Firefly Fans Fight Back Against Universal

Gossi writes "What happens when a film studio and a fanbase get into bed? Fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly, and the movie by Universal Studios — Serenity — are not amused. After being encouraged to viral market Serenity, the studio has started legal action against fans (demanding $9000 in retroactive licensing fees in one case and demanding fan promotion stop), and going after Cafepress. The fans response? Retroactively invoice Universal for their services."

Comments

Mod parent up

[Exsam]

This isnt about some guy spreading the word about Serenity and getting sued for it. This is about some jerk trying to profit by selling Serenity T-shirts on Cafepress and Universal rightfully protecting their IP and then whining about it when they bring the hammer down. That said if you're looking for some really good SciFi go ahead and start watching Battlestar Galactica, I personally think its even better then Firefly; which is impressive in and of itself.

Re:Some people are just ... stupid.

[BrianRoach]

This is one of several comments that assert that since Universal own the IP and there was no format agreement, then Universal were completely right to c&d and even bill their volunteers. Sad loser geeks eh?

Yes. That is exactly correct.

If you do not have explicit permission from the copyright holder, you are SOL. Ignorance is not an excuse for violating copyright. Thinking you have some implicit right is also not an excuse. That's why there's a law that covers what your rights are and aren't.

While I generally abhore what the RIAA/MPAA are doing these days, and think there are some real problems with copyright laws in the US ... this isn't one of those cases.

- Roach

I have a solution

[cryfreedomlove]

Good morning everyone. I have a solution to this problem with your frustration over how Universal is handling their property.

Create an alternative that has the same potential and then market it in the way you want. Create a great story, acquire the financing needed to produce the film, produce the film on time and in budget, and then let your fans virally market the film.

What's stopping you? If you practice what you preach with property that you own then perhaps your example will convince Universal to do the same with their property.

Re:Oh bullshit

[LunarCrisis]

There is a line between blogging about the movie and showing trailers on your web site, and marketing licensable items (like shirts). The first two are viral advertising, the latter is, well, marketing something that someone else owns as your own products.

From the fucking article:

Members were encouraged to form regional groups to promote the film and perform activities that would help generate word of mouth, like creating bumper stickers and gift cards to accompany the DVD release.

I don't see any mention of marketing t-shirts as viral advertising.

Why should T-shirts be any different from bumper stickers? They are both licensable and are both worn advertisements. It seems only logical that such a link would be seen as implied.

Now while I generally think of movie executives as dick heads, but to be fare, they put up a lot of money to finance a movie that returned not so much. If they make a few million dollars on this, then good for them. They put up US$39 million dollars in production costs, around US$15 million in advertising costs, and about US$8.5 million in distribution costs. The film made US$38.3 million GROSS at the box office (meaning before the theaters take their cut)

Excuse me, but you aren't showing the whole picture. From the very next paragraph of the article:

While the theatrical release of Serenity met only modest success at the box office, the Browncoats campaign maintained momentum through the DVD release, whose success spurred additional sales of the original Firefly DVD. At one point following the release of Serenity on DVD, both Serenity and Firefly were #1 and #2 on Amazon.com's bestseller list despite the Firefly DVD being over a year old.

Okay, and finally:

Man on the street to another guy: "Excuse me, but do you know what time it is?"
Second guy: "It's three P.M."
First guy: "Thank you... and I really really like your watch... I want to sell it to that guy over there."
Second guy: "What? Excuse me, it is my watch, I paid for it."
First guy (gathers a mob around him): "We don't care. We want it , and we're going to sell it."

No. Judging by the way you are portraying copyright violation as property theft, you are either being fooled by all of the industry's "intellectual property" bullshit or you are trying to propogate it. The laws governing physical property and the laws governing copyrighted works are completely different.
Even leaving that aside, the situations are completely different, Universal asked for this.

But I still think that showing trailers on your web site is one thing and selling someone else's idea as your own is another.

So what you are telling me is that people sold this merchandise all while telling people that they had created Serenity? Unless that is the case, that opinion is irrelevant to the situation.

bullshit arguments

[XdevXnull]

I'm pretty sure you DON'T have to ask when the owner TELLS you it's ok:

Man on the street to another guy: "Excuse me, but do you know what time it is?"
Second guy: "It's three P.M."
First guy: "Thank you... and I really really like your watch..."
Second Guy: "Hey, I'm trying to promote these watches. You wanna help by creating blogs and other merch to get people interested?"
First Guy: "Sure! I'll make a t-shirt with a picture of the fucking minute hand on it and sell it on my website!"
Second guy: "Ohhhhh....well, I'm glad that I could spark your creativity. Good luck, and thanks for doing my job for free! (shakes second guy's hand, walks away, calls lawyer on cell phone) "Sydney! This is Dick Trickle, from Universal. He took the bait. Fire up the goon squad and start litigating the hell out of these shmucks.