If you think you haven’t heard enough about Star Wars this past week (or month. year. lifetime?) then you are in luck– another story about Star Wars! While we have often discussed people taking legal action against Disney (see: Lawsuit over “Frozen” has Disney asking, “Let it go!” and Disney Finally Breaks the Ice on “Frozen” Lawsuit), here is a case where Disney is the one up in arms over a supposed copyright issue. The fan-led podcast/Facebook group, “Star Wars Action News” recently obtained a Star Wars action figure (the character “Rey” from the new film, if anyone cares) and posted a picture of the figure on its Facebook group. Apparently, the action figure was sold prematurely and Disney took issue with its image being distributed ahead of schedule, so it submitted a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) copyright infringement claim with Facebook. Marjorie Caravalho of “Star Wars Action News” contacted Disney to let them know of the misunderstanding, which resulted in the post being reinstated on Facebook. Disney then submitted a second DMCA claim to Facebook and this time, not just the photo, but the entire post was taken down from the fan page. While we don’t know what “Star Wars Action News” will do next in regards to this, Legal Solutions Blog points out that sometimes there are legal battles worth fighting and those that are not– when it comes to fans wanting to promote a company’s merchandise to other fans, perhaps this is one war that Disney can sit out.
Have no idea what movie I’m referring to when I say “new Star Wars film”? Check out the trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”:
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