You could say that copying the data was not their intention, but can we say that copying was the intention of the copyright holder of the NFT data?
At most, this is only the next logical step from what we already have.
I'm not a fan of this, but this is where the copyright zeitgeist seems to be headed.
If you upload your content to IPFS there are no obstacles to downloading, and no ToS. It's like hosting the file on your own site with no restrictions, except that the system is explicitly designed such that you can't take down anything that's been published. That makes it hard to complain about people saving the content; you've basically given everyone an implied license to access and pin the files. Republishing outside of IPFS might be a problem, copyright-wise, but since anyone can get the files from IPFS directly that isn't a major issue.
In the whole digital world authors habe IP rights for digital content and have (sometimes) ability to enforce them (e.g. DMCA). Copying images without permission doesn't run afoul of IP rights but later using them commercially - does. But that is not what is interesting here.
Person we are discussing is promoting NFT as a technology to sell stuff, implying that it is also possible to transfer IP rights via NFTs (which is complete lie). Next he is social engineered (swindled) of 3 pictures which he voluntarily transfers via NFT blockchain to the scammer. And THEN he proceeds to claim that he is still the original owner (indeed he is, because no IP rights were transferred via NFT same because it is impossible), thereby completely devaluing the NFT tech he is promoting :) .
That seems strange since without copying, the data stored on YouTube etc. would be useless.