elizalavelle | (no subject)

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I am so unimpressed with Universal's recent crackdown on fan merchandise. If they were selling the same sort of products or ANY products really I'd say they have a case but the things I saw... the fans were not overstepping any bounds, I'd compare their products to official stuff in the same way I'd compare fanfic to actual scripts (good fanfic, but nontheless, clearly not official.) One person is being asked (and I use that term loosely) for almost $9000 in retroactive fees, Black Market Beagles is shutting down just in case (mental note make order tonight) and it's just all kinds of not good.

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Nine thousand dollars? Way to overreact, there, Universal.

I don't get it. No one is using any official logos or designs, so...I don't see why they're having such a fit. I mean, if they want to get *that* picky, shouldn't they also be punishing Nathan, for wearing unofficial merch? I'm sure he was technically under contract at the time, so that could be seen as a conflict of interest, or something. (And to be honest, I'm not even sure if I'm kidding. It's just So. Damn. Stupid.)

Also, why did't you tell me about BMB sooner?! They have such cute stuff; I just bought a mug and a nifty Serenity/Equality Now print.

I thought BMB was sort of a site that everyone knew about, at least I said something before it closed ;)

And yeah when studios react like this my counter reaction is to say fuck it, I'm not buying your official merch anymore. I don't like supporting people who pick on their fans.

WOAH.

$9000????!!! Shit....

Big companies are fuckin retarded.

Yeah and I think they gave this poor woman 72 hours to comply. Where one is to find $9000 in 3 days if they are just an average person is beyond me. I think mostly it's a scare tactic... which unfortuntately works. Many fan sites are shutting down ASAP to avoid a similar fine.

I wish this would at least mean that Universal was, oh I don't know, planning in selling more merch themselves (although after this I don't want to buy anything from them) but they don't. The reason the fans made all of these products in the first place is because Universal didn't! grrrr.

On the very small plus side, this did make me go ahead and buy those Firefly-related t-shirts that I've been holding off on for a while now for the sake of my bank account. But heck, I'm working now anyway, so does it really matter? ;)

p.s., On the off-chance that you don't know about this site already, you can pretty much always get a discount at CafePress if you go to http://www.cpcoupons.com/ and find a relevant coupon code. :)

I totally get that big corporations don't really care about the fans as long as they make a lot of money off of them. That's their bottom line. However knowing that is a different than from accepting it. I just hate that type of buisness attitude.

I didn't know about that discount code site! Thanks :D

I'm going to be ordering a couple of items before the shut down on Friday as well. While I shouldn't be doing that I obviously can't wait now.

Thanks, that's one of mine, you can find it over at

rage_my_darling I have I think a total of 3 Mean Girls icon posts made there :)

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