It was only a matter of time before we encountered a clear conflict of interest in the domains where blockchain and intellectual property rights intersect. Metaverse concerts and virtual merchandise have become viable revenue streams overnight, with pop artists like Zara Larsson having early success on platforms like Roblox. However, like any gold rush, the lust for music NFTs has given rise to startups like Hitpiece. This platform has listed multiple artists’ catalogues without their permission and claims to have the means to pay artists out for NFTs without ever having their info on a database. Sound kinda funny? Let’s hear more.

So what did Hitpiece do wrong?
As with many scams and swindles, Hitpiece is operating under the guise of altruism – helping artists get paid by selling NFTs of their music. The difference here is that an entire database of artists’ content has been used without their knowledge let alone prior agreement. Now, while there are plenty of music tech companies out there that have built strategies on the very same narrative, this is far more opportunistic with a good deal more red flags. Simply by scanning over the webpage you are immediately confronted with a few aspects of the Hitpiece business model that seem highly suspect. Despite apparently operating as a blockchain platform, Hitpiece implicitly states that it only accepts payment via debit and credit card and does not currently support cryptocurrencies.





With the uproar from artists, labels, and fans online combined with the rather vague response from the company itself, it seems highly likely that Hitpiece will face multiple lawsuits. Behind the platform is music exec, podcaster, and former rapper Michael Berrin aka MC Serch, who has since released only a single tweet in response to the entire debacle. As the widespread shunning of the platform continues online, more and more artists continue to surface, speaking out against the misuse of their likeness and content and the fact that it is being sold without their knowledge. We could be witnessing a shift into new areas of growth within the music industry, as NFTs become a more common source of revenue for artists. Hopefully in future the legal infrastructure will grow too, preventing opportunistic schemes from taking advantage of artists in this manner.

https://gethitpiece.com

 

Hi, @Deceptive! While browsing the forum (usually I open topics from the list on the sister site) I saw this post
This guy is an idiot. The idea was initially a failure and would certainly have ended in scandal. I am amazed, I could at least use the stolen identity (full sets of documents in the form of scans cost "pennies"). But why am I surprised? Everything is logical. Many people want to make money dishonestly on other people's tokenized objects. I am quite well versed in what ways you can get other people's cryptocurrency funds. Watching from the inside the development of the so-called.
cybercriminal scene since the 90s, I can say that it is much easier than the banal theft of money from Paypal (which even schoolchildren do). Previously, a person was required to have knowledge, high intelligence and the ability to come up with non-standard solutions, creative thinking. The write - off of funds was regarded as a problem for the bank . Now a huge "sub-culture" of assholes has appeared, who, during the week, master certain paid schemes, memorizing the sequence of certain actions. They use the human factor to gain access to other people's funds. And in such cases, the bank or crypto-exchange does not refund the stolen funds. A similar story with social engineering methods in the situation with cryptocurrency. Another problem is modern "hackers". The availability of off-the-shelf stealer programs (on the black market), the malware installation industry (from $0.10 per infected computer) and hot wallet hacking services (the service costs 30% of the contents of the wallet) leads to catastrophic consequences. I have strict beliefs that an attack should not lead to the loss of money for a particular person. To my deep regret (just kidding, I don’t regret it), I can’t cross the line, I can’t get rid of my conscience. I came up with some original ideas in this area, but I will not share them, only ideas will remain.
I often think about writing an essay about how the cybercriminal world has changed in terms of culture. But I have too many ideas that need to be implemented, 20 years of drug addiction were not the most productive, I have to catch up

 

I understood about 20% of any of that.

I've always considered these digital non-fungible tokens of performances a large vulnerability point where a less than honest artist or middle man could game the system, but I still have no clue how Hitpiece finds people dumb enough to actually transfer funds to them and buy crap from them.

I agree with @Dmotr Softor that at on this level it's too easy to exploit people's stupidity and that something like cyber-crime which used to require a certain amount of intelligence is now pretty much a service that any idiot that would make the script kiddies look like Einstein, can use to actually make money off.

I also can't really blame the criminals, if people are stupid enough to believe in stupid shit and not believe in obvious shit what can you do. It's like the old wonder cure salesmen in the cowboy movies.

 

Last edited: Feb 17, 2022

Wait, NFTs are a scam? NO WAY BRO?!

 

I was having a hard time putting together my thoughts on this. So the end user gets nothing, and the artists (who didn't know about it) are mad they weren't getting a cut? But it is really carders.

 

Last edited: Feb 17, 2022

Have you carefully read what is being said? Naturally, the NFT as such is not a scam. We are talking about the fact that one idiot decided to tokenize other people's tracks without the knowledge of the authors and make money on it. He is not the first such, but one of the dumbest. Therefore, all well-known NFT marketplaces require proof of authorship or ownership of a particular object. For example, intermediate versions of a media object, if it is a physical object, may require photo or video evidence.

 

Last edited: Feb 17, 2022

You are disqualified from NFT discussion, bro.