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Crypto DAO spends €2.66M on Jodorowsky’s Dune thinking they would own its copyright, receives mass ridicule on Twitter

January 17, 2022No Comments


On Saturday night, Spice DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization who owns a copy of an unpublished manuscript of Frank Herbert and Alejandro Jodorowsky's never-finished Dune film, announced his roadmap going forward. In the Tweet, Spice DAO saying "I would take the book public, produce an original animated limited series inspired by the book and sell it to a streaming service, and support community spin-off projects." The group had previously won Christie's auction in November by selling the copy for €2.66 million, or about 89 times its price is estimated at the midpoint.

However, there was only one problem: buying a copy of a book does not give the buyer its copyright. In the United States and the European Union, copyright generally extends through the life of the last surviving co-creator and an additional 70 years after their death. Currently, the copyright owners, Jean Giraud and HR Giger, have passed away, while Jodorowsky is still in great shape at 92 years old.

Twitter users and crypto enthusiasts seemed to respond to the post with derision. An exceptionally 'wild' user by the name of @TheNinjaWhippet responded with a link to a free, publicly accessible copy of the book, which has been around online since 2011. The post garnered over 3,500 likes.

Under copyright law, Spice DAO must seek the co-creator's consent before making an animated series inspired by the book and selling it to a streaming service or wait 70 years after Jodorowsky's death when the works enter the public domain. . Additionally, there is great uncertainty as to whether or not the copy can be resold at par, as auctions require works to be appraised by an appraiser to determine their value. Spice DAO has approximately 1,236.12 ETH ($4 million) in its treasury at the time of publication.