NASA Underscores NFT Minting Prohibition for Logos, Contents

Space Agency NASA has decried that it will not allow its logos and contents in the NFT sphere. The reaction came after people belonging to the degen apes group touted that NFTs will go to “the moon”.

NFT marketplaces are still surging with content despite NASA’s resistance. Platforms such as OpenSea have already posted record monthly volumes in this month. NASA remarked that it does not wish any of its content to be tokenized:

’Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are, in essence, digital tokens owned by someone as a ‘one of a kind’ digital asset. NASA does not wish for its images to be used for these purposes. It is unlawful to falsely claim copyright or other rights in NASA material.’

While US government agencies’ image and video contents are not copyright protected and can be used for educational purposes, the space agency’s logo is copyrighted and can be used only with its permission.

Moreover, although the NASA logo has appeared in many commercial markets like fashion items branding, the agency stated that it is unable to approve its logo use in any NFT sphere. The agency points to any merchandise and NFT spheres that are inconsistent with the category of products approved by NASA’s guidelines.

The guidelines directed for government agencies state it restricts approval of products or merchandising in areas like alcohol, cosmetics, tobacco, food, technology, and underwear. On the contrary, NASA has stretched its arms to the NFT space, albeit indirectly, in the past. Reports note that a metaverse project backed by NFT dubbed “mars4” built a detailed 3D model of Mars based on data retrieved from NASA and other space agencies.