Publication Date: 1/15/19

You've probably already heard about this thing happening, so I won't rehash it again. Reddit blew up over this yesterday, so anyone there has already seen the immense hate directed at Disney (NOT LucasFilm, DISNEY) over their copyright claim of Star Wars Theory's (SWT's) Vader fan film.

(Quick note: I like the fan film and thought it was good for what it was worth. Let's go on though.)

The video above explains it, but I'll sum it up real quick. Prior to making the fan-film, SWT went to Lucasfilm and asked if he could crowd-fund for it and make money off of it. LucasFilm said no, but that if he could scramble the resources anyway he could still make it as long as it wasn't monetized. Then, lo and behold....Disney files a copyright claim on it, and now they are making money off of it.

In most cases I say to the fandom, "Get the kriff over yourselves", but in this case I think the hate is totally justified. This was a dirtbag move by Disney for several reasons. First: SWT wasn't making ANY money off of this fan-film. NONE. It'd be different if he was, but he isn't. Second: this money that Disney is making off of the fan-film is mere pennies compared to their total profit. It's so greedy and double-handed for them to insist that they take credit for something that they didn't create. And while they may have rights to Vader, since he's part of Star Wars, they do NOT get to take someone else's fanfiction and make money off of it. Imagine if Abel Peña started demanding that TLQ bring him in money when I am making none off of it! Wouldn't that be disrespectful to me when I've spent countless hours of time and energy working on it? It would also seem selfish and greedy. And that's what it looks like here.

Disney is causing yet another massive rift in the fandom. Whether you like it or not, they've already done it before: first with the EU decanonization, then with TLJ. In most cases I say ignore the fans and do what makes a good story, but this is on a different level of disgusting. SWT's fan film was maybe the only thing keeping us united after TLJ, and Disney is yet again rocking the boat. I see this as a very unwise move on their part, but hopefully they'll recognize their mistake at some point once it comes in the form of trading our money for the money they'll be making off of SWT's fan-film.