The 'Can’t Be Evil' licenses are a set of six NFT licenses developed by lawyers and operators in web 3 - each license grants “different sets of rights with different degrees of permissiveness”. The licenses have been deployed on Arweave (a decentralized storage, similar to IPFS) and can be directly linked on-chain by smart contracts.

The licenses are available on the a16z website (document containing the six licenses) or a16z's repository on Github. Miles Jennings and Chris Dixon published an introduction with background on the licenses that is also available on the a16z website.

Miles Jennings (@milesjennings) is general counsel and head of decentralization at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) crypto, where he advises the firm's portfolio companies and DAOs on decentralization and protocol design, oversees the firm's investments, and works on regulatory and policy matters. You can find Miles' conversation with Laura Shin here.

Mark Radcliffe (@markfradcliffe) is senior partner at DLA Piper, where he assists companies in strategic intellectual property advice and venture financing. Mark has worked in Silicon Valley for 30+ years and has significant experience in applying the law to the issues raised by new technologies, such as open source software, blockchain, and domain names. In 1994, he assisted Network Solutions, Inc. in developing the first domain dispute resolution system - which is still the basis for the system in use today. The link to the recording of Mark's NFT webinar is here: Non-Fungible Tokens: Technology and Legal Overview | Events | DLA Piper Global Law Firm. 

Ghaith Mahmood (@GhaithMahmoodLW) is a partner in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, and a leader in the firm’s Digital Assets and Web3 practice group, and also of the firm’s Video Games and Esports group. Ghaith advises clients on all aspects of intellectual property and technology transactions, from developing, licensing, and commercializing IP assets, to advising on the IP aspects of strategic transactions.  In the blockchain space, he has particular expertise advising NFT projects of all shapes and sizes, from some of the biggest NFT platforms and marketplaces in the world, to individual NFT projects trying to figure out what rights and utility to grant to their NFT holders.

Show highlights:

[3:00] Why draft these licenses?

[13:30] What projects should use these licenses

[16:00] How NFT projects can incorporate the licenses

[21:00] Lawful ownership

[26:00] Terminating sublicenses

[34:00] Notice

[39:00] Hard forks

[45:40] Fractionalizing

& much more.

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Disclaimer: Jacob Robinson and his guests are not your lawyer. Nothing herein or mentioned on the Law of Code podcast should be construed as legal advice. The material published is intended for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.