--- title: "Jury Rules that NFTs Aren’t Really Art" description: "A Manhattan federal jury has ruled that NFTs don't really count as art in the case of a conceptual artist who used Hèrmes Birkin bags for his collection." date: "2023-02-12" modified: "2023-02-12" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nfts-not-art-hermes" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" - "NFTs" tags: - "fashion" - "lawsuits" - "nfts" - "the digest" --- # Jury Rules that NFTs Aren’t Really Art ![A Manhattan federal jury has ruled that NFTs don't really count as art in the case of a conceptual artist who used Hèrmes Birkin bags for his collection.]() *\Image: Hermès / Getty / Futurism\* ## Birkin Baby A new legal precedent just dropped in the case of Hermès versus Mason Rothschild, a self-described "conceptual artist" who used the company's iconic Birkin bags as a backdrop for his "MetaBirkins" non-fungible token (NFT) collection. As the [*New York Times* reports](), Hèrmes won its lawsuit against the 28-year-old artist after he sold NFTs that featured the legendary handbag with all kinds of strange overlays, from a [clear version that had a fetus edited into it]() to a fuzzy-handled one that had [mammoth tusks](). A nine-person federal jury in Manhattan ruled this week that in spite of Rothschild's insistent cries of protected artistic expression, he had nevertheless infringed upon Hèrmes' copyright — and failed to meet a legal test used to determine what is and isn't art, too. Using the [Rogers test]() – named after the actress Ginger Rogers, who in 1989 sued filmmaker Alberto Grimaldi for using her trademarked name in the film "Ginger and Fred," only to have a jury rule that the filmmaker's use of her name was "artistically relevant" — the jurors in the "MetaBirkins" case determined that Rothschild's NFTs didn't meet that standard. https://twitter.com/cryptoweeb_/status/1622654705376858112 ## NFT Me Not Back in the NFT halcyon days of early 2022, [the artist claimed]() that his collection was "a commentary on fashion’s history of animal cruelty" after Hèrmes hit him with a cease and desist. In the ensuing year, however, the NFT market has plummeted even worse than the cryptocurrency market undergirding it while the courts struggled to catch up with the [ever-growing pile of lawsuits]() regarding these controversial and often exorbitantly expensive digital assets. While the luxury goods industry has had its own [forays into the NFT space](), this case seems to boil down to one of the most well-known fashion houses in the world enforcing its ownership of its brand — and given the [ever-lowering public temperature reading on crypto](), it's not that surprising that a jury would find expensive digital images to be unworthy of the title of "art." **More on the dying NFT market:** [*Business Geniuses at Amazon Hard at Work on Hot New Idea: NFTs*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()