Seth Green’s Kidnapped Bored Ape Shows NFTs’ Growing Commercialization

Actor Seth Green’s plans to turn his Bored Ape NFT into a TV show have apparently crashed and burned just weeks before its launch after a scammer stole the non-fungible token — and possibly the commercial rights that come with it.

Green, owner of the haloed, skeleton-shirt-wearing cartoonish collectible had planned to make the cartoon collectible the star of his new show, “White Horse Tavern,” which Buzzfeed reports asks the question, “What if your friendly neighborhood bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?”

.@SethGreen new trailer for his new show, keep your eyes peeled?@BoredApeYC @GutterCatGang @veefriends pic.twitter.com/ZzYN87HYWA

— FFV (@FFVV1211) May 21, 2022

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the hottest NFT collections, selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars and embraced by celebrities from Jimmy Fallon to Eminem. One of its strengths as a product turned out to be the fact that — quite unusually — the NFT owners gained full commercial rights to the avatars.

See more: Planet of the Bored Apes

Some have already taken advantage of that — witness the Backpack Boyz marijuana lines, fronted by BAYC #768, a white-furred, blue-hatted primate with a silver hoop earring.

Green’s problem, it seems is that the actual rights to his Bored Ape — now named Fred — are less than clear. So much so that there are questions in the legal community whether it is still owned by Green or by @DarkWing84, who purchased it from the thief.

Read more: What do You Get When You Buy an NFT? Less Than You Think

That may sound ludicrous — it is clearly stolen property, and even knowingly possessing the stolen property is generally a crime.

Copywrong

Noting that NFT copyright law is a “particularly thorny” and untested area of law, attorney Daniel Dubin told BuzzFeed that if @DarkWing84 “wanted to cause trouble for Seth Green they probably could, because that person becomes the holder” of the commercial usage rights to the Bored Ape.

It’s unclear enough, at any rate, to put the project on hold, BuzzFeed said on May 25.

Part of the problem is that BAYC developer Yuga Labs’s copyright ownership terms are “horribly drafted,” said well-known crypto attorney Preston Byrne, who nonetheless said any copyright infringement suit against Green would be unwinnable. The problem is that they refer to a smart contract built into the NFT controlling its rights.

https://twitter.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1529178677510033413?s=20&t=xIJTORjmMrcOBqr1PGc8gg

Calling the controversy “nonsense,” NYU Law School Adjunct Professor Drew Hinkes tweeted “that stolen rights given under the license … give you system powers, not legal rights. Legal rights come from law.”

It isn’t the only area of copyright law being tested. Hermès is suing an artist for selling NFT images of its Birkin bags.

See also: Hermes Trademark Lawsuit Against MetaBirkins NFT Artist Moves Forward

Getting creative

While the rights attached to BAYC Fred will almost certainly return to Green at some point, the controversy points to the fact that NFT owners are beginning to commercialize their tokens in ways beyond the initial usage by brands like Gucci or Nike, which have released NFTs of their products that can be held, or even “worn,” by metaverse avatars.

Read more: PYMNTS NFT Series: In the Metaverse, NFTs Can Buy Experiences, Luxury and Eyeballs

Archie Comics, for instance, is launching an NFT collection inspired by the hit TV show “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” which give the 66,666 (of course) owners the ability to “submit storylines for their owned characters,” AdAge noted, “Those selected will receive credits in the upcoming comics.”

And while the right to credits is not exactly a paycheck, it does give show fans the possibility of becoming a part of the franchise.

Read also: Hype May Be Shrinking but NFTs’ Uses, Buyers Are Growing

Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult, an NFT community-building project, is being more creative with its licensing, giving buyers of the wizard-themed NFTs a nonexclusive, royalty-free commercial license for up to $5 million in revenue. After that, a 20% royalty kicks in.

The musical group Chainsmokers is giving away 5,000 NFT to frequent concert-goers and other hardcore fans a collective 1% of the album sales.

Read more: Pop Duo Chainsmokers to Give Away NFTs That Include Streaming Music Royalties

They’re not alone. Hip-hop legend Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels is working with NFT producer the Song That Owns Itself (STOI) to tokenize and fractionalize ownership rights to one of his songs, “Million Scars.”

The NFT sale has the “larger goal of creating the next iteration of the music industry that values creators, fans and supports them all in the most transparent and fair way possible,” McDaniels said in a release.

See also: PYMNTS NFT Series: NFTs Used by Artists to Create Musical ‘Middle Class’