Forgive my foggy brain. If Susan is in the legal wrong of it, what's the brouhaha?
I'm insanely devoted to fandom, and I like Susan personally a great deal (she is a fantastic artist), but she seems clearly in the wrong.
The marketing bill is amusing, but from an ethical standpoint (my own ethical standpoint) promoting the thing you love comes with no strings attached.
There was an amount of exploitation in Universal's own campaign that fed the beast by giving fans a sense of ownership over the flick. I have an ethics issues with that, and feel that Universal should quietly settle the matter because they look foolish.
which have nothing to do with shirts, which is the issue at hand
I'm confused. Didn't Strega bring that up to counter your refutation of her B5 point?
She did, but it doesn't counter it - whilst it says JMS doesn't like bootleg DVDs, RPGs and such, it doesn't mention shirts. Now, maybe I'm wrong on that score and he doesn't like them. I don't know. I'll mail him.
Allyson, I'm not convinced Susan *is* clearly in the wrong. She debatably was, but as it stands her work isn't referencing Firefly/Serenity, isn't linked to on her site and doesn't contain any copyrighted work. In an ideal world Universal's law firm would quietly drop the issue, or go after one of the 3150 other shirts available: [link]
Allyson, I'm not convinced Susan *is* clearly in the wrong. She debatably was, but as it stands her work isn't referencing Firefly/Serenity, isn't linked to on her site and doesn't contain any copyrighted work.
As it stands now.
What keeps discombobulating me is that some fans seem to be arguing that since she complied with the C&D, she's exonerated from having to pay the licensing fee. I'm not understanding that part of it. Why doesn't she have to pay? What's the reasoning?
She did make money off the violating material before the C&D, right?
So she should have to pay.
It seems pretty simple to me.
Because the studio arguably encouraged it, in my mind.
There's many examples. When Serenity was in release in the UK, Universal UK gave me approximately 30 shirts to give away for the UK Serenity site. The ones they gave me were ordered from Cafepress.
Universal's lawyers gave Susan a C&D, which is an indication to stop (obviously), and she did.
Also, regarding the old designs, I'll dig them out. But they were not Serenity logos, Serenity characters etc. I think the one at issue had the rear end of the ship visible, from memory.
3) Universal used the artwork in question on their Serenity prepublicity material for SERENITY. Also, without permission from the designer. It's also visible on the SERENITY DVD. Without permission.
Kevin's wrong on this point. Anything you did on the Serenity site you were giving Universal permission for its further use. For that matter, did you attend one of the screenings? Just going in the door you gave Universal permission to use your likeness. There were big signs and everything.
Not in the UK, Mikey. I should know - I helped organise and sold the screening tickets in the UK for Universal. Also, I helped them run the US website, and I don't think they claimed copyright on posts - I'll check.
