Has DC cracked down on fan-films?

[House of J]

I went to Mid-Ohio Con yesterday, and it was a bit of a disappointment this year. I know it is a relatively small event, but it was clearly scaled back from years previous with fewer vendors and less going on in general. Usually the costume contest has many more entrants than this year.

One of the reasons I go is to pick up some DVDs of stuff you can't find in any store. Usually I pick up 2 or 3 fan-films, some of these can be quite good and the amount of time and expense the creators spend honoring their favorite characters is huge.

This year, there were about 1/3 as many vendors selling DVDs as the last year or two, but basically zero fan-films for sale. Does anyone know if Warner has taken issue with their distribution?

[The Xenos]

Well, really, think who is selling those fanfilms? The people that made them, or some retailer who downloaded something that's free on the web and rips it to DVD and makes a buck off of it? Honestly, I don't blame the con or even DC for cracking down. The gernal rule I've always heard for fan films was that if they're free online, they're usually left alone.

[DonC]

Most conventions nowadays have it written into their retailer contract that said retailer does not sell bootleg DVDs. Some enforce it, some don't. What happened at the Mid-Ohio-Con was probably just the retailers from last year not attending this year. It's doubtful this was due to any pressure from any corporate entity. They probably just didn't make much money last year.

[House of J]

That could be it. There were, like I said, about 1/3 fewer DVD vendors in general. There were plenty of other bootlegs available of many unreleased movies/tv series, but the fan-film genre was conspicuously absent.

[House of J]

Well, really, think who is selling those fanfilms? The people that made them, or some retailer who downloaded something that's free on the web and rips it to DVD and makes a buck off of it? Honestly, I don't blame the con or even DC for cracking down. The gernal rule I've always heard for fan films was that if they're free online, they're usually left alone.

The Xenos (is your name related to the religious organization?), in past years it was usually a mixture of bootleggers and amateur filmmakers selling their wares.

[the goddamn batman]

Both of which are illegal...

[House of J]

Well, yes, but most get around that by asking for money for something else and then giving a "complimentary" disk.

I mean, my question wasn't "Are fan-films legal", clearly I wouldn't be asking if DC (or Warners) has been cracking down on something that is 100% legal.

[Stressfactor]

I think those sorts of retailers have just gotten jitterier in general since, in the last few years, there have been raids at several cons. I've also never seen a booth where the people were JUST selling homemade stuff. Most booths I've seen might have some amature stuff and some fan film stuff but they were also selling bootlegged stuff as well

If DC were seriously cracking down on fan films in general they would be all over YouTube like ants at a picnic and I haven't heard about anyone getting their YouTube account yanked because of DC properties...

Keep in mind also that I think the studios are finally getting smart about stuff. They realize that there is a market for stuff and they are finally putting a lot of TV shows previously only availible as bootlegs as official, box sets. And really, at least as far as I'm concerned, if I really wanted to own the "Birds of Prey" TV series I would rather have a nice, professionally done copy with all kinds of fun extras than something somebody ripped off their TV.

The more stuff the studios release in official versions the more it cuts into the bootleg market.

[the goddamn batman]

I mean, my question wasn't "Are fan-films legal", clearly I wouldn't be asking if DC (or Warners) has been cracking down on something that is 100% legal.

Clearly. My point was simply that selling bootlegs at cons is illegal, and yeah, there's probably been a clamp put on it... because it's illegal.

[The Xenos]

I've seen a crackdown more so at anime cons. Even the fansubbers producing the content put on the DVDs were telling people not to pay money for them on disk. One grey area was that people would charge only for the disks, but even that's gone extinct. You still sometimes see them on ebay.

As for American comic cons, I haven't been to as many, but I was surprised to see many bootlegs of old shows and even fan films, which I would also consider bootlegs because I doubt the fan creator is really involved in their distribution.

With the internet and growing speeds online, the need to buy these at cons is pointless. Why spend it on bootleg stuff where there is plenty of legit merchandise, never mind buying stuff directly from artists. For obscure TV shows and fanfilms, someone can just put a torrent online or upload bits on YouTube. Hell, I even remember getting stuff online before torrents and fanfilms. Not quite as far back as the IRC days, but I do remember when torrents were new. Ah, that day I found a copy of the Lobo Paramilitary Special fanfilm on a DC++ hub. Oh and then there's Blinky Productions on YouTube who did a couple of neat fanfilms with the likes of Power Girl and Blue Beetle and the Question.

The Xenos (is your name related to the religious organization?)
Nope. Though it is a shortened form of the name of a saint in my church, plus a family name.

[Agent Helix]

I hope so. Those things are awful.

[marshal99]

To be honest , too many of these so-called fanfilms are crap and amateurish. Who would actually paid money for them ?!

[Stressfactor]

To be honest , too many of these so-called fanfilms are crap and amateurish. Who would actually paid money for them ?!

While, yeah, I agree I can't see paying money for them they are sometimes a lot of fun to watch for free. Most of the acting is crap but some of the people have some pretty good ideas in the scripts. Plus it's sometimes interesting to see the kinds of ideas people have about the characters.

And some are funny and MEANT to be funny... Someone mentioned Blinky500 -- HIs Blue Beetle/Booster Gold anti-smoking PSA is freakin' hillarious. So is his Maxwell Lord Advil Commercial.

[DonC]

And some are funny and MEANT to be funny... Someone mentioned Blinky500 -- HIs Blue Beetle/Booster Gold anti-smoking PSA is freakin' hillarious. So is his Maxwell Lord Advil Commercial.


All of his fan films are good. They aren't Shakespeare, but they're better than 99% of the other stuff out there. In fact, I think he's actually managed to make the jump from fan films to ultra low budget horror movies.

[The Batman]

There's also what happened at the Motor City Con a couple of years ago. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=71429)

[2-4-5_Trioxin]

Either not as many retailers bulking up the isles or that stuff was cut down because of not making enough money on them, hard to say. But I dont recall any comic company ever coming out against fan films and such so I dont think its likely.

Some conventions might have tons more stuff, guess it depends on what sells best where. Hell everytime I go to the horrorhound in indiana there are tons of bootleg crap of anything you could imagine from movies to entire defunct tv series collections to fan films. But guy that sponors it and runs a horror site I visit, he and I were at the bar drinking and he says the other HH ones dont have as much bootleg stuff.

[fancinematoday]

I actually interviewed Paul Levitz, president of DC, at NY Comic Con in April for my daily blog about fan films, FanCinemaToday.com (http://www.fancinematoday.com), and he was all for fan-produced movies. The story is HERE (http://fancinematoday.com/2008/04/24/dc-comics-officially-oks-fan-films). Busts at conventions happen from time to time, but I think most fans who are into it enough to go to a con are also smart enough to find stuff on the web, whether at my site, TheForce.Net, fanfilms.net, or elsewhere. I also talk a bit about bootlegging and what fan films overall mean for the future of companies like Warner Bros and DC in my new book about the history and future of fan films, Homemade Hollywood (http://tinyurl.com/33z5uc); it comes out next week in bookstores everywhere. It covers all the big ones you'd expect like Batman: Dead End, World's Finest, Pink Five, and Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II, as well as plenty of ones you might not be aware of--like the earliest known fan film, a Little Rascals flick from 1926. Not exactly CBR material, but pretty interesting anyway.:biggrin: