Read all about it here and here.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Maybe they're just grumpy that the Firefly fan base didn't buy more tickets to the movie, and want to punish us.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Oh, snap.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Short version: Two companies have bought licensing rights to make official Serenity T-shirts, and Universal and Fox are starting to crack down on fan versions. Bluesunshirts.com was given two weeks to shut down, but with no further penalties, and he did. But this week 11th Hour (the artist who did the Serenity RPG artwork and the guerilla marketing posters and organized a lot of the fan promotion initiatives) received notice that she has to stop selling some of her CafePress designs, turn over her stock and financial records, and pay $8700. Kind of overkill, considering a cease and desist order would have worked nicely.
No question Universal has the right to do it, but their unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics are annoying the same fan base that Universal are relying to buy the new licensed stuff.
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
I wonder what Whedon has to say about it.
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
Probably something along the lines of, "I don't have any say in this at all," followed by lots of profanity.
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
Yah, probably.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
From an interview Joss did once:
quote:Q. You've also done an absolutely smashing job of ignoring the massive amounts of bootleg "Firefly" fan merchandise. I'm thinking specifically of BlueSunShirts.com... .
A. I'm a Deadhead, and where I come from, bootlegging's a good thing.
Q. If the movie's a hit, and more official merchandise starts coming out, do you think there's going to be a crackdown?
A. I have no idea. I never have a piece of merchandising; I haven't reached a place in the Hollywood DNA chain where I can actually ask for that. So it's not like I'm losing money. But even if I was? You know, I'm doin' fine. I have a job. I'm doing just fine. And the fact that people are making this stuff? You can call it "bootlegging" or you can call it "free advertising."
Q. Let's hope they keep calling it the latter.
A. You can also call it "the fact that people are taking it to their hearts." It's no different than fan fiction or any of these online communities. It's important to them and they wear it -- and that makes me proud. And I don't give a good goddamn who's makin' money off it.
Q. Now, do you have a favorite piece of fan -- I'm sorry, "free advertising"?
A. [laughs] A favorite.... You know, I have to admit, when I first saw the Blue Sun t-shirts, I thought they were pretty cool -- because it didn't announce itself, and I think it had a really good logo.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
20th Century Fox is involved. They've done this many a time before, hence the term of something being "Foxed" like this. I've seen them take down several sites that were creating mods for Half-Life based on their material, and they came at those sites with both barrels.
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
What Half Life mods were they, just out of curiosity?
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
I've seen several Star Wars based mods taken down by LucasArts. I also know the Existance mod for HL1 was originally a fully Matrix mod (it included fully rendered and animated sentinels as well as the "lady in red"), and the studio came down on them like an anvil so they had to change it (which is why an Ethan Hunt-looking character is in the final release). And then several Stargate-themed mods were taken down as well.
Even id Software came down on the Generations mod (which contained charactes from all Quake games), which was surprising.
Posted by Magson (Member # 2300) on :
They asked us to help promote the movie, now it's time to bill them for our time and expenses that we incurred in doing so. That's the premise of this site, anyway. . .
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
quote: Rather than responding in a manner which might antagonize Universal, we thought that asking fans to tally those hours and publishing the totals for all to see would be a gentler way to make both the specific point about Browncoat marketing for Serenity and the more general point about the relationship between producers of entertainment and their increasing (and knowing) reliance in the 21st century on fanbases to help promote that entertainment.
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
Thanks Nighthawk - its the first time I've heard about any of that.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
quote:this week 11th Hour (the artist who did the Serenity RPG artwork and the guerilla marketing posters and organized a lot of the fan promotion initiatives) received notice that she has to stop selling some of her CafePress designs, turn over her stock and financial records, and pay $8700. Kind of overkill, considering a cease and desist order would have worked nicely.
I don't agree that this is overkill. There's no way she didn't know that profiting from somebody else's copyrighted material was illegal. The fine is large, but I wonder if it was calculated based on how much profit she made. If so, that seems reasonable. I could see her financial records being helpful in forecasting demand for their products. Just saying it seems fairly reasonable.
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
Perhaps she felt (incorrectly, from a legal standpoint) that the owners of that copyrighted material also profited from her work.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
But it's not reasonable. She wasn't selling any copyrighted images, logos, etc., only designs that she created. After sending her a C&D, she was complying with the order when they sent her the last notice--not even waiting to give her time to abide by the first.
Secondly, they encouraged guerilla marketing on the official site for the movie, and have let it go on for over a year. It is only now that they're sending out these notices. They certainly knew about the fan merchandise and were all too happy about the free promotion they got for the movie.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
I think there's even one by Chris Bridges--at least, I think I recognized the by-line. (Maybe not in that list--I know I saw it somewhere. It was an Open Letter to Universal.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by Katarain: I think there's even one by Chris Bridges--at least, I think I recognized the by-line. (Maybe not in that list--I know I saw it somewhere. It was an Open Letter to Universal.
Off topic, but, Chris, is the newest trivia question on your site still open to answers? I just sent the answer in. Can it still count? I actually knew the answer and I've read said poem before .
Posted by Shmuel (Member # 7586) on :
Please to note the image said to be at issue, which bears no resemblance to any official Serenity logo. Except insofar as it uses the word "Serenity" in English and Chinese.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
Now it reminds me of the Cease and Desist order my site received April 1st, 2002...
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
I like how the C&D order plugs your site . . .
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Oh, man, why can't I think of things like that?
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Just copy it yoursel--oh . . .
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
lol
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Update - Universal dropped the matter. As long as she removed her Serenity logo and references to the movie -- apparently that was the problem, that her unrelated design could be construed as an "official" one -- she won't have to pay the retroactive fee or suffer any other penalties.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Oh, thank heavens. That's great. yay!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Wow, intelligence from a movie studio. I'm impressed.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
nice. i'm glad.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
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![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
yay!