Seth Green’s Stolen NFT Puts His New Animated Bored Ape Series in Jeopardy

In a sentence you could never explain to someone from 1995, actor Seth Green (Family Guy) was robbed of four NFTs via a phishing scam. In addition to losing thousands of dollars from the NFT theft, Green might also lose his chance at making a new animated series based on said NFTs. The Robot Chicken creator appeared at NFT conference VeeCon, where he shared a trailer for his upcoming series White Horse Tavern. The series follows Green’s Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398, aka Fred Simian, who is the bartender of a local tavern. But Green’s ability to make the series is now in jeopardy, as he no longer holds the copyright to the NFT that inspired it.

“I bought that ape in July 2021, and have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show,” Green told Vaynerchuk. “Then days before — his name is Fred by the way — days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped.” Green continues to attempt to negotiate with the buyer, rather than taking the issue to court.

Green has reached out the new owner @DarkWing84 to negotiate for the NFTs, but hasn’t shared any further updates. In addition to collecting NFTs, Green has launched his own NFT Line, PizzaBots, in partnership with Heavy Metal Magazine. And his production company, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, is already making Dominion X, an animated series based on DJ Steve Aoki’s line of NFTs. And if that’s not enough early 2000s celebrities to throw at you, the series streams on Nifty Gateway, the NFT marketplace owned by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (of The Social Network fame).

If the case does go to court, it enters a murky legal area where copyright and personal use get distorted through the NFT pipeline. Daniel Dubin, an intellectual property attorney at Alston & Bird LLP, said “It’s interesting to imagine the different ways that IP rights can be affected, and the interesting new IP issues that can arise from the fact, … I think we’re just scratching the surface.” It also calls into question the legal ramifications of purchases made through the blockchain, the usage of crypto currency, and a host of other issues plaguing the highly unregulated dark digital world.

(via BuzzFeed, image: screencap/The CW)

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