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Disney "steals" monetization from Star Wars Fan Film (Vader: Episode 1 - Shards of the Past)...

AGXStarseed

Well-Known Member
Something I heard about and decided to share.

Canadian YouTuber "Star Wars Theory" previously went to LucasFilm (bought by Disney on October 30th 2012) and stated that he wanted to make a Star Wars Fan Film based around Darth Vader, before questioning what he would be allowed to do in order not to get in trouble.
Lucasfilm allowed him to make the film but did not allow him to use crowdfunding and explained that he was not allowed to monetize the ad revenue or make money in any way from the completed product when it was uploaded to YouTube.

Star Wars Theory complied with these rules and spent over $100,000 to make his fan film, which was to be part of a series of 'episodes'.
Uploaded to YouTube on December 21st 2018, the 16 minute video went viral and at the present time has reached over 6.5 million views. He even paid for a venue out of his own money
It should also be noted not only that Star Wars Theory create this movie for fun and as a 'passion project' for the Star Wars franchise, but he also hired a composer to create original music that was 'inspired' by the John Williams' themes.
The reaction to the fan film from the Star Wars Fanbase has been mostly positive - with some fans even claiming that they liked this 16 minute film better than The Last Jedi.

Here is the completed Fan Film:


However, recently Star Wars Theory posted two new videos - appearing in person and explaining that, despite following the instructions by not making it through crowdfunding and not monetizing/making money from it (he admits that if he had monetized the ad revenue then it probably would have made him over $80,000), Walt Disney Music Company and the Warner Chappell music company have "manually" (sent someone to do this personally) put a claim on the video - with a claim been against the music which, despite the fact that the music is 'inspired' by the John Williams themes and is not the actual John Williams themes, "sounded too much" like the Imperial March.
As a result, Disney are now putting their ads on the video and are monetizing the ad revenue to make money for themselves, with none of it going to Star Wars Theory. Furthermore, he has been told by Warner Chappell that if he disputes the claim, his channel will get a strike and the video will be deleted.

Here's Star Wars Theory's videos on the copyright claim:


Understandably, this has angered a lot of people over Disney stooping to such a low, especially since Star Wars Theory got the okay from Lucasfilm to make the project and followed all their rules (not using crowdfunding and not making money off it in any way), with Disney now stepping in when they saw how well the fan film was doing.
While some people have defended Disney and Lucasfilm's actions as reasonable as they are within their right to shut down/monetize any works based off the intellectual properties they own (similar to how Nintendo shut down the fan-made game Pokemon Uranium), many others have argued that - since Disney waited until after the video had reached a sizeable audience before manually filing their claim against it in order to monetize the ad revenue - their actions have been interpreted as plain greed. Some fans online have openly declared following this that they will boycott Disney and Lucasfilm by refusing to see Episode 9 and refusing to buy any more Disney/Lucasfilm products - which is bad news for Disney as it has been revealed that they are already losing money on Star Wars and are facing criticism for their price increases at their parks.

Here's one of the reactions:


What do you guys think of this?
 
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IMO Disney is the last corporate business entity on the planet that you want to mess with. Something I learned as an insurance underwriter many years ago. They took one of my policyholders to the cleaners- and then some.

If and when you cross them over alleged intellectual property rights, they don't take prisoners. No matter how big a fan you might be. Never, ever test them.
 
Meh, Disney owns the Star Wars franchise, some guy tried to do his own movie and got caught, it's a simple case of copyright infringement.
 
It seems quite petty on Disney's part, that sort of money is chicken feed to them surely. That said, they're not depriving Star Wars Theory of anything since he wasn't making any money from it to begin with, so no big deal.
 
Meh, Disney owns the Star Wars franchise, some guy tried to do his own movie and got caught, it's a simple case of copyright infringement.

Rich, why do I get the feeling you didn't even bother to read this thread/watch the videos and instead just skimmed through it before jumping to the conclusion you wanted?
(Considering the amount of times on the forums that you've referred to Star Wars Fans as "Butt Hurt" has easily gone into double digits, it wouldn't surprise me).

It wasn't a case of him "getting caught" - he declared in his videos that he went to Lucasfilm and told them what he wanted to do. Lucasfilm (owned by Disney) agreed and let him make it on the condition that he didn't crowdfund it and didn't make money off it.
He then made the movie out of his own money and posted it on YouTube. As agreed, he didn't make it using crowdfunding and he didn't make any money off it.

However, Disney have waited until the movie has gone viral and got a lot of views before then manually filing a copyright claim against a piece of original music because they claimed it 'sounded too similar' to the Imperial March Theme. Thanks to this, Disney are now putting their ads on the video and making money for themselves on the ad revenue.
While the guy who made the fan film has said that he has no problem with Disney making money off his video as the characters belong to them, its because Disney is doing what many have called 'petty' and an 'act of pure greed' that has gotten everyone so riled up. Disney is a billion dollar company and the money they're going to make off this fan film in comparison is like getting paid pennies.

On top of this, before Disney's takeover Lucasfilm and by extension George Lucas have been pretty happy with people making Star Wars shorts/films - whether it's just two people pretending to fight with lightsabers to full scale fan films of varying length and quality - and until now (to my knowledge) have never done this to other fan projects.
Here's some examples of other fan projects:

Ryan vs. Brandon 2

Super Power Beat Down:
Batman vs. Darth Vader (skip to 3:33 for the start)

Star Wars: Revelations (2005)


Star Wars: Destroyer (2017)

Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 
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Lucasfilm has historically always supported fan made projects, even those using their assets such as the music. There are thousands of fan made Star Wars films on YouTube, none of which have ever been targeted in this manner. There are even annual awards for the best ones run by the official Star Wars website (owned by Disney).
This story unfortunately smacks of the CBS backlash against Star Trek Axanar on the same basis that the amateur production was such high quality and so well received it was an embarrassment to the big studio. Whilst CBS were able to use the crowdfunding aspect of Axanar to legally pursue the makers, Disney has had to take a different, more insidious approach.
Sadly CBS effectively crippled a long tradition of fan made, not for profit productions related to the Star Trek franchise, many of which were decent viewing. Disney look set to do the same to Star Wars in a parallel fit of commercial pique.
 
Lucasfilm has historically always supported fan made projects, even those using their assets such as the music. There are thousands of fan made Star Wars films on YouTube, none of which have ever been targeted in this manner. There are even annual awards for the best ones run by the official Star Wars website (owned by Disney).
This story unfortunately smacks of the CBS backlash against Star Trek Axanar on the same basis that the amateur production was such high quality and so well received it was an embarrassment to the big studio. Whilst CBS were able to use the crowdfunding aspect of Axanar to legally pursue the makers, Disney has had to take a different, more insidious approach.
Sadly CBS effectively crippled a long tradition of fan made, not for profit productions related to the Star Trek franchise, many of which were decent viewing. Disney look set to do the same to Star Wars in a parallel fit of commercial pique.

Very true. The way Disney has acted in this situation just makes me think of this song - which is basically a Villain Song for Mickey Mouse and Disney as a whole:

 
In addition lucas film already told to the fan making this how to do it without getting any issue with them,

Disney should have had the decency to respect the words of lucasfilm and they could have just said officialy that for the future they won't support fan made project...

They disgust me so much that I migh not even see endgame, but I guess I will anyway.
About SW...well, unless the public is completely blown away by this movie and spread it online ( like they did for spider man into the spiderverse) I don't think I will see it...

Youtube doesnt care about what is legal or not, they act on the report of the user, and it is then the accused that has to show that this isnt illegal, this is , like the total opposite of fair trial.

I dont know exactly how the law works in the US but it might be interesing to study how the words of lucasfilm before disney acquisition binds disney to respect that.
 
In addition lucas film already told to the fan making this how to do it without getting any issue with them,

Disney should have had the decency to respect the words of lucasfilm and they could have just said officialy that for the future they won't support fan made project...

They disgust me so much that I migh not even see endgame, but I guess I will anyway.
About SW...well, unless the public is completely blown away by this movie and spread it online ( like they did for spider man into the spiderverse) I don't think I will see it...

Youtube doesnt care about what is legal or not, they act on the report of the user, and it is then the accused that has to show that this isnt illegal, this is , like the total opposite of fair trial.

I dont know exactly how the law works in the US but it might be interesing to study how the words of lucasfilm before disney acquisition binds disney to respect that.

I'm going to be quoting Doug Walker (Nostalgia Critic) and others from his "Where's the Fair Use?" video here.

"After Google bought YouTube, Viacom immediately went to court against them for all the content being played without their permission. Funny, seeing how Viacom actually uploaded about a hundred of the videos they tried to sue YouTube over. YouTube was able to defend itself with the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and safe harbor provisions. They created a system that would shed any responsibility for any videos uploaded on YouTube, and again in theory, help protect its creators. This system was, is, and will continue to be abused. The system is there's two penalties for copyright infringement: a claim or a strike.

A strike is the most severe. Your video gets taken down from YouTube because a copyright owner sent a complete legal request asking YouTube to do so. Just one strike limits your channel, including only airing fifteen minute videos, and an inability to dispute copyright claims for six months. You get three of these, and your channel is gone.
And then there's the more popular, yet "less severe", penalty, claims. If content ID detects copyrighted material within your video, then an automatic action will take place. This action is entirely dependent on what the copyright holder previously set it to do. For example, if I owned a movie, and I wanted to add it to YouTube's content ID system, I would get to decide how much footage of my film would need to appear in someone else's video, before it automatically claims it.
You can also receive claims that were filed manually. A manual claim implies someone actually watched the video, and determined it was infringing, before actually filing the claim.

YouTube's system is set up in such a way that it incentivizes claimants to abuse it, and that is precisely why their system is so rampant with abuse. You can file a dispute, and then it is up to the claimant to respond to your dispute within thirty days. If they don't respond in thirty days, then their claim will be removed, and your video will be back to normal. If they do respond, they can either remove the claim or reinstate the claim. If they reinstate the claim, then you have to file an appeal, and they have yet another thirty days to respond to that.
The most excruciating part was the lack of human interaction from anyone at YouTube. The automated forums and e-mails seemed designed in such a way that no human working at YouTube will actually ever see it, so it makes you feel pretty helpless and pretty worthless. There was no one I could contact to fix a very, VERY simple problem. So, the entire situation was elongated and needlessly blown comically out of proportion.

I see no reason why there should be a limit on the amount of appeals I can send when there is no limit on the amount of claims I can receive. And what's worse is that, even if the amount of appeals was increased, I would still only be able to really use two at a time. Reason being is that during the appeals process, the claimant has the option to remove your video and issue a strike on your account. You can fight to get the video back up, and the strike removed from your channel by filing a counter notification, but those can take up to a month to complete as well. And as soon as you have three strikes on your channel at any one time, your channel is automatically removed. So, even though I am technically allowed three appeals at once, I make sure to limit myself to two, in case all of them come back with take-down notices.

There are no penalties for companies creating false claims or strikes. In fact, there's a claim where you can take someone's monetization on a video, even if the claim turns out to be false.
So if a studio says "Hey, your (Insert Film/TV Show Name) review, that's our review 100%", they can take the money you're supposed to be making on it until you file a counter claim. And if they never fight it or are proven to be wrong, they still get to keep all the money that they made on your video, no questions asked.
You would think that studios wouldn't be able to go around filing fraudulent claims against people's videos, but not only do they do that, but they often outsource other companies to do it for them. I've received countless claims from a rights management company, known as "egeda", and this claimant in particular is one of the worst to deal with. You can dispute your claim, and provide factual evidence as to why your video falls under fair use, and they just reinstate the claim anyway and often issue a take-down notice on your video.
"

What's worse about this is that even videos that use re-enactments or don't use any footage at all in order to avoid this situation - such as the Midnight Screening reviews, which is just two people in a car talking about a movie with no images, audio or clips from the film they're talking about - can still receive claims and strikes despite there been no copyrighted material at all within their videos.

"So, what started out as a means to protect studios and content creators is now being used as a means to silence and steal. We're at a point now where, not only is this becoming more and more wrong, it's becoming illegal. In the case of "Lenz vs Universal", Universal claimed a twenty-nine second video of a baby dancing to a Prince song infringed copyright. Yeah, that's how desperate it's getting.
Luckily, EFF sued Universal on Lenz's behalf, arguing that Universal abused the DMCA by improperly targeting a lawful fair use. A federal appeals court affirmed that copyright holders must consider whether a use of material is fair use, before sending a take-down notice. But don't worry, that still didn't stop the studios from wrongful DMCA take-downs. Tons of them still going on today.
The studios have made it clear they are not going to play fair, and they will step over anybody's rights that they need to to get exactly what they want.
"
 
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I did a lengthy study of the legal aspects of Fan Art, Fair Use, etc, several years ago and was discouraged in what I found as far as restrictions and potential threats to fan artists. It is something of a minefield or time bomb waiting to blow up on the fan artist that invests their time and energy on someone else's theme.

Lucas was however one of the very few who were openly tolerant and I think understood that both he and the fans benefited from allowing others to work within his created universe.

It is no surprise therefore that Disney, which is a typical corporation, can't see beyond the dollar.
 
What do you guys think of this?
This type of thing happens all the time. Corps like disney stealing from creators. However. In this case. Putting that much money into a fan fiction though... very bad idea. Messaging the company to let them know what you're doing / admitting totally to them what you're doing so they have records of it in legal battles... bad idea. the characters are not their intellectual property. The fan fiction dude in this case is basically getting viewership from the Star Wars brand not his own work. Directly from their characters. Therefore, Disney has the right to monetize it since they own those characters. They're well within their legal right.Also, they don't have to disclose their plans to that creator at all. Yet, he trusted them... foolish.

Redefine it as parody. Or as something else entirely. Make a character that one could say was "inspired by" vader. Better yet. Don't even mention the star wars franchise at all in any interview or document. Or just completely leave that out and make something that resembles it all the while refuting that in no way shape or form was Star Wars or any characters from that series used in the creation of the character. (should the question ever come up) And that the association is purely coincidental. (Dark armor, Low or even distorted voice, more synonymous with "evil" characters... not the prevalent sith lord. There are hundreds of shows, movies, etc with this type of character and anyone of them can be interpreted as "inspired by vader" by such a corporation that owns that character.)

Any fan fiction person can recreate much of what they see in the star wars universe and profit off of it. As long as they don't openly admit and blatantly copy an entire characters design. Incognito fan fics. // (what i write here is for people who would actually invest money into this... or plan to profit from it.)

While the composer uses the same instruments found in Star Wars series, the composition itself is quite different. Saying it's "sounds too close" to the theme is ludicrous. Oh you use lead guitar, rhythm guitar and bass guitar, a drummer and singer for your rock band? your music is too close to slipknot or any other rock band. Pff. That's basically what they're trying to say here. You use the same instruments therefore ---- blah who cares.

Make a vader character sure. But change a few things so it's not a copy. Give it a different name. Fader. Revad. whatever. Design the helmet differently. Make the associations to star wars unconscious. Have a different "form" or construct of the light saber. a re-imagining that doesn't directly copy the visual effects. You want to call your heroes jedi's? Use an anagram of the word. Deji. You'll know what i means... that's what's more important to the fan ficer is is it not? And for the love of god... never, ever allude to the fact that you crafted this in Star Wars image. Let the people feel the associations. Don't go out in the open admitting it's a fan fic. The difference between the 2 is what everyone views as a stand alone show or piece of art.

Shutting up and remaining silent. Being smart about your approach = Your own work. (You know it's a fan fic, you don't have to admit that.)
That's yours to do with as you please.
Fan girling about how you designed everything in series after star wars = No longer yours. You'll get chewed up and spit out. Everyone else will see it as fan fic .

When it comes to legality and public perception stuff like this matters more than people think. "inspired by" and "purely coincidental". two different but closely associated terms with have a massively different impact on the outcome.

With those thoughts out of the way didn't someone make an awesome street fighter fan film and the owners of the Street Fighter franchise didn't exploit them like some soulless chumps? Didn't an interview with that creator show that he was inspired and pleased that his fans loved the series so much they would make such a nice fan movie about it? Didn't that creator of the franchise realize that he was getting good press and that the popularity of that fan movie would ultimately bring him more profits and fans? Yeeessss... Wait didn't they release another SF title shortly after the release of the fan videos? Yup i think so if memory serves correctly... everybody wins.

But not when you play with Disney.
 
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What do you guys think of this?
This type of thing happens all the time. Corps like disney stealing from creators. However. In this case. Putting that much money into a fan fiction though... very bad idea. Messaging the company to let them know what you're doing / admitting totally to them what you're doing so they have records of it in legal battles... bad idea. the characters are not their intellectual property. The fan fiction dude in this case is basically getting viewership from the Star Wars brand not his own work. Directly from their characters. Therefore, Disney has the right to monetize it since they own those characters. They're well within their legal right.Also, they don't have to disclose their plans to that creator at all. Yet, he trusted them... foolish.

Redefine it as parody. Or as something else entirely. Make a character that one could say was "inspired by" vader. Better yet. Don't even mention the star wars franchise at all in any interview or document. Or just completely leave that out and make something that resembles it all the while refuting that in no way shape or form was Star Wars or any characters from that series used in the creation of the character. (should the question ever come up) And that the association is purely coincidental. (Dark armor, Low or even distorted voice, more synonymous with "evil" characters... not the prevalent sith lord. There are hundreds of shows, movies, etc with this type of character and anyone of them can be interpreted as "inspired by vader" by such a corporation that owns that character.)

Any fan fiction person can recreate much of what they see in the star wars universe and profit off of it. As long as they don't openly admit and blatantly copy an entire characters design. Incognito fan fics. // (what i write here is for people who would actually invest money into this... or plan to profit from it.)

While the composer uses the same instruments found in Star Wars series, the composition itself is quite different. Saying it's "sounds too close" to the theme is ludicrous. Oh you use lead guitar, rhythm guitar and bass guitar, a drummer and singer for your rock band? your music is too close to slipknot or any other rock band. Pff. That's basically what they're trying to say here. You use the same instruments therefore ---- blah who cares.

Make a vader character sure. But change a few things so it's not a copy. Give it a different name. Fader. Revad. whatever. Design the helmet differently. Make the associations to star wars unconscious. Have a different "form" or construct of the light saber. a re-imagining that doesn't directly copy the visual effects. You want to call your heroes jedi's? Use an anagram of the word. Deji. You'll know what i means... that's what's more important to the fan ficer is is it not? And for the love of god... never, ever allude to the fact that you crafted this in Star Wars image. Let the people feel the associations. Don't go out in the open admitting it's a fan fic. The difference between the 2 is what everyone views as a stand alone show or piece of art.

Shutting up and remaining silent. Being smart about your approach = Your own work. (You know it's a fan fic, you don't have to admit that.)
That's yours to do with as you please.
Fan girling about how you designed everything in series after star wars = No longer yours. You'll get chewed up and spit out. Everyone else will see it as fan fic .

When it comes to legality and public perception stuff like this matters more than people think. "inspired by" and "purely coincidental". two different but closely associated terms with have a massively different impact on the outcome.

With all due respect, the guy went to Lucasfilm to ask them about the Vader film he wanted to make because he didn't want to get into any legal trouble.
Second, Lucasfilm has continued their "Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards" even after Disney purchased them - with the latest been in 2018 - with two of the fan films that won ("More Machine Than Man" and "Exile: A Star Wars Fan Film") both including characters from the main franchise.
Here's "Exile: A Star Wars Fan Film":


Unlike the Vader film, however, Disney and Warner-Chappell haven't gone after this one despite using the actual music and both Boba Fett and Darth Vader appearing in the film. So, how come one fan film is completely fine to be up on YouTube yet the other - which uses characters from the films but has original music that is 'inspired' by the actual score - is subjected to a dubious copyright claim (I'm sure most of us can name two songs from different artists that sound similar) and then has Disney putting ads on the film so that they can make money on it?
What makes it more dubious is that Disney aren't doing the same thing to people who are making reaction videos to the Vader film - which is, as Star Wars Theory states, "very rude and very vindictive". It seems a lot like Disney targeted this one just because it was getting millions of views and positive ratings.
 
What makes it more dubious is that Disney aren't doing the same thing to people who are making reaction videos to the Vader film - which is, as Star Wars Theory states, "very rude and very vindictive". It seems a lot like Disney targeted this one just because it was getting millions of views and positive ratings.

No differently than Old England and how it handled the execution of traitors to the crown. Hanging, drawing and quartering. With the head of the traitor placed on London Bridge, and the body parts sent to the four corners of Britain as a warning.

Not every corporate entity has the same litigation policies when it comes to intellectual property. Disney is apt to handle such things in a far more punitive manner. Designed to send a message- as policy.

Don't look for mitigating circumstances or fan loyalty. They mean nothing to them in a civil action. No matter how big a fan you might be of anything Disney, if you violate their perception of intellectual property rights they will pursue you like a wanton state criminal. Period.

There's nothing "Disney" about the Walt Disney Corporation and hasn't been since Roy Disney died in 1971.
 
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Disney is just becoming too big of a corporation. They are buying up a lot of entertainment companies and soon may be the only big entertainment company in town. They already own Marvel, ABC, FOX, Pixar as well as Lucasfilm. What's there next target? Warner Bro, Universal, Dreamworks? Roamer has it that they are even trying to buy out Cirque du soul.

Getting back on the subject: What I really think that Disney should do in this matter is pay him back for the cost of making his fan film(s) and take full rights to it from there. Otherwise, I hope they face a backlash from the public for this.
 
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Considering their work in providing English dubs for Japan's Studio Ghibli films, I'd probably compare Disney to been more like the No-Face from Spirited Away; A creature that wants to spread joy but gets consumed by greed, gobbling up anything that comes in his way.

If joy was a commodity, Corporate Disney would just acquire the rights to it, bottle and sell it for more than we can afford. :rolleyes:
 

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