The most frequent questions we receive from users of CryptoCelebrities is “Is this legal?”, “Can celebrities sue you for using their likeness?” and “Will you shut down if sued?”
We’d like to provide some clarity on this subject.
Yes, this is legal!
CryptoCelebrities is working with top of the line legal consultants to assure that we operate legally according to the laws of the United States.
In short, while it is illegal to use a person’s name or likeness to promote a product or service in a misleading manner, it is perfectly legal to sell pictures or named tokens of any person. We do not claim an official endorsement by any celebrity, unless they have specifically agreed to “verify” their “smart contract”, in which case a blue check-mark will appear next to their card. If no blue check-mark appears, the celebrity has NOT officially endorsed, supported or partnered with us.
Have you received any “cease and desist” letters?
No.
To date no such communication has been received.
What if you do get sued or threatened? We will fight it in court and win. Any person can file petty law suits with the hopes of deterring another party and settling outside of court or reaching their intended outcome by means of legal intimidation. IF this ever happens, we will not be deterred and will take any such case to court.
Shouldn’t celebrities get a cut of the action?
Yes. While we are not obligated by law to pay commissions to any person whose name or image appears on our site, we believe it is fair to share royalties with the celebrities. We make it very easy for any celebrity whose card is on our site to receive 3% royalties from every transaction on his/her smart contract on the blockchain. We encourage celebrities to instruct us to send these proceeds to a charity of his/her choice.
Will you shut this down if you are forced to?
NO!
It’s important to understand that even if we wanted to, once the smart contract is on the blockchain no one, including the developers, can change or remove the program from the blockchain. Owning a celebrity token on the distributed Ethereum blockchain is the same as owning a bitcoin in your digital wallet. As long as the blockchain exists, no one can change the rules. The only way someone can take ownership of your token is by paying you more than you originally paid for the tokens according to the rules hard-coded into the smart contract.
The blockchain is unlike anything else we’ve seen so far in the history of the internet. It cannot be controlled, shut down or altered by a central entity. This website is just a UI that communicates with the blockchain. While the website can potentially be shut down, crash, hacked or force to cease operation, the actual smart contract and your ownership of celebrity tokens can not. By anyone. Ever. The original developers no longer have exclusive control of the project, others can always create websites, apps and UIs that will continue to interact with the CryptoCelebrities smart contract on the blockchain.
CryptoCelebrities smart contract is now a part of human history.
This contract address is: 0xbb5Ed1EdeB5149AF3ab43ea9c7a6963b3C1374F7
Forever on the decentralized blockchain: indestructible, unstoppable, and not controlled by any one person or group.