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?
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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