Disney Screwing Over Beloved Writer Alan Dean Foster

[victoriavictrix]

https://www.denofgeek.com/books/disney-refuses-to-pay-royalties-to-star-wars-legend-alan-dean-foster/?utm_source=DojoMojo+Entries&utm_campaign=36b88d194d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_20_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7901f000a0-36b88d194d-75374033

The man's wife is sick. He's 74 and has advanced cancer. And this is how Disney treats him. "LOL we'll just not pay him and he'll die before he gets to court."

[Kirahfaye]

Larry and I were tweeting about this a few days ago. I've never been an EU fan, but Alan Dean Foster IS Star Wars. The way they are screwing around you authors (not to mention their park staffers) is unconscionable. I know 2 people who lost their jobs after months of waiting in hope.

[kenaiqueen]

This makes me unbelievably sad. I wish I could say it was a fluke or something that wouldn't have happened if Walt was around, but I know that historically that's not the case. I hope it gets settled soon and that Disney gets the slapping around they deserve. Wrong is wrong.

[K2!]

That's pretty much what I would expect from the Magic Rat.
Yeah, sign a non disclosure agreement so you can't tell the world what assholes we are.

[victoriavictrix]

I wanted to post this here because....look, guys I know you loves you some Disney Princesses, but....how about this year's Christmas list DOESN'T have Disney on it? Just this once? Do you really want to support a company that's screwing over a sick old man?

[kenaiqueen]

I'm doing what I think is the most effective thing I can do and that's to write to the Disney corporation and let them know my displeasure. I don't think they will notice anything about sales, but they will see mail/email on this subject and I'm glad to add my voice. (Email sent, btw.) Maybe, if enough people write and get their attention, it will help. I'm hopeful that with the involvement of the SFWA it will be resolved quickly in his favor. Someone in my romance group discussion mentioned that this has already been tried in court with NBC-Universal and it was slapped down. If there are any other things I can do more directly, I'd be happy to. Is there a GoFundMe or any other place to contribute?

[WhiteDove01s]

Haven't been a fan of the parasitic vermin for a long time (I like the nickname "Magic Rat" btw), so this honestly does not surprise me. Makes me sad, but not surprised. As for not putting it on the xmas list... I've had a standing policy for years not to buy anything of theirs firsthand so that that way I am not directly funding them. As a note from someone who's been doing that a while, you might want to grab a list of their various subsidiary companies and alternate names if you want to boycott them. I think Wikipedia has a few pages with lists of Disney owned companies.

[Kattriella]

I have never been a hardcore Disney fan like a lot of people are. Yeah, Disney was a big part of my childhood, since they strategically squashed every other animation company that threatened them by "conveniently" releasing their newest big hit movie the same week when other companies tried to premiere a movie, even if it was out of season for movie releases, so they could be the only kids animation company anyone talked about, but I was always a Nickelodeon kid. Rugrats and Hey Arnold owned my heart as a child before I discovered anime and Cartoon Network. Finding out as an adult just how sleezy the company can be just makes me even happier that I wasn't a Disney kid.

[zirconmermaid]

I’m amazed there hasn’t been more fuss. This has implications for more than writers. I really hope Alan Dean Foster gets his royalties. It makes me so sad that we might lose him soon.

[davidd]

I heard a radio news story a few days ago saying that Disney+ streaming service has exceeded Disney's expectations with over 86-million subscribers so far. (Initial projections were for 60- to 90-million subscribers by the end of 2024!)

With legalized marijuana in most of the US states and everybody zoning out on Disney+, I doubt that anyone will care about... well, about much of anything, let alone the travails of an author who wrote movie spin-off novels back in the 1980s. Keep the public uninformed and compliant, that's what a political operative was quoted as saying during the last election cycle. Well, that's what Disney is doing, that's what the entire political elite of both parties are doing, and we're all complicit in it every time we consume anything churned out by the Disney Empire. But what does it matter, because, really, what do we have to look forward to? Masks, lockdowns, censored media content, suppression of speech (and thought), but oh well, we have The Mandalorian on Disney+... and weed. Whoopee!

I went through a Disney phase back in my high school years, but I gave up on the corporate monster they became a long time ago.

Here's a partial list of the (mostly media) major assets owned by Disney as of 2019:
https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-cent ... worldwide/

(Despite what that article claims, the Disney-Fox merger did not include Fox Sports or Fox News.)

Through their Steamboat Venture subsidiaries, Disney invests heavily in China-based media technology companies.

Is it mere coincidence that the flow chart illustrating the article uncannily resembles... the Death Star?

I'd like to think that not buying from the Disney Store, not flipping on the Disney Channel, or avoiding the ABC Network will make a difference, but Disney has planned for that eventuality through massive diversification and even more massive accumulation. It's almost impossible to avoid putting pennies in to Disney's pocket because they almost literally own everything! I mean, Disney owns a 50% stake in The History Channel? I did not know that until just now. That means every time I watch pretty much the one show I watch regularly, The Curse of Oak Island, I'm just another set of eyeballs on another ad that's supporting the Disney Empire.


It's very possible that the legal fees in the Foster case are costing Disney more money than paying the royalties would. I suspect the idea here is to set a legal precedent. Once they get the courts to uphold their argument, Disney will have legal precedent to stop paying other authors and creators... and their estates. Short term, it may be costing them money, but the long game will be very, very profitable.

George Lucas was a very smart man, selling the whole Lucasfilm kit and kaboodle to Disney for cash. The guy who created Darth Vader knows how evil empires work. Two billion in cash, and another two billion... billion with a B... in Disney stock. Insurance, you see. If Disney somehow cheated him out of the stock (which they kind of did by immediately issuing 40-million additional shares following the sale, in effect watering down the value of the existing stock), Lucas still had his cash. As it is, Disney has profited hugely from the Lucasfilm acquisition (thanks in no small part to all the people signing up to Disney+ to watch Star Wars spinoffs), so Lucas has probably done okay with his stock.

Didn't work out so well for Foster, whose contract was originally with Lucasfilm, and probably for a lot of small fry whom we've never heard of, and who can't afford to fight The Mouse in court.

Once this case is settled, nobody will be able to fight The Mouse in court.

The conspiracy theorist in me is tempted to add: If we all continue to be locked down at home, with restaurants and clubs and bars and theaters and parks and zoos and libraries closed, this is nothing but good news... meaning, profitable... for all the media companies, but in particular for surging subscription streaming services like Disney+. Can we really expect honest news from ABC or other Disney-owned "news" outlets when the parent company benefits from lockdowns and mandates and restrictions? But that would sound kind of nutty, wouldn't it? So let's say I didn't actually include this last bit.