Did Stardust NFT Project Allegedly Steal Artwork?

Stardust NFT Controversy led to various reviews and tweets. Some were in favour of it and some were defending the claims made on the NFT collection. Before deciding which side we are on, let’s discuss what was the issue and what led to this controversy.

What is Stardust NFT?

Stardust Generation is an upcoming 7777-piece collection of dreamers launched into the Ethereum orbit. This generative project evolved by artist c0c0, creator of the 77-piece genesis series Stardust Society‍. Stardust Society as a whole illustrates self-expression, giving dreamers a space to feel free to explore their most authentic selves. 7% of mint profits will fund service days, invest in underrepresented artists, and support community service projects worldwide.

Stardust NFT controversy

On June 29th, a Twitter account with the username @NFTtheft accused the founding artist behind Stardust’s new NFT project, Coco, of stealing other people’s work. Allegedly, the artist had used photos belonging to models, photographers, stylists, and more. Check out the tweet below.

.@c0c0stardust 's NFT line is largely built on the work of other photographers, models, stylists, and artists. That's not cool. Many of these assets were even carried over to the @Stardust__NFT line. pic.twitter.com/od2ypjzSEU

— NFT thefts (@NFTtheft) June 29, 2022

“Reference is a valuable tool for many artists. However, surfing the net for photos and tracing them without permission isn’t the same as a reference. It’s taking the work of others and calling it your own. These photographers & models should be paid for their work.”

The reaction of the community

People gave mixed reviews as some defended Coco as utterly Legit while, others blamed the artist for not mentioning her NFT references. She even addressed the issue with this tweet –

100%, and thank you for pointing that out! A teachable moment for me. Ive been going through one by one and checking – To my knowledge, all were royalty free. I never want to take advantage of another artist- if I find anything copywritten in my audit I will make it right asap 🙏🏼

— Coco✨ (@c0c0stardust) June 27, 2022

Here’s one more tweet from the creator

Absolutely! I appreciate you standing up for photographers and educating me- I’m not even a year old in the digital art space. I would never want to take advantage of another artist, and I’m going back now to take a second look at things. All 🧡 here

— Coco✨ (@c0c0stardust) June 28, 2022

This is not the first time an NFT collection has been criticized. Recently The BAYC NFT collection was also criticized because it was allegedly supporting Nazism and racism. To know more about this, click here.

To conclude, we can say that the creator of Stardust NFTs, Coco is also right because there were no royalties on the images she allegedly copied. At the same time, the @NFTthefts is also correct because the owner could have given some compensation to the artists for copying their work.