“The album itself is kind of the O.G. NFT,” said Mr. Johnson, 34, who was proudly sporting a Wu-Tang T-shirt.

To tie “Once Upon a Time” to the digital realm, an NFT was created to stand as the ownership deed for the physical album, said Peter Scoolidge, a lawyer who specializes in cryptocurrency and NFT deals and was involved in the transaction. The 74 members of PleasrDAO — the abbreviation in its name identifies it as a “decentralized autonomous organization” — share collective ownership of the NFT deed, and thus own the album.

As the owners, they can listen to the 31 tracks on its two CDs, ogle its engraved nickel-silver box and leaf through the leather-bound parchment book that are part of the item’s overall package. But, for now at least, PleasrDAO’s members are still bound by the original restrictions that RZA and Cilvaringz imposed on Mr. Shkreli, including that it cannot be released to the general public in any form until 2103 (88 years from its initial sale in 2015). Archive link https://web.archive.org/web/20211021081900/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/wu-tang-clan-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin.html

  • @smokin_shinobi
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    394 months ago

    Every time I’m reminded of this dumbass album my love for Wu-Tang diminishes a little more. From the slums of Shaolin to making an exclusive album for rich assholes. What a joke.

    • @[email protected]
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      244 months ago

      I have a small hope inside that the whole thing is just a way to fuck with rich people and the album is nothing but fart noises.

      • @this_1_is_mine
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        4 months ago

        It has to be. Or… Hear me out I’m just spit balling here.

        Poopy-di scoop

        Scoop-diddy-whoop

        Whoop-di-scoop-di-poop

        Poop-di-scoopty

        Scoopty-whoop

        Whoopity-scoop, whoop-poop

        Poop-diddy, whoop-scoop

        Poop, poop

        Scoop-diddy-whoop

        Whoop-diddy-scoop

        Whoop-diddy-scoop, poop.

        Or something like that.

  • @Tylerdurdon
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    274 months ago

    Martin Shkreli can get fucked eternally.

  • @njm1314
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    34 months ago

    Is there a reason why they picked 88 years after its initial sale?

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      88 years happens to be 7 years off from the expiry of copyrights in USA, and they started to work on the album ~6 years before the “release”.

      It could be related to that somehow, maybe they used copyrighted material on the album that would go public domain that year

      • @Hellinabucket
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        24 months ago

        Wouldn’t the songs themselves go public domain right around then?

        • KNova
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          34 months ago

          I think it’s lifetime of the creator + 70 years, so unless they die in the next several years… no, the copyright on the album would outlast whatever they perhaps sampled illegally…, but maybe they sampled someone younger than them like a Taylor Swift…

          Who fucking knows

  • @FardyCakes
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    04 months ago

    More like P.U. Tang Clan amirite?