The decentralized autonomous organization Spice DAO announced acquiring the manuscript of the film Dune. The movie was never completed. It said the book would be made public and there will be an animated series based on the book. It added the book would be offered to a streaming company and the community’s derivative projects toward it will be supported. The information was disclosed by it through its Twitter handle in a tweet on January 15, 2022.
The Main Problem with These Plans
There was only one problem with all these plans: a buyer of this book does not get copyright of it. The copyright of such creative content remains with the creator or cocreator throughout their life. In fact, the copyright continues to exist 70 years, even after the death of the last creator. One of the three copyright owners of this manuscript is still alive. People knowing these facts ridiculed this announcement. They informed how the book has been available publicly since 2011. Before making any derivative content like animated series based on this book, a person has to first seek consent from its creator.
What Went Wrong?
Spice DAO claimed to have purchased the full rights of the book, but the Internet was quick to make everything clear. Buying this book does not give the buyer any copyright over it. The buyer only gets an expensive and old book. Making the book public is also not necessary because it has been available for free in the public domain for several years.
The book was expected to sell at the auction for $28,318-$39,645 but Spice DAO paid $3 million for it.
