Even with Alejandro Jodorowsky's never filmed Dune, truth can be stranger than fiction, especially when crypto and NFTs are involved

Jamie Powell writing for FT Alphaville.

Yet a fascination with the project’s mind-bendingly ambitious vision remained, so much so that a documentary was made about it in 2014, and a rare book on the unmade film — containing the script, concept art and other pre-production materials — has become a collector’s items among Dune-heads.

So in-demand in fact, that every now and then one of the estimated 20 surfaces for sale gets purchased for big bucks. And so it was in late November, when Christies sold one of the copies for €2.66m — almost 100 times its estimate.

Which brings us neatly to this announcement from Spice DAO on Sunday:

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

If you don’t know what a DAO, or decentralised anonymous organisation, is, let us explain. In effect, it’s a governance structure where each member of the organisation — a membership often granted by simply buying a cryptocurrency tied to it (in this case, named SPICE) — becomes a decision maker in the organisation’s governance. The governance rules are set in smart contracts drafted beforehand by the original organisers, but after that, every decision of the entity is decided by the tokenholders. Presented as an antidote to the centralised governance of modern tech companies, it’s like being a shareholder in a crowd-funded project, but without being able to defer any decision-making to a chief executive or management team. (And that, arguably, is the least of the model’s problems. Do read Izzy or Stephen Diehl for more.)

Yet the problem with Spice DAO isn’t so much a philosophical one but a legal one.

We don’t know why we have to state this, but by buying a copy of something doesn’t give you exclusive rights to monetise its content. It’s literally the bedrock of intellectual property law and therefore, large swaths of capitalism.

So, have SpiceDAO resolved this? The copyrights of the book’s script and illustrations, according to BuzzFeed, are owned by Jodorowsky himself, and artists Jean Giraud and HR Giger. Both of whom died over the past decade. So without their estate’s sign-off, SpiceDAO is Spice dead in the water.

Turns out the IP situation is even worse than Powell suggests. About that animated series...

It will come as a surprise, I'm sure, to nobody but the DAO members to learn that the rights arrangement between the Herbert estate and Legendary is reported to broadly cover "film and TV projects for a global audience."https://t.co/Ba7Bkqsc7G

— Mike Dunford (@questauthority) January 17, 2022

And there's more.

They want to scan the book, then sell NFTs.

Then burn the book.

Really.https://t.co/kA0Bmz4nwv

— scott melton (@essdubem) January 17, 2022

Of course, there are still 19 other copies out, not to mention this...

Anyway, if y'all wanna read a free and publicly accessible copy of the book, here's one that's been online since 2011 https://t.co/EQk8gUnDu4

— Alex (Boba Fett Era) | He/Him (@TheNinjaWhippet) January 16, 2022

You know what the sad part is? This almost certainly isn't the dumbest blockchain based business idea we'll see in 2022. It may not even be the dumbest of the year so far.