1.00