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."

Serenity

[56ker]

If anyone doesn't think viral marketing works - then they should read this. The first I heard about Serenity was on a friend's blog. I think they'd got into a preview screening on the basis that they'd blog about it. I then watched the first eight minutes of it which was being shown to promote the film and enjoyed it. I then went to see the film and enjoyed it and thought it was worth it too.

There are very few films I go see at the cinema and because I don't have a TV most of the promotions for them pass me by - and a lot don't appeal.

Rule number one:

[Zadaz]

Don't annoy someone who has more spare time than you do.

And this group has a lot of spare time and energy and has shown they'll fight for something they believe in.

But of course no one is required to have any social literacy to head a major corporation. Obviously.

Re:Serenity

[Zarniwoop_Editor]

Step 1: Get fans to promote us
Step 2: Allow viral marketing to create a demand for our product
Step 3: Sue the people from step 1
Step 4: Profit!

This has to be the most cynical thing I've ever seen.

Well, the thing is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, having only briefly looked it over... I think what Universal is objecting to is this knucklehead selling merchandise for profit, utilizing their images. This isn't promoting the film, this is promoting his bank account. If I am reading it correctly, they're not telling him to stop promoting the film, they're telling him to stop promoting his products using their IP.

So, well, what's the problem?

Re:Serenity

[Anonymous Coward]

This has to be the most cynical thing I've ever seen.

Meanwhile thousands of people died of famine and war.

you gotta be kidding me

[fontkick]

So a guy decides to print up some Serenity t-shirts and sell them on cafe press, and is surprised when he gets sued by Universal. How braindead can you be? Viral marketing means putting a mention of Firefly/Serenity on your website with a link to Amazon.

That said, bring back Firefly. Best sci-fi series since ST:TNG in my opinion.

Re:Money Money Money / Must be funny...

[garylian]

I don't think resources are an issue for the fan base. They've already shown a willingness to go to bat for a show/movie they liked, and did it all for free.

It can be pretty amazing what people can accomplish out of pure passion for the work, as opposed to the profit to be made from it. In this case, the fans are more than willing to make the effort. The question is, will it be for or against Universal releases of the future?

If it goes against, there could be some problems for future TV and movies from Universal, as this loyal block will remember and potentially boycott. Universal knows that the potential loss of revenue from a rabid base of fans in that much coveted "18-35 male without an understanding of credit card debt" demographic would be something advertisers would look at closely. It would certainly cost them more than the 9,000 they are looking for in liscensing fees.

Then again, the MPAA and RIAA are dumb enough to cut off the hands that feed them all the time. Why should this be any different?

Re:Serenity

[Maestro4k]

If anyone doesn't think viral marketing works - then they should read this. The first I heard about Serenity was on a friend's blog. I think they'd got into a preview screening on the basis that they'd blog about it. I then watched the first eight minutes of it which was being shown to promote the film and enjoyed it. I then went to see the film and enjoyed it and thought it was worth it too.

It was indeed a great viral marketing campaign, and most of the people/groups who participated will either be directly affected by Universal's actions (by getting a letter from Universal's lawyers) or know someone who was (often through being participants on a site that has been targeted). The thing that Universal isn't considering is that viral marketing can work to put out the negative word at least as easily as it puts out the positive ones. (It's likely it will be even more effective because people that are mad about something tend to complain to more people than they would if they were complementing something.) This will affect the sales of Serenity going forward, but Universal probably doesn't care about that as they've made the majority of the money from it already (or at least they think they have). I don't think it'll stop there though, people are going to look up what current and future stuff (as well as past titles) Universal owns, and they're going to tell others what those are and what Universal has done to fans of Serenity. It's going to have a financial impact, although it's hard to say how big of one. Univeral's throwing away future income here. I know I'm not going to be going to see any of their movies or buying any of their DVDs from now on and I doubt I'm alone.

Of course Universal will attribute any drop in sales to piracy and never figure out it's their own damn fault.

Some people are just ... stupid.

[BrianRoach]

Sorry, but that seems to be the sad truth.

Somehow, because they volunteered to promote a movie for little or no compensation, they think they have some right to personally profit from selling merchandise which uses the IP from that movie without getting permission or paying a licensing fee.

This is one of those cases there copyright is working exactly as it is supposed to.

- Roach

Main point

[TrisexualPuppy]

For Universal, don't mess with the kind of people who have a lotttt more spare time than you do. The group is the kind of group that *will* get into a good television show (especially as good as Firefly was). These fans were and still are super-dedicated to the show and have and will have a lot of energy to spare for the show that is practically their religion.

However, that being said, Universal will disregard everything that they (and anyone else) do. It's going to take a hot poker to get Universal to do anything pro-consumer. Remember, all of the decisions are made by a group of women and men sitting at a table trying to figure out how to maximize profit. And that they are going to try to do, even if they are shortsighted about it.

Re:Well, the thing is...

[Warlokk]

But if you read even a little (I know, I know, it's Slashdot), he points out he isn't using ANY of their property or images, he's using his original work and just making references to Serenity/Firefly in the text on the site. Their objection includes even MENTIONING their property on his website... which is, of course, ridiculous.

Wrong interpretation!

[Wylfing]

This is the clue bat. This is your head. This is the clue bat hitting your head.

As others have already pointed out, it's not copacetic to sell merchandise like that. You think you can start selling Star Wars t-shirts and Lucasfilm will be OK with that? Not likely.

But that is entirely beside the point. The point is that Universal believes this is a valuable franchise, and acts to protect it. They are not trying to shut down the fan community. Simply, there are people at Universal who think a Serenity sequel is a possibility, and they want to maintain control over that so when they fund the next movie they're going to get a proper ROI. That is all.

It's basically good news that they want to defend this.

Re:Serenity

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to be confusing "cynical" with "tragic".

Re:The Second Sundering?

[BrianRoach]

I really can't understand why they would seek to alienate the fan base this way.
If Universal aren't planning on making another movie, then there is no reason that they shouldn't allow the fans they're 'memorabilia'.
If they are, why go after the fans who will only be driving more people in to see the sequel?

They're not going after fans. They're going after people stealing their IP for personal profit.

I'm quite sure you can buy your "memorabilia" from them (Universal). You know ... the ones who actually own the rights to sell it to you.

Or, you can buy it from someone ripping off the studio and selling it without a license for personal gain. Your Call.

Want to sell the stuff? $9k sounds like a pretty reasonable license fee. I'm quite sure the companies that license IP from other movies/sports/etc pay a LOT more.

- Roach

Re:you gotta be kidding me

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually his t-shirts are just the chinese characters, drawn by him, that translate as "serenity". No pictures or artwork from the movie at all. Think Universal should be able to control the expression of single word? (as opposed to a substantial quote from a movie)

Totally wrong, not a grassroots effort at all

[BeeBeard]

Sure, we can all agree to that, but you miss my point about legal protection. Unlike the labor of fans, it takes money to buy the labor of lawyers. Promoting something by posting about it on your free personal blog about how you like it is not even close to the same ballpark as filing a motion in court. Not even close. This community you are so fond of has yet to pool together money to mount a legal defense--it is only free time they have pooled. And like it or not, money and labor are not the same thing. And who is going to pony up the money to pay the legal professionals who can actually help them wriggle out of this problem? Mr. Free Blog Post? Probably not. It's a very real problem that cannot be glossed over by fandom.

Not only that, but if you read the copy of the email that was sent, it seems that Universal's issue is with the unlicensed sale of shirts. Hmm let's see...selling something for profit like a shirt is hardly the benevolent, grassroots effort that it's being made out to be. It's making that sweet merchandising money off of a property you absolutely don't own and have no right to profit from in that manner. For a community that loves the GPL and loves to espouse rhetoric such as "You can only license something you own", Slashdot sure does want to have its cake and eat it too. I would rate seeking compensation for unlicensed clothing as something no less petty than, say, demanding that "GNU" precede the word "Linux" in the name of an operating system.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to say that to me this speaks to a greater problem that I see in the business world. The overwhelming number of bad managers that seem to be running things. When I worked for RadioShack (canada) I saw the company run into the ground by a managment team who was completely incompetent. I predicted that the company would be bought out by walmart, and 2 years later it was bought out by circuit city. Now that I work in health care, I watch a well conceived system collapse under inept management. And to see all these studios, be they movie or music, completely unable to adapt to the changing landscape. I have to ask my self, "how, and why, did we end up with such incompetent management up in the ivory tower?"

Why should anyone be shocked?

[Anonymous Coward]

Universal paid for the DMCA. Why is anyone shocked that they wouldn't use it?

Any calls for boycott will be forgotten when the new movie you want to see is being shown. Just like it has always been.

Re:The Fans are Wrong

[eskayp]

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one." (Bushwhacked)

Re:Oh bullshit

[Belial6]

yes it is a troll.

1) When it comes to advertising, t-shirts are indeed... "like creating bumper stickers and gift cards"

2) 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 make our own and sell it."
Second guy: "Ohhhhh....well, I'm glad that I could spark your creativity. Good luck. (shakes second guy's hand)

Re:Serenity

[Pharmboy]

The movie didn't bomb. It wasn't a smash success, granted, but it did mediocre at the boxoffice and very well with DVD sales, as did the one and only season with DVD sales. According to IMDB [imdb.com], it cost $40 mil to make and made about $39mil worldwide, plus an unknown amount in DVD sales. They didn't get rich, but they made money. It would have helped if they actually promoted the movie, and if the new Fox execs who cancelled the series (after showing it out of order at different times) were not such asshats.

And speaking of viral marketing, it was on a Slashdot poll that I first heard of Serenity. Went and watched the first episode of the series (the real first, not what the network aired first), got hooked, bought the DVDs. Viral marketing at it's finest, as a silly poll produced a customer that bought both the movie DVD and the complete first season DVD set.

Re:Oh bullshit

[eno2001]

Quit being stupid.

THIS is NOT what we're talking about here: "We don't care. We want it , and we're going to make our own and sell it."

If it were, the t-shirts would have been "spin-offs" from the original. They would have been more like Fan Fiction, in that they would have featured NEW characters that didn't exist in the original. They would have had different names instead of Firefly or FIrefly related names. THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN HERE. Wake up and stop decieving yourself.

Re:I've never seen firefly

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

if sitting down to watch a mediocre sci fi show is a requirement for a lame 2 hour movie after paying 8 bucks...

Fuck Joss Whedon

Re:Wrong interpretation!

[DrJimbo]

Right back at ya.

The key point IMO is that Universal allowed their trademarks to be infringed when the infringement served as "free advertising". Universal is not allowed to come back now and try to retroactively enforce their trademarks. In the legal world, this is called estoppel [wikipedia.org]:

1. [Universal] has done or said something to induce an expectation
2. The [Browncoats] relied (reasonably) on the expectation...
3. ...and would suffer detriment if that expectation were false.

It is perfectly copacetic to sell merchandise like this as long as the trademark owner knows about it and does nothing. It is not copacetic for Universal to come back now, years later, and try to change the ground rules upon which people have developed a business model.

I also disagree with your interpretation that this indicates Universal is considering a sequel. I think it indicates the exact opposite: they've given up on a sequel and are now trying to wring the last few pennies out of the franchise on its way to the trash heap. If Universal were planning for a sequel then they would have wanted to encourage the fan-base buzz, not squash it.

Someone is going to have to hit Universal with a cluestick before they realize that the "legal bootleg" nature of the fan merchandising was a significant factor in its success. I almost never buy logo-wear but I've bought several items from Blue Sun Shirts [bluesunshirts.com]. I'm sorry they've been shut down because I would have continued to buy things from them. There is no way in Hell that I'd buy any Firefly merchandise from Universal now. The actions of the fans mimicked the actions of the heros in the series and the movie. Universal got cool points for letting these small businesses prosper. Now Universal is acting like the evil Alliance.

Re:Missing the point

[kaltkalt]

All they are ever shown, and all they see, are fallacious reports and charts showing how much money they "have lost" and "will continue to lose" due to copyright infringement. Just like the RIAA and MPAA, they guestimate how many times people download their movies, and multiply that number (which itself is probably twice the actual amount) by the price at which they sell or plan to sell their movies. This figure is presented to management as their losses. Obviously these figures are bullshit as it is based on two false assumptions. First, that nobody buys a product after downloading it. Second, that every download is an actual lost sale (that is, the downloader would have purchased the product had he/she not downloaded it). Both of these assumptions are false, particularly when dealing with a movie/tv show with a very dedicated cult following. But if you were a wrinkly, fat, 97 year-old white billionaire with liver spots all over your face and severe prostate issues, and you were told your company was losing 75 billion dollars every month due to product "theft" you'd react the exact same way these Universal execs did. You can't be out of touch if you're misinformed ab initio.

Re:Snakes on a Plane

[jafuser]

Except the issue here isn't with the C&D. The C&D came and was complied with well before the second message demanding a retroactive $9k in licensing fees, to close their entire store permanently, and logs of the last 12 months of sales.