Bored Apes, a Troll and a Conspiracy Walk Into a Courtroom …

Ripps’ claim was that it’s the blockchain that matters, the strings of alphanumeric lettering and cryptographic key sets that distinguishes a work. RR/BAYC and BAYC, which rely on the same images, are provably distinct because the tokens are. The creator’s intent only comes in after that, and has to be read into the work – not even the artist can say, in the final analysis, what it means.