Spice DAO and the $3million Dune art book
I haven’t been blogging much because I have another new prep this semester – Copyright! I’m delighted to be able to teach the subject which I’ve been wanting to do for years. I’ve been keeping my ears open for good copyright/contracts news to blog about and thought I’d share this one.
A few weeks back, an anonymous blockchain collective called Spice DAO (decentalized anonymous organization) acquired at auction a rare art book, Jodorowsky’s Dune, which was a guidebook to a film adaption of Dune (but not that film adaptation).* It’s a little confusing, but according to this Esquire article, in 1974, director Alexander Jodorowsky wanted to make a film adaption of Dune but due to a variety of funding issues, including Salvador Dali’s desired salary of $100,000 per minute and roles for Orson Welles and Mick Jagger, that film was never made. Jodorowsky also created a book which includes a storyboard by Moebius, a pseudonym for the French artist and cartoonist, Jean Giraud. Rumor has it that less than twenty copies of this book are in circulation. Last fall, Christie’s auctioned a copy and Spice DAO surprised everyone by bidding $3million when the appraisers had expected that it would sell for, oh, $40,000.
But Spice DAO wasn’t planning to just flip through the pages and admire the lovely artwork. No, they had plans — BIG plans! For one thing, they were going to make the book public! They were also going to issue NFTs based on the book, then burn the book and record it on video that they would then turn into an NFT! They also planned to create an animated series based on the book!
Only their $3million purchase only bought them a copy of the book, not the copyright to the book, which meant that they didn’t actually have the right to do any of that stuff (i.e. create derivative works). Plus the book was already public.
Spice DAO (and please refrain from calling them Spice D’OH! Because that would just be hitting someone when they’re already down $3million) is still charging ahead with somewhat modified plans, but I don’t think they will be able to carry through with them if they aren’t able to acquire any licenses from the copyright holders.
I also briefly ran through potential contract defenses (unilateral mistake? unconscionability? breach of warranty?) but none of them seem to apply. Maybe there’s some fine print on the Christie’s auction contract that might help them?
Their best bet, IMHO, is to turn these really sour lemons into lemonade by writing a movie about a band of crypto investors who end up buying a copy of a book under an assumption that turns out to be completely false. The entire Internet mocks them but they put on a brave face and carry on because after all, haters gonna hate! The experience causes them to make dramatic changes to their lives. One of them even becomes a copyright and contract lawyer, reading fine print on behalf of their impulsive but enterprising clients. What the world doesn’t yet realize is that this is what marks the beginning of Web 3.0 and a brave new metaverse where nothing makes sense anymore. Hijinks ensue.
*Dune was eventually made into an epic movie (which I have yet to see) and it was recently nominated for ten Oscars, including for best picture.