Seth Green recently talked about how one of his Bored Ape NFTs was stolen, only it was also the main character of a new show he’s working on.

In a sit down with the guy that imagines a member of his family is dead every morning in the shower, Gary Vee, Seth Green talked about how one of his Bored Ape NFTs has been stolen.

It’s also important to note that Gary Vee is the type of person that goes to garage sales to buy as much old crap as he can and lie about its resell value for a video that makes him look like a savvy businessman. This is the same guy that is giving out advice on NFTs like it’s going out of style and seemingly wants to replace all forms of transactions with NFTs.

Now, thanks to an article from Buzzfeed News, which covered Vee and Green’s talk, we know that Seth Green has experience the negative effects of trading in a market with few regulations. Despite his NFTs being stolen, there is no way for them to be stopped from being traded.

To add insult to injury, one of the NFTs he was using was also the protagonist of his upcoming show, which looks like horrifically aimless stock footage with NFT characters slapped on top. Since the protagonist was an NFT, and the copyright rights have now transferred to the NFT’s new owner, Green may have a hard time claiming ownership over his own show’s characters if he doesn’t get the NFT back.

In an interview with entrepreneur and crypto hype man Gary Vaynerchuk, Green said he wanted to imagine a universe where “it doesn’t matter what you look like, what only matters is your attitude.”

“.@SethGreen new trailer for his new show, keep your eyes peeled @BoredApeYC @GutterCatGang @veefriends“

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“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 did not respond to a tweet from BuzzFeed News regarding the show.

Here is Green’s OP, which begins his desperate attempts at retrieving the stolen NFT from its new owner.

“Well frens it happened to me. Got phished and had 4NFT stolen. @BoredApeYC @opensea @doodles @yugalabs please don’t buy or trade these while I work to resolve: @DarkWing84 looks like you bought my stolen ape- hit me up so we can fix it”

Buzzfeed News reached out to attorney Daniel Dubin for consultation on legal advice in regards to how stolen NFTs are handled.

If the current owner “wanted to cause trouble for Seth Green they probably could, because that person becomes the holder” of the commercial usage rights, said Daniel Dubin, an intellectual property attorney at Alston & Bird LLP.

“Ordinarily, bona fide purchasers are legally protected if they buy an item not knowing that it’s a hot item,” Eric Goldman, an intellectual property and technology law professor at the University of Santa Clara, told BuzzFeed News. But for buyers of stolen NFTs, the blockchain — which records a chain of ownership — could make it tricky for them to plead ignorance. Goldman theorized “there will be a lot of questions about whether they’re buying a stolen NFT and not doing their homework.”

The NFT marketplace OpenSea said it has frozen the tokens, as it has previously done when assets were reported stolen. All four NFTs taken from Green are now marked with “suspicious activity” warnings. “We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains; however, we do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items,” said Allie Mack, an OpenSea spokesperson. OpenSea is currently facing three lawsuits from NFT owners who lost their Bored Apes to similar phishing attacks.

Because NFTs aren’t physical goods, “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,” Dubin said. “I think we’re just scratching the surface.”

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