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

[Nostalgiabuff]

they finally settled this matter

https://www.superherohype.com/geek-c...r-wars-authors

[Earth 2 Chris]

It's good to hear they are starting to make things right, morally. It's a shame it takes a public shaming campaign to do it, but the same thing had to be done nearly 50 years ago to get Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster credit and compensation for Superman.

Chris

[Bruce Banner]

About bloody time.

[huedell]

I'm wondering if him just admitting he wanted to retcon The Last Jedi had anything to do with it?

Considering who ended up writing the screenplay for TROS, I doubt it

[huedell]

It's good to hear they are starting to make things right, morally. It's a shame it takes a public shaming campaign to do it, but the same thing had to be done nearly 50 years ago to get Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster credit and compensation for Superman.

They are two distinct things. The Superman thing is more about ownership which is so slanted AWAY from Siegel/Shuster that it's ridiculous. They legally lost ownership so long ago to DC that that was a losing battle from the start.

Now, I will concede there's a lot more to Siegel and Shusters' case than ownership... what it technically was about.

There was also the fact that two people had created one of the most profitable characters of all-time yet were actually just getting by financially.

I commend DC on their choice to bow to public pressure and work something out with Siegel/Shuster regarding

a yearly stipend, medical benefits, and credit their names in all future Superman stories, in exchange for no longer contesting ownership of Superman.[24] The stipend was initially $20,000[25] but rose over the years.[3]

That said: You give a mouse a cookie... they will be battling the creators' estates until...

The copyright to Action Comics #1 was in its renewal term on October 27, 1998 (the date the Copyright Term Extension Act became effective). This means that the copyright will expire 95 years after it was first secured,[52] i.e. in 2033. Thus, barring new legislation, Superman as he is depicted in Action Comics #1 will become public domain in 2033,

And then the character won't be potentially profitable to just the creators and/or DC... it will be that way for anyone.

Disney and paying royalties for authors who had deals for being paid royalties?

Legally, that's cut and dry --- and notably different than ownership battles over classic characters, which have been cases about "morality/ethics" as much as "legality" since the 1970s.

And, as the linked article pointed out... denying royalties to their company's past freelance employees is almost certainly a deliberate corporate strategy as evidenced by the higher profile freelance authors being paid out first, because they are the ones with the loudest voices (and/or deepest pockets).