Posted By Kathleen David on February 3, 2021
Cartoonist Adam Ellis tweeted on Monday about the short film ‘Keratin’
The film is a fully plagiarized, shot-for-shot remake of my comic. The filmmakers didn’t ask me for permission to adapt my work. They didn’t even notify me they were doing so until the film had already been released and winning awards at film festivals.
The filmmakers even said that their inspiration was Mr. Ellis’ work saying in a delated interview it was “a short online cartoon we saw which we developed further, drawing on our love for dystopian stories and imagery.”
Making money off others intellectual properties can be a bit of a grey area. Blatantly doing so is a big no-no
It is why big corporations and content creators come down on things they think crossed the line even when the line looks fuzzy to others.
One group ruined it for other Star Trek short fan-made films by claiming what they were doing was truer to Gene Roddenberry’s ideals than the films coming out which was strike one. They crowded funded money to make the film, strike two. And they went to court to claim that Star Trek and all that entailed were part of the zeitgeist thus could be used under common, strike three.
Fanfiction is one of those grey areas. If you do it as a writing exercise and let others see it, unless the author or intellectual property owners object, that’s fine. If you published a short story collection of your Star Trek fan work, Paramount and Simon and Schuster might have something rather legal to tell you.
Fan art is an even bigger question mark in the ”what is line sweepstakes.”
Artists at conventions draw superheroes and other things that their audience likes.
They make prints for sale and charms. Fannish things for fans. For the most part, the owners of the intellectual property look the other way or at least side-eye what is going on. But cross that line and they will tell you that you have done so.
Another issue at conventions are a large print sellers who claim they have the rights to the art or are the artist when all they did was download it from the Internet.
There is also a problem of large corporations selling items that are stolen intellectual property. I’m looking at you Hot Topic. When they buy things from distributers who have stolen art off the Internet and changed it slightly. They hide behind that it’s not their fault but that of the distributers who sold them the items. The distributer knows that the artist they ripped off can’t afford the legal fees needed. If it can be proved, then they take it out of distribution with very little effect on their bottom line.
One has to fight hard to keep their intellectual property under their control.
There are times that the owner does things that fandom does not like or understand.
Some of them are overkill along with some salting of the earth. I think those are people who have been burned before.
An idea cannot be copyrighted nor can a common phrase be trademarked.
But when someone comes and takes your creative baby and claims it as their own, that is crossing a line that can be defined legally.
Mr. Ellis does not, at this point, wish to sue the film makers. He does want the film they did based on his work to not be shown at film festivals or ever again.
I am grateful for those who allow fans to express themselves and fans that recognize the limitations put on their work.
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