Article from: Art News
These actions have been named in the complaint as a “campaign of harassment based on false accusations of racism.”
In mid-May, Ripps launched RR/BAYC (Ryder Ripps Bored Ape Yacht Club), an NFT project that ripped imagery and names directly from BAYC as a kind of conceptual art protest. Yuga Labs is claiming that RR/BAYC hurt their business.
“This is no mere monkey business,” the complaint goes on. The Yuga Labs lawyers said that RR/BAYC was deliberately confusing potential BAYC customers who thought that RR/BAYC was somehow legitimately associated with Yuga Labs. OpenSea, the NFT marketplace on which BAYC and RR/BAYC are sold and traded, has consistently delisted RR/BAYC.
Ripps denies that any buyers were misled.
Though the complaint alleges that consumers are being duped into buying RR/BAYC, it also accuses individuals who “buy and resell the RR/BAYC NFTs despite knowing that they are fake,” listed as Does 6-10, of the same charges as Ripps, according to the complaint.
Ripps has argued that the RR/BAYC project “uses satire and appropriation to protest and educate people” about BAYC and NFTs.
This is a developing story.
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Article from: Art News
