Crypto Bros Mocked Mercilessly for Thinking They Bought the IP Rights to Dune

Social media has been roasting a cryptocurrency group for allegedly believing buying a book about a failed Dune remake gave them IP rights to the book

A Cryptocurrency collective that recently made a nearly $3 million purchase of a very rare copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s pitch “Bible” for his failed film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune have been widely mocked on social media since the group made a tweet that suggested that it believed that its purchase of the rare book meant that it acquired the intellectual property of the book, rather than simply the book itself.

The group, known as Spice DAO, however, appears to concede that it does not own any intellectual property rights to Dune and that it simply plans to both display the book’s contents and use it as an inspiration for a new animated streaming service.

RELATED: Jodorowsky’s Dune Book Sells for a Sand Worm-Sized Amount of Money

When the group recently posted about the purchase on Twitter, it sounded as if the group felt that it had acquired some intellectual property rights to the book through its purchase, especially since the group spent so much money for the book. This led to a good deal of online mockery for the group’s apparent lack of understanding of intellectual property rights…

And others pointed out that people can already see the book online…

However, it appears as though the group just phrased its tweet poorly. On its Medium page, spice DAO noted:

We are thrilled to announce the beginning of an epic journey for our community: the wheels have begun to turn on an original animated limited series inspired by Jodorowsky’s Dune. Our very own Space Opera.

Jodorowsky’s expansive vision for Dune in some way planted the seeds for nearly every Sci-Fi project over the last 50 years. While we do not own the IP to Frank Herbert’s masterpiece, we are uniquely positioned with the opportunity to create our own addition to the genre as an homage to the giants who came before us.

In other words, there are plans to try to display the book, but in general, the purchase was just a source of inspiration for a brand-new series inspired by the book (and Dune itself).

RELATED: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Also Ignores the One Scene Frank Herbert Wanted

Jodorowsky famously attempted to adapt Dune in the 1970s, with design work from H.R. Giger and Jodorowsky’s comic book collaborator, the legendary artist Jean “Moebius” Giraud. However, Jodorowsky’s proposed budget for the film was $15 million, almost twice the largest film budge of the era and the film was never made. The film option lapses in 1982 and two other adaptations of Dune have been made since then. Jodorowsky prepared a lavish “Bible” for the film with Moebius storyboards for the movie. There were very numbered and there were very few produced and one of these rare copies was recently offered up for auction. A 2013 documentary about the failed production has led to an increase in demand for one of the few Jodorowsky’s “Bibles” in existence.

The expectation was that the book would sell for $40,000, but 25-year-old cryptocurrency enthusiast Soban Saqib instead bid $2.9 million (all of his liquid assets). The cryptocurrency collective SpiceDAO then raised enough money to cover Sabib’s purchase with millions left over to do possible new projects based on the purchase of the book.

KEEP READING: Dune Changed the Science Fiction Game in Every Way… Except One

Source: Twitter, Medium, via Gizmodo

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