Twitter

Congratulations, you played yourself.https://t.co/p7y96YTbhz

— Dazed (@Dazed) January 18, 2022

Twitter

We won the auction for €2.66M. Now our mission is to:

1. Make the book public (to the extent permitted by law)

2. Produce an original animated limited series inspired by the book and sell it to a streaming service

3. Support derivative projects from the community pic.twitter.com/g4QnF6YZBp

— Spice DAO (@TheSpiceDAO) January 15, 2022

A crypto group going by the name Spice DAO bought a copy of a book about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune at auction for $2.66 million – far over the estimated price – believing that it gave them the copyright to produce NFTs. Turns out they fumbled the bag. Badly. After purchase, the DAO (decentralized autonomous organisation) said it would “make the book public (to the extent permitted by law),” “produce an original animated limited series inspired by the book and sell it to a streaming service”, and “support derivative projects from the community”. However, what the crypto bros bought was simply a copy of the book, and not the actual rights. Essentially, they paid one hundred times the estimated value for a non-unique collectible that has been fully scanned and available online for free since 2011, and doesn’t give them the legal right to produce anything. One person commented: “Do you think if you bought a Spider-Man comic you could start making Spider-Man movies as well?” The group wrote on their forum that they hoped to sell NFTs of the book before burning it: “The goal is to issue a collection of NFTs that are technically innovative and culturally disruptive. A first-of-a-kind.” They later described the potential burning of the physical book as an “incredible marketing stunt which could be recorded on video. The video even sold as an NFT itself.” The storyboard – that the story’s author Frank Herbert once described as “the size of a phonebook” – is one of ten copies, as multiple versions had to be made to pass around to producers and executives. Featuring original illustrations by Moebius and H.R. Giger, the book was where the avant-garde French-Chilean filmmaker compiled his notes, concepts, and artwork as he tried to make the sci-fi epic in the 70s.  In response, people have been sharing the free and readily available versions of the book online, as well as posting memes about the very expensive mistake.

Twitter

pic.twitter.com/sXIEkLdVMY

— taylor swift stays out too late (@GuyBeinDude) January 16, 2022

Twitter

I guess this is the natural result of NFT culture. You bought a scarcity-limited copy of a thing, and now you think you “own� the thing.

— Michael Engard (@Kaelri) January 16, 2022

Twitter

thank you for helping to obliterate the myth that people with a lot of money earned it through skill and intellect

— Arlan Hellison (famous) (@badpersonclub) January 16, 2022

This can’t be real

This is what I mean. How do people that stupid accumulate that much money to burn?

This is hilarious if true

No fu*king way did they think IP rights came w/book ownership. Book ownership that they paid 100x the market price for at that

I feel like this is money laundering disguised as stupidity.

Gen Anti Fruit said This can’t be real This is what I mean. How do people that stupid accumulate that much money to burn? This is hilarious if true

This will happen more and more. Ponzi schemes galore

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We have accumulated millions of dollars. We will buy the copyrights to this book, and then burn it. It will become a NFT for all peoples and aliens in the universe. Now those copyrights and our money is gone, sorry.

Crypto is full of suckas lmfao, you can argue that its even as big as it is right now because of suckas

I really gotta get on this NFT hustle, i still cant believe that sh*t taking off

This is why if you join a DAO, actually read what they're trying to do and see if it's actually possible, legal and logical.

These mfers delusional. They going to take book turn into jpg and destroy the book so they can sell the jpgs. Cant make this sh*t up.

NFT's are synonymous with "scams".

Even when rza sold pharma bro that last wu album. He still didn't get the rights to reproduce wu sh*t. So what was these guys thinking?

stlcardinals19 said No fu*king way did they think IP rights came w/book ownership. Book ownership that they paid 100x the market price for at that

it sure seems like they did

After purchase, the DAO (decentralized autonomous organisation) said it would “make the book public (to the extent permitted by law),” “produce an original animated limited series inspired by the book and sell it to a streaming service”, and “support derivative projects from the community”.

plus they planned to burn it thinking it was one of a kind and it would then live on in the digital world

The group wrote on their forum that they hoped to sell NFTs of the book before burning it: “The goal is to issue a collection of NFTs that are technically innovative and culturally disruptive. A first-of-a-kind.” They later described the potential burning of the physical book as an “incredible marketing stunt which could be recorded on video. The video even sold as an NFT itself.”

but there's 9 other copies

Around 10 copies of the book, in which the French-Chilean director compiled his concept artwork and notes for the film, are believed to exist. The book itself became widely known after the release of the 2013 documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, a film that chronicles the ambitious but ill-fated production, which was scrapped once it was deemed too long and too expensive.

it seems to be a real fu*k up

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So they bought a screenshot of a book

Why does it feel like people have grown to hate physical media? Lmfao it’s the weirdest beef I’ve ever seen