Today is “Towel Day.” In honor of Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, fans around the universe carry a towel. After all, a towel “is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”
This brings me to Seth Green. Someone stole his Bored Ape, which was supposed to star in his new show called White Horse Tavern. He got hacked and the Bored Ape was resold by the hacker.
As it turns out, when you purchase a Bored Ape, you are also (and this is unusual) purchasing the rights to its name and likeness. In other words, you own the copyright to the work. This is not the case with 99 percent of the digital or physical assets you might purchase. In most cases, you are only entitled to “fair use” of the work or item. But, in the case of Bored Apes, the copyright is transferred with the purchase.
This is a problem for Seth. Without clear title to the copyright, he can’t use the character. He’s been tweeting to the current owner (DarkWing84), who bought his ape from a scammer, to return it. But, alas, there has been no response. Perhaps a towel would help.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.