Disney refusing to pay Alan Dean Foster royalties for Star Wars, Aliens

[URL="https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/"]https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/[/URL]

In short, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Fox Studios, they acquired the rights to Foster's novelizations of the films (Star Wars, Alien, Aliens, etc.) and sequels like Splinter of the Mind's Eye. They have kept the books in print, but not paid Foster any royalties. 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

[QUOTE=MRP;5238131][URL="https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/"]https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/[/URL]

In short, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Fox Studios, they acquired the rights to Foster's novelizations of the films (Star Wars, Alien, Aliens, etc.) and sequels like Splinter of the Mind's Eye. They have kept the books in print, but not paid Foster any royalties. 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[/QUOTE]

The same issue I believe is happening with the comics writers/artists that did Star Wars and Aliens Comics for Dark Horse now . That Disney is publishing TPB's etc reprinting work and won't pay those folks either.

disney also did not pay any royalties to the original writers of lion king , aladdin etc when they did the live action remakes so i guess bob iger should be blamed.

With actions like these its hard for me to not feel disgusted to see the Disney logo. Double foul taste in mouth because today arrived a classic Disney movie I just ordered recently. :(

Technically the obligation to pay royalties would have been a contract between the previous rights-holder and Foster. So does this mean that you can legally erase obligations to pay royalties simply through a transaction? Honestly it sounds so cheesy and illegal on the face. But also completely plausible, considering the amount of power corporations have lobbied for and won over the past 100 years.

The really sad thing is this could take years and years to resolve with Disney's capital and ability to legally draw things out.

What someone really needs to do now is license something from Disney and immediately sell the license to a third party. That should remove any and all obligations to pay Disney. Right?

[QUOTE=Scott Taylor;5239140]Technically the obligation to pay royalties would have been a contract between the previous rights-holder and Foster. So does this mean that you can legally erase obligations to pay royalties simply through a transaction? Honestly it sounds so cheesy and illegal on the face. But also completely plausible, considering the amount of power corporations have lobbied for and won over the past 100 years.

The really sad thing is this could take years and years to resolve with Disney's capital and ability to legally draw things out.

What someone really needs to do now is license something from Disney and immediately sell the license to a third party. That should remove any and all obligations to pay Disney. Right?[/QUOTE]

Thats not a good analogy. Disney created and or owns they're IP. They Didn't do work with someone else's IP.

This isn't anything new. They should 100% be paying royalties to the people whos books they a reprinting and selling. As far as people who wrote the original cartoons not getting royalties when they do a remake. Yea no, they don't own those stories. They were hired to write a Disney story. If Disney takes that story and does something new with it I don't think they are obligated to pay them anything in that situation. The vast majority of comic book writers don't get compensated either. Now in a perfect world the original writer of Lion King should have been included in the remake. But I don't think he's entitled to Royalities for the live action version. But he should been a producer and allowed to consult.

The Not paying royalties for people books you are printing and selling.. that's the only thing I'm seeing that isn't the norm for the film industry. Pay those people. I doubt its that much money anyway. Seems petty.

[QUOTE=Scott Taylor;5239140]
The really sad thing is this could take years and years to resolve with Disney's capital and ability to legally draw things out.
[/QUOTE]

The man has cancer. I think drawing it out is the whole point of this little exercise.

[QUOTE=Bruce Wayne;5239366]The man has cancer. I think drawing it out is the whole point of this little exercise.[/QUOTE]

Oh absolutely. Nothing like the Disney Empire of Joy to brighten someone's day.

Does Lucas getting credited for the original novel of Star Wars(In fact ghost-written by Foster) have any bearing on this?

[QUOTE=ChrisIII;5240884]Does Lucas getting credited for the original novel of Star Wars(In fact ghost-written by Foster) have any bearing on this?[/QUOTE]

He might have had that written into the contract when he sold Star Wars to Disney. Lucas has always been savy like that.

Disney is known as The Evil Mouse. This is what happens when a company gets too big and too powerful.

[QUOTE=ChrisIII;5240884]Does Lucas getting credited for the original novel of Star Wars(In fact ghost-written by Foster) have any bearing on this?[/QUOTE]

Foster wrote all 3 Alien novelizations and Splinter of the Mind's Eye (the first ever Star Wars sequel and safety net for a screenplay for a second Star Wars movie that could be done on the cheap if the first didn't take off) and is credited with them but is not receiving royalties for any of those (all of which are still in print) either, so I doubt that has anything to do with it. The contract for the Star Wars novelization would have specified who got royalties as well, and since Foster received royalties for years for it before the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, I'd bet the contract specifies royalties are owed to him, not Lucas, for it.

-M

the fact that Family-friendly Disney being the owner of the Aliens franchise sounds very interesting to say the least.

[QUOTE=ChrisIII;5240884]Does Lucas getting credited for the original novel of Star Wars(In fact ghost-written by Foster) have any bearing on this?[/QUOTE]

Did Mr. Lucas contribute more to the development of the story in the Star Wars novelization than a general outline?

The name of George Lucas getting credited for the novelization of Star Wars ghost-written by Mr. Foster sure sells more than Alan Dean Foster.