Actor Seth Green has reportedly regained ownership of his stolen Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT by paying Ξ 165 to a collector.
Hollywood actor Seth Green regained ownership of the stolen Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT he lost in a phishing attack in May. However, the “Austin Powers” comedian purportedly paid Ξ 165 (more than $226,000 at current prices) to get the NFT back after it was sold to a collector.
It will be remembered that the 48-year-old actor lost four bluechip NFTs last month—BAYC #8398, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) #s9964 and 19182, and Doodles # 7546. The BAYC NFT’s price when Green originally bought it was Ξ 95, or about $130,000 at current prices.
“Kidnapped” NFT Is Now Home
Seth Green purchased the BAYC NFT for his upcoming TV show, “White Horse Tavern.” Green was interviewed in May after losing BAYC #8398 and said, “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.”
“Then days before—his name is Fred, by the way—days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped,” the actor added.
The “Robot Chicken” actor maintained that he still had intellectual property (IP) rights to Fred the ape since, according to Green, the NFT was stolen. However, the absence of legal precedent about this new technology left Green in a legal gray area. Hence, it meant putting work on the TV show on hold until Green “legally” regains his rights to the show’s main character.
The actor spent most of last month pleading online for the new owner of BAYC #8398 to return it to him, but his requests fell on deaf ears.
However, the “Family Guy” actor can now rest easy knowing “Fred” is back in its rightful home. The actor himself confirmed this during an appearance on a Twitter Spaces chat on Thursday. It means the actor can now get back to work minus the legal hiccups.
Seth Green Getting Fred Back
Transaction records show that a wallet Green controls sent the funds to an NFT collector who goes by the handles “Mr. Cheese” and “DarkWing84.” The transaction took place in a cryptocurrency escrow platform, NFT Trader.
The collecter alleged that he purchased BAYC #8398 “in good faith” when Green tried to mint an NFT on a fake site and got scammed. In late May, the Green threatened legal action against the collector but eventually confirmed making contact with the latter.
Immediately after it was confirmed that Green lost BAYC #8398, NFT marketplace OpenSea flagged the missing NFT for “suspicious activity.” It means the NFT is frozen and can’t be bought or sold on OpenSea. Green had no recourse but to use NFT Trader to repurchase the NFT from DarkWing84.
Intellectual Property and Bored Ape NFTs
The licensing rules applied to the BAYC NFT collection clearly state that although its creator, Yuga Labs, owns the brand’s copyright, the company hands over a broad license to the owner of individual NFTs. Such a license allows an NFT holder to use the image owned through any means, including an unlimited worldwide license to use, display, and copy the purchased art.
Thus, you’ll see owners of the BAYC NFTs taking advantage of those licensing rights to create BAYC-branded content and businesses. That’s also why Green can use his BAYC as the main character in his TV show.
When BAYC #8398 was stolen from the actor, he was confident that even though he would have to suspend the production of his TV show, whoever had the NFT wouldn’t be “legally entitled to exploitation usage of the underlying IP.” Simply put, whoever bought it will not be able to use it for any purpose as it has been tagged as stolen.
While it has not been clarified what convinced DarkWing84 to return BAYC #8398 to the actor. However, besides the repurchase amount, IP-related issues may have played a part in Green’s recovery of the stolen art.
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