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?

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.

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.

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.