As you may be aware, recently Universal’s licensing arm has been contacting Serenity fans who sell Serenity-inspired merchandise with requests to cease and desist. This has caused some uproar among the fan base, and I thought I’d take a moment to explain our concerns.
It’s not that we don’t understand that you must take steps to protect your intellectual property. We do, or most of us do. And we understand that not only do you have the right, you have a duty to do so or you would be doing a disservice both to your company and to the companies who have paid for licenses to produce official merchandise.
The problem many of us are having is with the method used.
A few weeks ago the owner of bluesunshirts.com was contacted by FOX and asked to remove his merchandise by a specified date. He did so. There was some grumbling amongst the forums but there was never really a question of whether he should comply or not. A simple request, and he shut down.
This week the Browncoat known as 11th Hour Art received a Cease and Desist notice from CafePress letting her know that Universal objected to portions of her store and she immediately began making the requested changes. Then e-mail from ther law firm representing Universal Studios Licensing LLLC arrived, giving her 72 hours to produce all shirts and other goods from the store, any promotional materials which refer to Serenity, copies of complete sales records for the past year, and remit $8,750 as a retroactive blanket license fee. She was also informed she could be held liable for attorney’s fees, treble damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages, and $150,000 statutory damages fee per infringed work for cases of willful copyright infringement. This despite the fact that while she referenced the movie in her promotional copy, she sold her own artistic designs that did not use logos, character likenesses, or images from the movie.
Many of the fans, myself included, are disturbed by this move, not because of the legal aspects but because of the serious lack of understanding it displays between Universal and its fans, particularly one who has worked harder than most at successfully and creatively promoting Serenity. I sincerely hope that the action against 11th Hour will be resolved amicably to the satisfaction of all involved, but right now people who have been spending large portions of their time acting as unpaid marketers for your intellectual property — the very same people who are the biggest audience for any licensed material — are talking about organizing letter writing campaigns and boycotts.
I’m not suggesting you stop protecting your property, not at all. But I would like to suggest that picking off respected fans one at a time with a bazooka is not the way to go about it, especially since the official movie site’s encouragement of fan-based viral marketing left the issue a little fuzzy in the minds of many fans. The answer lies in open communication. I think you would have gotten a much better reaction by sending a letter to the major Firefly/Serenity fan sites and forums with something like this:
“Hi! Great to see so many people still love this movie as much as we do. And we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the new official items we have coming along.
But we’ve noticed a number of Browncoats selling unlicensed Serenity merchandise and we have to ask that you cease offering any items containing trademarked logos, screenshots, or character likenesses from the film by such and such a date. Shops and websites continuing to sell items as described after that date will be contacted by our legal department. I’m sure you understand that while we welcome fan-based measures to increase awareness of Serenity, we can’t condone unofficial merchandise that infringes on our copyrights and may lessen the value of commercial licenses.
We appreciate all you’ve done and hopefully will continue to do to keep Serenity in the air.”
I’m sure you’d word it better than that — at least more legally-sounding — but the point would be that it’s simple, direct, and it would get us working with you to increase the value of the franchise, something we all want. We’d be disappointed, but we’re also all eager for new licensed material to come out. Plus we’d be deliriously happy that we were still being included, that we were still part of the whole thing.
When Serenity was being marketed there was constant encouragement from Universal for innovative viral marketing by fans, and that sort of interactivity drove us to new heights of resourcefulness and dedication. By keeping us in the loop and continuing to communicate openly we’d get the word out for you and save you the time and hassle of drafting individual letters for each shop by shutting ourselves down first.
We understand your position, we really do. But it appears obvious that you don’t understand us, and that makes a difference. A large part of why this property and its licenses remain valuable is due to the efforts of the fans. Just talk to us. We’ll listen. You don’t have to yell.
Thank you,
C. A. Bridges
Perfect. Now I hope they’re listening….
Sounds like the right approach to me.
Most of my beef has been with the heavy-handedness more than the goal.
My hope as a fan is that the start-up of interest in officially licensed products is an indication of franchise growth.
Attacking the very market an officially licensed product campaign is aimed at feels like squeezing the last bit out of a dead deal.
Most Browncoats want to work towards the continuation of Firefly/Serenity.
browncoats are forever
How odd, how very odd. Today I heard some music that reminded me of Serenity. I wasn’t sure of the match, so I unwrapped the DVD I bought for my daughter, and began to play a part of it, and was caught up again in the FF/Serenity ‘verse. Then I learned of Universal’s legal threats against 11th hour, whose CafePress shop shows original artwork of the Chinese character for “serenity.” Now I wish I had sent the DVD back to Universal for a refund.
I’m not a lawyer. As you may know, a little bit, from the website I listed above, I was sued by the University of Pennsylvania for a tuition debt that I didn’t owe. I proved it in court, and was awarded the cost of filing the suit. I asked for lawyers’ fees (like asking for PR and marketing fees in this case). Those are rarely awarded, and weren’t in my case, since I was my own lawyer.
What I do think on the surface about Universal’s case against some of the many who got caught up in the viral marketing storm that Firefly so richly deserved, is that the legal defense of this group that Universal is charging with licensing fees and penalties is “where was the harm?” Can Universal prove that such efforts as those of 11th Hour (one of the CafePress marketers) harmed profits from FF/Serenity?
It looks like there is plenty of documentation on the web (Adventive’s case study, for example) that the viral marketing plan was a planned and skillful manipulation of people who had their own enthusiasm for the ‘verse. For Universal to use people who were willing to be used to get more of FF/Serenity, and then say those same people harmed them and their licensing endeavor, especially with beautifully done new materials, should be legally dicey. But I’m not a lawyer.
I do think that every Browncoat has to rethink contribution to Universal and Universal’s Alliance with licensees. I know that means diminishing hope that FF/Serenity will ever return.
I am about to order the “Never give up” cards from 11th hour. They fit, the Browncoats, the fanware producers, and me.
I really hope someone at Universal is going to read this.
I think the let down was mutual. The fans and the studios are both at fault to a degree. Do the Browncoats have so much solidarity that none of us were going to step forward to get licensed to at least have a creative fan selling our wares? Were we waiting for a studio to unexpectedly write ground breaking and possibly controversial viral licensing blanket agreements just for us? Granted the studios could also have done better for their product. They should have approached the Browncoats before selling the rights to the first entity asking for them. The studios should have insisted on creativity, origanality, and quality. Official licensed product is all that is left to those of us too lazy to make our own. Ten designs are what’s left. Suffice to say they are not top shelf. Only official logos and simple quote/character combos. I want my freedom of choice back. I want a blue sun knit cap, a fightin’ elves shirt, a bobble headed geisha doll, and the the whole crappy town where I’m a hero. It is probably not too late. Unless the current license holder has an ironclad noncompete agreement we can still choose to purchase our shiny stuff from a fellow Browncoat. But only if one of us steps up.
My thoughts exactly. I totally agree with you.
My thoughts exactly. I totally agree with you.
My thoughts exactly. I totally agree with you.
I’m a Firefly fan, so when I say this, I don’t want to seem like I’m catering to the wills of the Man keeping us down.
Out of all the close this and that sites down, I think one thing has been over looked here. They are saying take down any non-licensed merchandise… (With the exception of 11th Hour) they are not saying take down your sites.
I own bluesunshirts.com apparal, and frankly, I think it’s the propoganda for the movie I have. I know others do too. I think if the maker of those products were to receive a license, he/she could keep the site up, and keep selling them. Off hand, I don’t know what a license costs, but I assure you I’d be all for contributing to a fund to get that license so sites like bluesuntshirts can stay around.
I think universal came over the top with what they did, but at the same time I think if we were more in tune with the needs of the company, that wouldn’t have had to happen.
Very tactfully put. Kuddos.
I don’t know that I could have kept my anger down that much, but my hat’s off to you for pulling it off. It’s not that I don’t understand the legality issues, it is the abuse.
Universal knew, from the get-go, that Joss fans were more than crazy for Firefly… it is a HUGE part of the reason a film was ventured. We were ‘invited’ to start guerilla marketing campaings and there was even a disappointing ‘banner contest’ that was more lack luster than Jayne’s boots. Universal had thousands of aces in their back pockets – Browncoats of the world Unite! And we did, we united, we marketed; I for one even canvased in my city, like a ruttin’ missionary. Hours spent, new shoes bought for sore feet, printer cartridges emptied, people looking at me like I’m a goram freak… none of this ever mattered to me if it meant more people would come to see that Joss’ vision was one of real beauty and worth.
And Universal are now living up to an opinion that was originally reserved for those other twits at Fox… In the words of Mr. Fillion, “they kicked us down… and then they kicked us when we were down.”
I think the whole thing stinks and, as the beautiful and not nearly as raging letter above depicts; we could have been included, we could have been handled with respect. Browncoats are wonderful, giving, hopeful and imaginative folk but we’re just as dedicated to act on behalf of our Big Damn Movie as we are likely to respond to Universal with the same hyper organization and zeal.
This is quite disappointing, though not unexpected. I have no artistic talent whatsoever and thus have not produced any merchandise. I have, however, purchased quite a bit of fan produced stuff. One third of my t-shirts are Firefly/Serenity related. (1/3 are hockey & 1/3 are blood donor) I have also purchased officially licensed stuff. I bought 10 DVDs of the movie, 2 copies of the novelization, 4 sets of the comics, the Visual Companion and the soundtrack. They came out late with the T’s and the quality wasn’t what we were used to and we still bought them. What do these people want? They should pay 11th Hour for all the wonderful advertising she provided.
Why did Universal never do for Serenity what was done for Snakes On A Plane? You know, license it directly to CafePress, say “You can make whatever merchandise you want so long as you don’t use copyrighted/trademarked images”, and leave it at that? I hope that in the end, that’s what happens here. Because I would rather have that happen than to have a combination of really crappy official stuff that’s not half as pretty as the fan-bought stuff and a really pissed off fanbase that gives up on the film. Psychologically speaking, I can’t help but wonder if this will only increase the number of folks who DO create bootleg merchandise, just so “you won’t be giving your money to those bastards at Fox or Universal”, which will eventually jsut create a vicious cycle and bad publicity combined.
I’d like to add to this Open Letter the following suggestion:
“Do what they did for Snakes On A Plane… and then drop the suit against 11th Hour Art, telling 11 Hour “Look, just don’t do it again, OK?” to anything that actually did have trademarked/copyrighted images. Let fans know EXACTLY what is or is not trademarked/copyrighted, and tell them to be creative and use stuff other than that. Simple, effective, still allows you to make money with officially licensed stuff that has the actors’ pictures or the film’s logo on ’em (hey, I’d pay extra for that on a nice enough shirt, wouldn’t you?), but doesn’t piss off and alienate the very fanbase who allowed you to even come close to making your budget back for the film.
I also have a different, creative suggestion for Universal, if they don’t want “unlicensed merchandise” floating around:
Make a deal with CafePress – or create a subsection on the official Universal site or Serenity Movie site, etc. – wherein fans can sell Firefly/Serenity merchandise BUT on each item there’s an extra fee in addition to the cost of production, which is a per-item licensing fee – or perhaps, whatever a fan sets as the above-cost-of-production price, half of that goes to Universal and half to the fan (or the charity of their choice – this could easily turn into a great publicity thing tied in to Can’t Stop The Serenity’s now-annual charity screenings, no?), or maybe a different percentage that works even more in Universal’s favor.
Hell, that sounds like a good enough idea that I think if I ever get my Studio’s projects out and they become popular enough to have any kind of fanbase, that might just be what I do with it! Because who in their right mind would alienate the majority of their fanbase?
Thank you C. A. Bridges. This is a constructive response. I hope, that as Jeremy and Jamie, among others also offered some good points. Those who read this forum, Please add a short, supportive response. IMHO we need to offer support for Fellow Browncoats who have helped keep Firefly/Serenity alive, as well as maintain a posative attitude with Universal, so that we can all win.