The legal battle between Yuga Labs and NFT artist Ryder Ripps takes another leap with digital artists counter to the lawsuit. On Monday, August 15th, 2022, Ripps filed a request in the Federal Court of Los Angeles asking to stop the legal case against him. Earlier creator of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, Yuga Labs filed a trademark lawsuit against Ryder Ripps.
Ripps created his own collection dubbed as RR/BAYC. មន្ទីរពិសោធន៍យូហ្គា accused the digital artist for creating a NFT collection that replicates BAYC NFTs. Digital collectibles creator company took this to the court and put charges against RR/BAYC creator.
The American digital artist argued that his creation showcases appropriation art that should be seen as an act of protest against មន្ទីរពិសោធន៍យូហ្គា and BAYC NFTs. Ripps added while citing the First Amendment that protects his rights of artistic expression and allows him for artistic criticism.
The official website of RR/BAYC states the motive behind creating the NFT collection. According to the website, in December 2021, Ripps started his investigation on Yuga Labs and BAYC. He further claims that after an intensive research along with his team, they found BAYC’s connection with destructive troll culture of Nazis.
Citing his investigation and findings, Ripps claimed Yuga Labs and its creation, Bored Ape, to be racist and inspired by Nazi ideology. He even said that the BAYC logo represents the Nazi Totenkopf symbol.
Ripps further explained on the website the intention of creating non-fungible tokens in a satirical manner. The NFTs would be protesting against and educating people about BAYC and Yuga Labs.
Over the allegation of Yuga Labs on Ripps cheating and scamming the buyers after creating fake bored apes, the digital artist claims that the company lacks specific clarity over their copyright standards. Additionally, RR/BAYC creator termed the lawsuiaginst him as an attempt from a billionaire company to silence an artist like him.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/08/17/digital-artist-ryder-ripps-opposes-lawsuit-from-bayc-creator-yuga-labs/