Like it or not, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been the growth story in collectibles during 2021. One debate that is hard for many NFT owners to overcome is just how protected the images are for each NFT — or more specifically YOUR NFT you just paid $48,000 for!

If you remember the old Pirate Bay, there is now The NFT Bay. This site is not the same as Pirate Bay but it does allow any person to download images from Ethereum and Solana NFTs. The site includes a search NFTs feature, as well as recent NFTs and a Top 100. The NFT Bay also has quick filters for CryptoPuppies, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Axie Infinity, Farmers World and the notorious “Other” that will likely allow users to get lost forever if they cannot help themselves.

If you buy an NFT that is now 100% yours but the image of your same NFT is already out there because of so many “right-clickers” then how do you police the ownership and use of the image? This remains a debate that has so far seen very little progress and it will eventually come to a head. If Getty Images and dozens of other stock photo sites get to charge thousands of dollars per month for licensed images (but not “owned” images) then some NFT owners who spent tens of thousands of dollars are going to want royalties to be paid to the owner or creator.

According to an email from the NonFungible.com site, the goal is “to declare that digital scarcity does not exist”… and to show “that NFTs pollute and then denounce the centralized image hosting of NFTs.” NonFungible.com has also said that “all digital creations made before November 18, 2021 can be found in a torrent!” now that this backup exists.

Vice.com has also reported that anyone can now download 15 terabytes worth of JPEGs from a single source if they so choose.

If you are wondering how and why The NFT Bay is good for the owners and creators of NFTs, make no mistake — it’s not. The team behind the site is effectively exposing “this generation’s tulip mania.” Yes, that means they are calling it a major historic bubble.

Ownership of content (which includes images, therefor NFTs as well) is an endless $#!^show for those who want to publish and share. There are image copyright trolls who search millions of websites daily merely looking for anyone who has a commercial website that used an image they “own or created” to go out and demand royalty payments from the site owners. What is to stop owners of NFTs from doing the same down the road?

The NFT Bay may not be hurting sales of NFTs yet, and it may not ahead, but it certainly poses a problem over what good actually spending thousands of dollars (or more) to own an NFT is when anyone can right-click the image and save it as their desktop background, use as a screen-saver on their phone, or even store in a wall-mounted monitor as home art or office art in the digital age.

NonFungible.com tracks the highest prices NFT sales over the last 7-day period. As of now, here are the prices realized in that period (again, without images of course):

• Top sale – boredapeclub (Bored Ape Yacht Club) BAYC for 675.01 ETH ($2,815,068.45)
• Top sale – decentraland (Decentraland) EST 618,000 MANA ($2,410,200.00)
• Top sale – boredapeclub (Bored Ape Yacht Club) BAYC for 450.01 ETH ($1,900,464.23)
• Top sale – boredapeclub (Bored Ape Yacht Club) BAYC for 225 ETH ($948,323.25)
• Top sale – cryptopunks (CryptoPunks) for 207.69 ETH ($907,734.07)

Add the price tag for these 5 NFTs alone and it’s close to $9 million that has been reportedly spent on these 5 alone. If a website right-clicks the images and uses those images now or in the future for commercial purposes will the NFT owner (or creator) get anything for it?

The debate and dilemma of NFT values will continue… And to prove the point:

The commercial use of the NFT image above is not authorized and may result in legal action.