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MrNexx
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 Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:58 am Post subject: Star Wars Author Alan Dean Foster Being Denied Royalties |
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https://mickeyblog.com/2020/11/18/veteran-star-wars-author-alan-dean-foster-being-denied-royalties-from-disney/
| Quote: | MickeyBlog.com
STAR WARS0
Veteran Star Wars Author Alan Dean Foster Being Denied Royalties From Disney
BY ROSIE VILLEDA · NOVEMBER 18, 2020
Veteran Star Wars author Alan Dean Foster is currently in a battle with Disney about failure to pay royalty payments, after an initial inquiry dating back from 2019 being ignored.
Foster is the novelist behind multiple of the Star Wars novels, including the novelization of Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and even the first original novel included in the Star Wars universe, “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye”.
Disney has continued to ignore communication efforts from multiple different people about this matter, including Foster’s agent, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and legal representatives, Foster claims.
“When you purchased Lucasfilm you acquired the rights to some books I wrote,” explained Foster in a statement addressed to Disney. “Star Wars, the novelization of the very first film. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the first sequel novel. You owe me royalties on these books. You stopped paying them.”
Foster is also owed royalties from his novelizations of three films from the Alien franchise, a franchise which the Walt Disney Company acquired when 20th Century Fox was purchased. Foster goes on to say Disney have “never paid royalties on any of these, or even issued royalty statements for them.”.
Disney is currently proclaiming that during the purchases of Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox, “that they have purchased the rights but not the obligations of the contract.” and are using this as a defense against Foster claims SWFA President, Mary Robinette Kowal.
Things take a sad turn as Foster reveals he was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer in 2016 and his wife is currently dealing with ongoing medical issues also. He states “We could use the money. Not charity: just what I’m owed.”.
Kowel is asking fans of Foster’s work to inform Disney if they feel Foster, and any author, should be compensated for the work they put out there by using the hashtags #DearMickey and #DisneyMustPay." |
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Whill
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:12 am Post subject: |
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On a somewhat related note, here's a link where L. Neil Smith said he had to sue George's Lucasfilm back in the day just to first start getting royalties for his Lando books. He has mixed feelings about George's Lucasfilm, but he hates Disney with a passion! Disney has republished his books with the legends label but Smith never mentioned Disney owing him anything.
https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/07/23/star-wars-and-lando-calrissian-author-l-neil-smith-has-nothing-but-uttermost-contempt-for-walt-disneys-successors/
Disney should have to honor all contracts made by the companies it buys.
I've read all four of Alan Dean Foster's Star Wars novels. None of them were great (but his AToC prelude novel 'When Animals Attack Jedi' was definitely the worst). I kinda want to read the original film's novelization again though.
TFA novelization was Disney in the first place, and there was a Legends reprint of the AotC prelude novel, but he must be getting paid for those because in his complaint Foster only refers to the '76 and '78 books for owed royalties. I don't think the original Star Wars novelization has been republished by Disney (they produced new junior novelizations of the classic films by different authors). But there definitely was a "Legends" label reprint of Splinter of the Mind's Eye published by Disney, so I would think Disney might at least have to pay him royalties for that.
I wonder why Foster didn't try to get paid for unpaid SotME royalties when he contracted with them for TFA. Did SotME just not realize at the time that payment stopped for that book years prior to that? Or did he not want to sour the TFA deal, hoping to bring this up later? Why this much later? The article indicate that the SWFA President stated Disney is citing that "that they have purchased the rights but not the obligations of the contract." I could not find where Disney has made any public comments about this yet, so at this point this may just be someone stating Disney said something to them.
Now if there was a clause in the original contract that allowed for this situation if Lucasfilm would ever be sold, I can see that maybe Disney has a legal out. Foster was contracted to write SotME before the original film was a smash hit. It is well documented that SotME was written as a potential low budget sequel to Star Wars should the movie bomb. Foster was even told to cut out a big space battle he had at the beginning of the novel because it would cost to much to produce in film form. Maybe Lucasfilm also put the clause about future owners of the company not owing royalties also just in case Star Wars bombed. I can see something like that being an attractive feature to a future potential buyer. Foster doesn't bring up the original contact(s) for the first two books. His complaint seems to be be based primarily on that fact that he noticed at some point that the checks just stopped coming for those books.
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:19 am Post subject: |
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I saw a mention on another post about this about how dangerous this line of reasoning is.
Let's say I get control of the Star Wars IP. I contract with shootingwomprats to produce his novel sourcebooks, and I cut him a sweet contract... huge royalties, but a relatively small front-end to compensate.
I then sell the rights to Star Wars to Whill, who runs a sister company that is not actually my company. And, now, we don't owe shootingwomprats anything. Because Whill bought the rights, not the obligations.
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Xain Arke
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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If this is Disney's stand on contractual obligations, then no writers or artist that aren't employed directly by them, should work for them
Duck Fisney |
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MrNexx
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Whill
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | I saw a mention on another post about this about how dangerous this line of reasoning is. |
I understood your first post but I'm not sure if you read my whole post. I wasn't at all speaking to the morality of the practice of not honoring royalty contracts, and I was only speculating on the legalities. Disney themselves have not made any public responses about this as far as I know. We have heresy about Disney's response from from an advocate of the primary complainant which may or may not be accurate. There are some information holes about this story that don't give us a complete picture.
Of course, all companies purchasing other companies morally should honor contracts made by prior companies. AFAIK, they are legally required to as well, and the alleged 'dangerous line of reasoning' would not hold up in court. One mere possibility I mentioned is that Foster's original contract(s) specified that Lucas selling Lucasfilm to another company would negate royalty requirements of the new company. Moral or not, if Foster signed to that then he would have no legal claim. This doesn't mention his original contract. At some unclear point in time, Foster noticed the royalty checks stopped coming for his first two books. Does he even have a copy of his original contract? Who knows?
I am not defending Disney or the alleged 'dangerous line of reasoning' Disney has been accused of (without an supporting documentation as of yet). I'd really love to see them give an official public response to this. I mean, it is a bad PR issue with Foster battling cancer and Disney not stating why they aren't paying (if it is true they aren't, which I have no reason to doubt but we don't know for sure unless Disney states a public excuse).
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TauntaunScout
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:51 am Post subject: |
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Ha ha ha ha! This is just one is VERY long string of dumb IP nickel and diming from Disney. They won't even pay royalties after using other people's songs unless they get sued enough.
I love Disney. I worked there just ONE summer and I was so brainwashed I will always love them, emotionally.
But intellectually, I know they have about the worst record on IP of any American company I know of. |
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 2:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Whill wrote: |
Of course, all companies purchasing other companies morally should honor contracts made by prior companies. AFAIK, they are legally required to as well, and the alleged 'dangerous line of reasoning' would not hold up in court. One mere possibility I mentioned is that Foster's original contract(s) specified that Lucas selling Lucasfilm to another company would negate royalty requirements of the new company. Moral or not, if Foster signed to that then he would have no legal claim. This doesn't mention his original contract. At some unclear point in time, Foster noticed the royalty checks stopped coming for his first two books. Does he even have a copy of his original contract? Who knows?
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Presumably, SFWA would know. I can't imagine they'd wade into this publicly if the contract were written that way... they'd say "Hey, yeah, this is bad, but it's also allowed by the contract here, here, and here."
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Whill
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | Whill wrote: | Of course, all companies purchasing other companies morally should honor contracts made by prior companies. AFAIK, they are legally required to as well, and the alleged 'dangerous line of reasoning' would not hold up in court. One mere possibility I mentioned is that Foster's original contract(s) specified that Lucas selling Lucasfilm to another company would negate royalty requirements of the new company. Moral or not, if Foster signed to that then he would have no legal claim. This doesn't mention his original contract. At some unclear point in time, Foster noticed the royalty checks stopped coming for his first two books. Does he even have a copy of his original contract? Who knows?
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Presumably, SFWA would know. I can't imagine they'd wade into this publicly if the contract were written that way... they'd say "Hey, yeah, this is bad, but it's also allowed by the contract here, here, and here." |
You would think, but this point is still based on the absence of them even mentioning the original contract.
This discussion took a dark turn and I had to remove part of a reply. (PMs have been sent). I feel it is best to just lock this thread. If there are any links with applicable updates to the story, please PM them to me and I can possibly update the thread with them. Thank you.
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