Disney Arrogance

[leebase]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Why do you assume that? Other professional associations and unions get involved in cases that are at best shaky legally.

I'm not saying that Disney doesn't owe him, I'm simply saying that in the case of a work for hire, it's not obvious that they do and I find it very strange that over the course of 8 years, he hasn't initiated legal action.

None of us are lawyers...and even if we were, we don't have access to the contracts.

However, it APPEARS that he was receiving ongoing payments from Lucas for the books he wrote. Work product or not, the agreement must not have been "here's x dollars, write a book and go away".

Disney bought Lucas...and stopped paying the author....but still sell the books he wrote.

Something smells.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by leebase

None of us are lawyers...and even if we were, we don't have access to the contracts.

However, it APPEARS that he was receiving ongoing payments from Lucas for the books he wrote. Work product or not, the agreement must not have been "here's x dollars, write a book and go away".

Disney bought Lucas...and stopped paying the author....but still sell the books he wrote.

Something smells.

Exactly.
He's not complaining about the terms of the contract he signed (like, say Lois Smith re: Vampire Diaries) but about Disney not living up to the contract they bought and refusing to privately address their obligations.

Hence he goes public and SFWA joins in to applify his "megaphone".
A single writer might be confused and easily dismissed, but a professional association vetting and supporting his claims isn't.

Something definitely stinks.
Contracts do not typically expire if sold to a third party; Disney bought the IP, they bought the obligations.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by leebase

None of us are lawyers...and even if we were, we don't have access to the contracts.

However, it APPEARS that he was receiving ongoing payments from Lucas for the books he wrote. Work product or not, the agreement must not have been "here's x dollars, write a book and go away".

Disney bought Lucas...and stopped paying the author....but still sell the books he wrote.

Something smells.

And yet he wrote the novelization for The Force Awakens. Why do that in 2015 when Disney hasn't paid you royalties for 3 years?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Exactly.
He's not complaining about the terms of the contract he signed (like, say Lois Smith re: Vampire Diaries) but about Disney not living up to the contract they bought and refusing to privately address their obligations.

Hence he goes public and SFWA joins in to applify his "megaphone".
A single writer might be confused and easily dismissed, but a professional association vetting and supporting his claims isn't.

Something definitely stinks.
Contracts do not typically expire if sold to a third party; Disney bought the IP, they bought the obligations.

As I've said before, it's entirely possible to buy the IP without buying the contracts that created that IP. Happens all the time in Hollywood.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

As I've said before, it's entirely possible to buy the IP without buying the contracts that created that IP. Happens all the time in Hollywood.

Only if the original contract assigned the IP in the first place. The whole point here is that these weren't works for hire where the copyright belongs to the commissioning company, but were licensed from the creator and copyright holder, Alan Dean Foster.

You can't buy a licence and then assert that the terms of the licence don't apply to you.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You can't buy a licence and then assert that the terms of the licence don't apply to you.

Or if you can, I can buy a licence to view a Disney film, and then sell that licence to someone else, who can then copy and resell the film without paying Disney anything.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Only if the original contract assigned the IP in the first place. The whole point here is that these weren't works for hire where the copyright belongs to the commissioning company, but were licensed from the creator and copyright holder, Alan Dean Foster.

You can't buy a licence and then assert that the terms of the licence don't apply to you.

Well, no, that's not true. I have both books and Foster isn't listed as the copyright holder in either case. George Lucas has the copyright for the original Star Wars novelization and the Star Wars Corporation is the copyright holder for Splinter in the Mind's Eye.

As I keep saying, both books are works for hire and thus are contract issues rather than copyright issues.