European Parliament publishes study on "Intellectual Property Rights and Distributed Ledger Technology with a focus on art NFTs and tokenized art"

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the JURI Committee (the Committee of Legal Affairs), aims to provide an overview over Intellectual Property Rights and Distributed Ledger Technology with a focus on IP issues relating to art NFTs and tokenized physical art works. The 57-page study was published on 18 October 2022 and addresses questions such as "What is an NFT?", "What is its legal value?" and "Are NFTs supported by the Union IPR regime?" > Read more

Mastercard is bringing crypto trading to your bank

Mastercard has announced plans to launch a program enabling mainstream banks to offer their customers crypto trading. The program will enable Mastercard to act as a middleman between retail banks and the crypto trading platform Paxos. This move comes after competitors such as Google and Coinbase entered a partnership and aims to increase the usage base for cryptocurrencies amongst everyday customers, whilst also focusing on attracting and retaining customers. > Read more

'That is art!': Damien Hirst has begun burning thousands of his own paintings

Artist Damien Hirst has begun the process of incinerating his artworks after selling the corresponding unique NFTs. After the purchase the owners were given the choice between exchanging their NFT to the physical painting or allowing the artwork to be burned. Hirst’s actions are a commentary on the value of art and the forces that dictate it, with him stating that "the value of art digital or physical, which is hard to define at the best of times, will not be lost, it will be transferred to the NFT as soon as they are burnt." > Read more

Meta's new Quest Pro headset, mixing real and virtual worlds, makes debut

Meta Platforms has announced the release of its Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset. The headset will cost $1,500 and will offer consumers a way to interact with virtual creations overlaid onto a full-color view of the physical world. This updated version of the Quest 2 headset, which largely dominates the consumer virtual reality market, even features outward-facing cameras that capture a sort of 3D livestream of the physical environment around a wearer and also includes tracking sensors that can replicate users' eye movements and facial expressions. > Read more

Microsoft and Meta partnership brings Office 365 apps to the Metaverse

Meta's new virtual reality headset will feature a range of Microsoft Office 365 products. This collaboration aims to entice companies into working in virtual environments through the use of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and SharePoint, but will also include the ability to stream a Windows Cloud computer to the headset. Meta claims that their new headset is also more comfortable, has better performance and improved clarity with higher resolution than its existing headset, thus being optimal for a work environment. > Read more

Apple's mixed reality headset reportedly lets you make payments with your eyes

Apple's rumored mixed reality headset will supposedly use iris scanning tech for logins and payments. Should this feature be included in the final product, it would differentiate this headset from other competitors such as the recently released Meta Quest Pro, which can already track eye and face motion, but is currently unable to use this data for payments or user authentication. Apple's headset is rumored to be released in 2023 and will reportedly cost around $3,000. > Read more