The fight between Ryder Ripps and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT keeps going as Yuga Labs sues him for a lot of money. The recent documentary that accused BAYC of being racist at its core caused a rift in the NFT industry as a whole. But now, the people of BAYC are fighting back. Here’s what you need to know about the lawsuit between RRBAYC and Yuga Labs over BAYC NFT.
Why is Ryder Ripps being sued by Yuga Labs?
Ryder Ripps and Philion were sued by Yuga Labs for false advertising, trademark infringement, unfair gain, and misleading customers. They say that all of this is part of a plan to bother Yuga Labs. In a legal statement, BAYC’s lawyers say that Ryder Ripps’ NFT collection “tricks consumers into buying RR/BAYC NFTs by misusing Yuga Labs’ trademarks.” The lawsuit also says that this is an attempt to lower the value of the original Bored Ape NFT Collection and that his “Ape Market” NFT Collection “sows confusion” about whether or not RRBAYC is connected to Yuga Labs in any way. In fact, they make light of the situation by saying “this is no monkey business.”
What is the RRBAYC NFT collection by Ryder Ripps all about?
Back in January, Ryder Ripps began spreading lies about BAYC. He basically says that the people who started Yuga Labs and Bored Ape have strong ties to the alt-right 4chan meme culture. Then, he says that BAYC is racist too. He even made a website called gordongoner.com, which is the name of the BAYC founder, to show the problems he found in the collection. The Jewish conceptual artist says that a lot of the BAYC Traits are racist, starting with making the collection look like a monkey. Then, he goes on to criticize the BAYC logo by saying that it looks like the Nazi Totenkopf. His RRBAYC NFT collection seems to be a protest against the first one.
How did Yuga Labs feel about RRBAYC?
Ryder Ripps and Philion went after Yuga Labs because they thought their usernames were cool. It seems that the names “emperor tomato ketchup” and “gargamel” come from racist and pedophilic internet memes, respectively. In response to these claims, Yuga Labs put out a thread that explained how their names and traits came about.
But that didn’t make the community happy because Ryder Ripps stuck to his story. Next, Opensea delisted the entire Ryder Ripps BAYC (RRBAYC) Collection and Yuga Labs filed their lawsuit in less than 10 days following.
Will the claims made by Yuga Labs hold up in court?
First of all, none of us knows for sure. Although Ryder Ripps’ BAYC NFTs are indeed a copy of BAYC, that may also be the lawsuit’s downfall. In short, RRBAYC NFTs link to the same files on IPFS that are also available to the public. This means that they might not be considered copies, but rather hotlinks. Also, according to @justfred and @okshotshot on NFT Twitter, there have been a lot of cases in the past where it was decided that hotlinking was not a violation of IP rights. The only problem RRBAYC might have is if it changes the metadata, which could be seen as using and changing the IP.
Is it true that Bored Ape Yacht Club is racist?
Well, the NFT community is actually divided. On the one hand, there are some shady qualities that holders thought were outrageous. Take this rising sun trait from the BAKC set as an example. But it’s important to remember that Yuga Labs gave all owners the option to change this trait to a Japanese flag after they got a lot of negative feedback.
On the other hand, it can’t be argued that Ryder Ripps’s RRBAYC collection has all of the same qualities as the original BAYC collection. Why would he do that if he really thought the traits were racist? At the moment, RRBAYC has sold a total of 226ETH. That’s a lot of money made from NFTs that seem to be “racist.” Also, some shocking uses of the N-word and some strange memes from Ryder Ripps’ past came back to light. While that may not signify anything, Azealia banks also accused him of coercing her into a sex recording and blackmailing her into dropping the video version.
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