Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time. Since her first professional tennis appearance in 1995, Serena has gone on to win a total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and 4 Olympic gold medals, securing her position as one of the most successful and accomplished tennis players of all time.
While she announced her retirement last year, throughout her career, Serena was best known for her powerful serve and aggressive playing style. She is recognized as a trailblazer for women and people of color in tennis, breaking down barriers and advocating for equal pay and equal opportunities in the sport.
While Serena is often in the news for other reasons, such as her marriage to her husband Alexis Ohanian, and her refreshingly honest takes about her body image struggle. In 2022, she became embroiled in a major controversy related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are digital assets that use blockchain technology to certify ownership of a unique piece of digital content. The scandal exposed larger issues surrounding the NFT market and has led to a broader debate about the role of technology in the art world. Here’s why her NFT scandal may be more serious than we initially thought…
What Are NFTs? And Why Are They Considered To Be Controversial?
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are a digital asset that uses blockchain technology to verify and certify ownership of a unique piece of content, such as art, music, videos, or other types of digital media. Each NFT is a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of digital media that cannot be replicated or exchanged for another token of equal value. They provide a way for creators to monetize digital content that was previously difficult to sell, with the blockchain technology allowing for the ownership of the content to be verified and tracked. This can increase the perceived value of the asset.
However, NFTs have also become controversial for several reasons. One of the main criticisms is that they contribute to the growing problem of energy consumption associated with cryptocurrencies, as the process of verifying and creating an NFT requires significant amounts of computing power and energy. Additionally, some critics argue that NFTs are contributing to the commodification of the digital art industry and increasing the wealth gap between artists and collectors.
Another concern of NFTs is the issue of authenticity and ownership, while NFTs can provide proof of ownership, they do not necessarily guarantee the authenticity of the content itself. There have been several cases where NFTs were found to be plagiarized or copied without permission from the original creators, and many celebrities such as Serena Williams have been involved in scandals due to their partnership with NFT platforms.
How Serena Williams Is Allegedly Involved In A Lawsuit Following NFT Plagiarism Scandal
The controversy began in 2021, when Serena Williams announced that she would be auctioning an NFT collection titled “The Serena Collection” in partnership with a popular NFT platform. The collection was intended to celebrate her career and feature digital art, animation, and other digital media.
However, the controversy arose when it was revealed that one of the NFTs in the collection was created by a company called Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which had been accused of plagiarizing the artwork of a lesser-known artist. The NFT in question was a cartoon image of a woman with Williams’ signature braids and tennis attire, but the image was nearly identical to one of the works created by the artist.
What followed was allegedly a class action lawsuit against Yuga Labs, the company behind NFT series Bored Ape Yacht Club. Several other celebrities were named for their involvement in “promoting and selling a suite of digital assets” including Justin Bieber, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow. The multibillion-dollar legal action lawsuit further stated that the company’s “entire business model relies on using insidious marketing and promotional activities from A-list celebrities that are highly compensated (without disclosing such), to increase demand by convincing potential retail investors that the price of these digital assets would appreciate.”
The public backlash was intense, with many accusing Williams and the other celebrities of endorsing plagiarism and not doing enough research to ensure that the artwork in the collection was original and not stolen from other digital artists.
Why Serena Williams’s NFT Scandal Is Even More Serious Than Many People Initially Thought
In addition to the immediate backlash following the plagiarism scandal, this incident raised more important questions about NFTs and the ethical implications of their use in the art world. Many people expressed their concerns about the hype surrounding NFTs, which could lead to a “wild west” situation that permits plagiarism and other unethical practices.
An investigation by ArtNet allegedly found that the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s founder, Yuga Labs, had a history of selling unlicensed, bootlegged merchandise related to other major companies. Additionally, the same artist who accused them of plagiarism allegedly discovered that another artwork in the “Serena Collection” was based on one of her earlier works.
A similar discussion has been the controversy surrounding digital art being plagiarized by Artificial Intelligence. One of the main challenges in the case of AI art is that it can be difficult to determine who the actual creator of the artwork is.
While the algorithms used to generate the art are created by people, the resulting artwork is often a product of the machine learning process, which can be unpredictable and difficult to control. This has led to debates about whether the artist should be credited as the creator of the artwork, or whether the machine learning algorithm itself should be considered the creator.
Overall, the NFT scandal involving Serena Williams highlighted the need for greater transparency and accountability in the creation and distribution of NFTs. The situation sparked a broader discussion about the ethics of NFTs and the potential consequences of their use. The scandal may have also exposed larger issues in the NFT market that will require further investigation and scrutiny to ensure that the original work of artists are protected, and not plagiarized or exploited.