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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2020 0:59:41 GMT -5
SFWA articleIn short, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Fox Studios, they acquired the rights to Foster's novelizations of the films and sequels like Star Wars, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Alien, Aliens, etc.. They have kept the books in print, but not paid Foster any royalties for those books. Their argument seems to be they acquired the rights to the products but not the former owners liabilities for the products (such as paying creators money owed for creating such products), which amounts to a load of crap essentially. Disney has ignored attempts to communicate about the issue form Foster, his agent and representation and the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America), so now the SFWA is going public to see if other authors have similar experiences with Disney (possibly a prelude for a class action lawsuit?). The linked article is to the SFWA page and includes Foster's open letter to Disney. -M
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 19, 2020 5:16:47 GMT -5
Greedy f***ers.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,201 
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Post by Confessor on Nov 19, 2020 6:12:39 GMT -5
Greedy, cheating f***ers. Fixed it for ya! ^^ Yeah, really uncool of Disney. |
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Post by brutalis on Nov 19, 2020 7:38:54 GMT -5
Is anyone surprised? Their MASCOT is a rat. That should be a warning sign for everyone.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 19, 2020 7:58:53 GMT -5
SFWA articleIn short, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Fox Studios, they acquired the rights to Foster's novelizations of the films and sequels like Star Wars, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Alien, Aliens, etc.. They have kept the books in print, but not paid Foster any royalties for those books. Their argument seems to be they acquired the rights to the products but not the former owners liabilities for the products (such as paying creators money owed for creating such products), which amounts to a load of crap essentially. Disney has ignored attempts to communicate about the issue form Foster, his agent and representation and the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America), so now the SFWA is going public to see if other authors have similar experiences with Disney (possibly a prelude for a class action lawsuit?). The linked article is to the SFWA page and includes Foster's open letter to Disney. -M Okay, that's their greedy argument... but I don't think their opinion matters as far as contracts go. Foster's original contract seems to have included royalties, and although I'm no lawyer, I always thought that when you buy a company you get what it owns but also what it owes. Foster seems to thin the same. A lawsuit does seem to be in order if Disney is trying to pull a fast one on the author. Here's hoping the man can get every penny he's entitled to (plus punishing damages). Just those two pages of introduction to the Star Wars novelization were way more interesting than the entire prequel trilogy! |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,201
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Post by Confessor on Nov 19, 2020 11:31:01 GMT -5
Just those two pages of introduction to the Star Wars novelization were way more interesting than the entire prequel trilogy! This is so true. That excerpt from The Journal of the Whills before chapter 1 began used to really fire my imagination as a kid. Loved it! "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes." -- Leia Organa of Alderaan, Senator. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2020 14:17:11 GMT -5
SFWA articleIn short, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Fox Studios, they acquired the rights to Foster's novelizations of the films and sequels like Star Wars, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Alien, Aliens, etc.. They have kept the books in print, but not paid Foster any royalties for those books. Their argument seems to be they acquired the rights to the products but not the former owners liabilities for the products (such as paying creators money owed for creating such products), which amounts to a load of crap essentially. Disney has ignored attempts to communicate about the issue form Foster, his agent and representation and the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America), so now the SFWA is going public to see if other authors have similar experiences with Disney (possibly a prelude for a class action lawsuit?). The linked article is to the SFWA page and includes Foster's open letter to Disney. -M Okay, that's their greedy argument... but I don't think their opinion matters as far as contracts go. Foster's original contract seems to have included royalties, and although I'm no lawyer, I always thought that when you buy a company you get what it owns but also what it owes. Foster seems to thin the same. A lawsuit does seem to be in order if Disney is trying to pull a fast one on the author. Here's hoping the man can get every penny he's entitled to (plus punishing damages). Just those two pages of introduction to the Star Wars novelization were way more interesting than the entire prequel trilogy! The problem is it takes money to mount a lawsuit, often more than the remuneration for winning would be worth when facing a large corporation like Disney, making them Pyrrhic victories at best. I think that is why the SFWA has gone public despite their typical policy of keeping these things anonymous-for twofold reasons: 1)To let people know it is happening and try Disney in the court of public opinion to try to get a resolution without mounting court costs, and 2)to see if it is happening to other creators as well and if those creators will step forward to join with Foster's legal team to create a class action suit which spreads the costs of legal action among a greater number of people and increases the potential payout making the legal costs of such an endeavor less onerous. But we'll see. -M |
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 19, 2020 14:22:11 GMT -5
There seems to be a bit of confusion about some of this, he wrote books based on another's intellectual property, but I bought a couple of them back then when they first came out and his name was prominently shown as author. These are in no sense ghost written. Whatever the contract details were for them before Disney should go with them. Does anyone have any insight into Disney doing anything like this with reprinting comic books? It used to be I think that the Disney owned comics were produced by an actual employee with benefits and regular pay, not freelance, and then they started using freelancers on newer comics where they (not Gladstone) were the publisher in the '90s. Have there been issues with any of those freelancers' contracts in terms of any reprints of that material? It's one thing to be lax in finding someone to pay them, that's a common 'out' some companies use, but Alan Dean Foster has been knocking on their door. I hope this gets corrected... I can't imagine Disney having actual ignorance of regular publishing norms, and ignorance is never innocence anyway.
All the junk about the mouse though strikes me as sort of cornball and might rub some as unprofessional or not serious. Many of these big company types are going to be million lightyears away from any of that kind of fannish stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2020 14:33:24 GMT -5
One hopes that the attention can get some sort of arrangement done that will benefit Mr. Foster.
His novelizations and work on many franchises that I love have made him an integral part of my fandom.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2020 14:37:55 GMT -5
There seems to be a bit of confusion about some of this, he wrote books based on another's intellectual property, but I bought a couple of them back then when they first came out and his name was prominently shown as author. These are in no sense ghost written. Whatever the contract details were for them before Disney should go with them. Does anyone have any insight into Disney doing anything like this with reprinting comic books? It used to be I think that the Disney owned comics were produced by an actual employee with benefits and regular pay, not freelance, and then they started using freelancers on newer comics where they (not Gladstone) were the publisher in the '90s. Have there been issues with any of those freelancers' contracts in terms of any reprints of that material? It's one thing to be lax in finding someone to pay them, that's a common 'out' some companies use, but Alan Dean Foster has been knocking on their door. I hope this gets corrected... I can't imagine Disney having actual ignorance of regular publishing norms, and ignorance is never innocence anyway. All the junk about the mouse though strikes me as sort of cornball and might rub some as unprofessional or not serious. Many of these big company types are going to be million lightyears away from any of that kind of fannish stuff. The novelization of the original Star Wars (Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker) has always been published under George Lucas's name, even though Foster wrote it. That's where the ghostwrite part comes from. Lucas himself has never been shy about crediting Foster. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 19, 2020 14:47:01 GMT -5
I'd forgotten about that original Star Wars novelization, I misremembered a Han Solo book as being Foster's too when it wasn't. Now I wonder if they've done the same to Brian Daley who wrote the Han Solo At Stars' End and Lost Legacy books which came out around the same time as Foster's Splinter Of The Mind's Eye.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 19, 2020 15:06:49 GMT -5
Just those two pages of introduction to the Star Wars novelization were way more interesting than the entire prequel trilogy! This is so true. That excerpt from The Journal of the Whills before chapter 1 began used to really fire my imagination as a kid. Loved it! "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes." -- Leia Organa of Alderaan, Senator. Great quote! That reminds me that Foster also novelized Star Trek : The Motion Picture, and the first few pages describing how the Mediterranean had been dammed really gripped my imagination. What great world-building. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 19, 2020 16:53:26 GMT -5
I'm allowing Claude Rains to speak for me.
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Post by Cei-U! on Nov 19, 2020 18:08:26 GMT -5
Disney has been screwing over the owners of Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh for decades to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, so why would they think twice about screwing over ADF?
Cei-U!
I summon the SOP!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2020 18:30:48 GMT -5
This is so true. That excerpt from The Journal of the Whills before chapter 1 began used to really fire my imagination as a kid. Loved it! "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes." -- Leia Organa of Alderaan, Senator. Great quote! That reminds me that Foster also novelized Star Trek : The Motion Picture, and the first few pages describing how the Mediterranean had been dammed really gripped my imagination. What great world-building. Funny enough, he wrote the screen story treatment for the motion picture when he adapted a Gene Roddenberry idea into "In Thy Image" for the pilot of the aborted Star Trek: Phase II. In a strange twist of events, Roddenberry wrote the novelization itself. |
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