Disney Issues DMCAs Over Photos Of Star Wars Figures

Megalith

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I admire Disney’s persistence in keeping certain aspects of The Force Awakens a secret, but why go after your fans instead of stores that are breaking street dates? A follow-up to the story, in which the company resubmits their claim, may be found here.

Earlier this week, SW Action News staffer Justin Kozisek purchased an action figure of "Rey" in an Iowa Walmart. The figure, which hasn't been seen elsewhere, was presumably put on the shelves by accident ahead of its official release date. An image of the figure was posted on the SW Action News Facebook page—and promptly subjected to a wave of DMCA takedown demands by Lucasfilm. Many of those who had spread the image on social media were also subject to copyright claims.
 
DMCA requests? Those poor fans. Let me know when they call in the bounty hunters.

I'd post a pic of the toy just to get one of those DMCA letters. Together they'd make quite a rare collectable in a few years.
 
there freaking toys what of bunch jerk offs. omg, omg everybody where screwed there is leaked images of toys on the internet before release date.
 
This whole fiasco is a travesty and Disney should be ashamed of themselves, period. They can't seem to do anything intelligent to save their miserable lives.

Walt Disney is obviously rolling around in that coffin pretty restlessly about now. :mad:
 
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself.

Wondering how a DMCA notice would be appropriate here.
 
Wondering how a DMCA notice would be appropriate here.

It's a rather complicated Act/law and that one tiny little paragraph hardly touches on the actual full reach of what the DMCA covers.
 
If someone were to challenge this and Disney won. Then that would open up toys as not being owned by us, but by the copyright holder of the content from which the toy is based on. Now all toys are a long-term rental with a one time price of $xx.99. Next thing you know Disney will demand a cut from the sales of all Star Wars stuff.
News: Disney successfully forces 35% of all sales of star wars products on ebay and other such sites to be sent to Disney.
News the next day: Disney creates its own secret service for its senior officials. Disney expedites orders for 10 fully armored cars.
 
Ugh... I mean this wasn't like he stole images from the movie, he bought a toy, he owns the toy, and unless there's a EULA on buying physical goods that states that you do not own the right to any pictures you take of said goods. Man if I were these people at the very least I'd take Disney to small claims court, they're from Iowa so thats $5000, might be able to double down if they win too and go after them in California (not sure on if that's considered double Jeopardy). Not going to do squat against Disney in the long run, but if you end up getting some money over this then more power to you.


This is why historically Star Trek has been superior, when fans would show their joy by putting up symbols and showing pictures/fan fiction, they were encouraged where as Lucas has always been hard on people.
 
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If Disney had simply let this go and never submitted the DMCA take down. Significantly less people would know about this picture. Now it is all over the internet. You'd think a company like Disney would know about the Streisand Effect.
 
I'd write a nice lawyer speak type letter back to them saying the item was legally purchased by me, there was no agreement expressed or implied that I can't take pictures of MY property and post them online.

I'd go on to tell them I would be happy to take down the picture for a one time fee of $5000, otherwise they can pound sand. I'd further point out to them that social media is a powerful tool and any actions taken against me for enjoying my property will be VERY publicly distributed.

If they didn't want to play nice -- I'd make a nice youtube video (or viemo / live leak since it's less likely to get taken down) Video of me putting the toy in the microwave and nuking it while talking a bunch of shit about Star Wars :)
 
It's funny Disney thinks they have power over social media. The more they try to quell this, the more people are going to talk about it and spread the picture. What a bunch of dumb asses.
 
I posted the image on facebook, let's see if I get a takedown notice or if it comes down automatically.
 
Um, why are they trying that hard to keep a toy a secret?
 
I presume the spoiler here is that she is holding a lightsaber?

That would be my guess.

There were also some pictures released of trading cards that showed her as a "Jedi" character, which so far has not been revealed (though I think many could have guessed).
 
If someone were to challenge this and Disney won. Then that would open up toys as not being owned by us, but by the copyright holder of the content from which the toy is based on. Now all toys are a long-term rental with a one time price of $xx.99. Next thing you know Disney will demand a cut from the sales of all Star Wars stuff.
News: Disney successfully forces 35% of all sales of star wars products on ebay and other such sites to be sent to Disney.
News the next day: Disney creates its own secret service for its senior officials. Disney expedites orders for 10 fully armored cars.

From the article:
Legally speaking, Disney does have a copyright in the appearance of an action figure it produces, as well as the packaging.

You own the physical toy, but Disney owns the design. It's the same for any product you buy.

But the photo is clearly fair use. The guy didn't sign any NDA when he legally bought the toy.
 
From the article:


You own the physical toy, but Disney owns the design. It's the same for any product you buy.

But the photo is clearly fair use. The guy didn't sign any NDA when he legally bought the toy.

Yup on both counts. DMCA is used as an anti-free-speech club for our corporate overlords.


TBH I just wish the damned movie would come out already so we can be done with it and move on. I was tired of the trailers and PR and associated what not when December started, dragging it out for another 2 weeks because "ZOMG RELEASE DATE!" is stupid. They could have had the movie in theaters in October for crying out loud. Were it not that I got some free vouchers from a friend to see any movie at the local theater, I quite honestly wouldn't even pay to see it in a theater. Would wait for DVD or Linux ISO.
 
Are people really that concerned with spoiling a "plot" on a JJ Abrams movie? It's Star Wars folks, not very deep just a very expansive universe.

The pic makes it obvious Rey is a Jedi and is either Luke's daughter or Han and Leia's. I would be surprised if Kylo Ren was also related.
 
But the photo is clearly fair use. The guy didn't sign any NDA when he legally bought the toy.

Well, think about it. The group handling the initial DMCA request and follow-ups for reposts had no way of actually verifying that the story is true and their purpose is to shut down any internal leaks. It could just as easily been somebody with access to the figure displays before they've been set. I found the story suspicious, stores shouldn't even receive the figures until this week.

If the person who bought the toy has their Walmart receipt or Walmart verifies they made an error then they're free to contest the take-down. One could argue that contesting DMCA take-downs is too difficult, but that's another issue altogether. Seems like much ado about nothing in this particular case.
 
The problem with the DMCA takedown situation is that it's entirely too easy to request one: there is basically no requirement for the issuer of a DMCA takedown request to prove anything up front, all they have to do is just basically say "It's my <whatever>, I own it, I have the copyright, and I didn't authorize this usage so take it down..." and that's that. It then falls on the entity the takedown request is targeted at to then prove otherwise so, it's just completely fucked from start to finish.

Always has been, always will be. :(
 
The more they try to quell this, the more people are going to talk about it and spread the picture. What a bunch of dumb asses.

You're assuming that wasn't their plan from the beginning? I doubt they give half a shit about this dumb toy, and look at all of the people they've now conned into discussing and thinking about the new Star Wars.
 
You're assuming that wasn't their plan from the beginning? I doubt they give half a shit about this dumb toy, and look at all of the people they've now conned into discussing and thinking about the new Star Wars.

Look at the bag of idiots that is the RIAA and MPAA and other publishers....they aren't thinking the big picture like you want to give them credit for.

They're deluded enough to think that the canned mystery of what will happen will sell it more....they don't realize that people are getting sick of it already and just want the damn movie to come out already.
 
They are playing this insane game of SUPER SECRET where they assume that if they keep the story a total surprise until the first waves of people see it, then they won't have preconceived notions of why they should hate it... and will therefore love it.

I have no idea why they seem to think this will work. A good story is good. A bad story is bad. A Star Wars movie will be discussed for years. So whatever happens in the first 24 hours isn't going to make or break it. It's what happens after 2 weeks when all the fans have seen it that counts.

Jar Jar, is Jar Jar. You can't manage the image and perception of a bad character. Not can you wave a magic wand and make people ignore crappy dialog, poor story telling, bad acting and a total failure of creative direction.

Hopefully, this movie will be entirely different from the last 3.
 
If anyone is surprised that Disney is doing this you haven't been paying attention for the last 50 years.
 
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