On the Legitimacy of Exhaustion of Rights in Non-Fungible Token Transactions of Digital Works

Abstract

As the golden rule of resolving the conflict between intellectual property and right in rem of the same object, exhaustion of rights aims to avoid the influence of exercising intellectual property right on right in rem. The academic circle is unable to come to any agreement concerning the discussion of extending the rule of exhaustion of rights to the regulation of utilizing works in digital conditions. The blockchain technology and market have a transformative impact on the copyrights in the digital environment. NFT and the mode of NET of digital works have reshaped the traditional ecology of online works transmission and utilization, offering opportunities for the exhaustion of rights to be applied in the network environment. Hence, it is the right moment to create the digital environment to apply the exhaustion of copyrights.