Holders Can Make Millions From Licensing NFTs – Apocalyptic Ape Founder

Bill Starkov, the founder of Apocalyptic Apes, has outlined more use cases of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to generate revenue. Apart from the usual flipping of NFTs, Starkov asserted that holders can now earn more money from licensing their NFTs.

In a recent interview, Bill Starkov, the founder of Apocalyptic Apes and a Bored Apes Yacht Club member, explained how non-fungible token (NFTs) holders would license the intellectual property (IP) rights of their tokens to generate more revenue.

The top executive cited Bored Apes Yacht Club as a perfect example, noting that holders can make a lot of money from just licensing out their Apes for commercial use. He further explained that this would apply to other projects if the NFTs collection gains mainstream adoption.

During the interview, Starkov said that he believes that eventually, people’s profile pictures will become celebrities, the move that will attract massive holders to using NFTs. He noted:

“In the future, NFT holders will be earning hundreds of millions of dollars through IP rights because PFPs in the future will become your new Jay Leno. They’ll become your new Jimmy Kimmel, your new Oprah.”

Nonetheless, the new NFT development will only happen if people agree to hold their NFTs and allow the project behind it to develop. According to the Apocalyptic Apes founder, turning PFP into a character is an opportunity to bring it to life.

NFTs Licensing Still A Mystery To Many

Notably, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the issuance of copyrights, intellectual property (IP), and the ownership of NFTs. Earlier this year, Spice DAO received a lot of criticism after acquiring an NFT copy of the novel to make an animated series of the book “Dune.”

At the time, the acquisition attracted a heated debate on social media, noting that buying the NFT does not mean they will own the copyright to the actual book. According to financial laws, the copyright remains with the creator of the original artwork.

Last month, Seth Green, an American actor and a Bored Ape Yacht Club member, lost his BAYC NFT copyright to an anonymous scammer. Green intended to use the NFT for an upcoming TV show, “White Horse Tavern,” before concerns about who owns the commercial usage rights emerged.

The short script tokenized asset consisted of a bar in West Village of Manhattan coupled with images of one of the bartenders ‘Fred Simian,” who is part of a nonfungible token called Bored Ape Yacht Club. In his small script, the animated character manages to interact seamlessly with real actors in the 1880s bar.

Although Green decided to suspend the production as scheduled, he has already promised to return it on social media. He went on to insist that he can still broadcast this milestone show since hackers stole Fred Simian and the copyright regulation never applied in any way.

While commenting about the NFT attack, at the time, a law professor noted that the new owner would have sued Green if he had used the NFT since the new buyer was legally protected. But interestingly, Green confirmed that he eventually bought back the NFT.