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It sounds like Foster was getting royalties on these books up until Disney bought them, so presumably his WFH contract did indeed specify some kind of continuin

It sounds like Foster was getting royalties on these books up until Disney bought them, so presumably his WFH contract did indeed specify some kind of continuing compensation despite assigning the rights. This comment (https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/#comment-214198 https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/#comment-214...) from the SFWA president says that Alan’s contract says that it is binding on “the successors and assigns” which is Disney. I presume that "the successors and assigns" is a direct quote from his copy of the contract.

gamblor956 6y ago
Disney acquired Lucasfilms in 2012, not 2014, so ADF continued getting payments for something for almost 2 years after the acquisition. (Disney didn't acquire Fox until 2019, so the Aliens books would be an entirely separate issue.) The SFWA president has made some earlier misstatements of the law, and it appears she doesn't have a clear grasp of the timeline, so I'm not putting much weight into anything she says. She's correct that the WFH agreement is binding on Disney, but Disney isn't disputing that (though the SFWA claims otherwise). The issue, from Disney's standpoint, is that clearly they don't think there is anything in the contract requiring them to pay. It is very possible Disney reviewed all of its payments and ended the ones for which it could not find a contractual basis for continuing payments, such as for example, paying royalties on a WFH contract where they owned the rights to the work. But as neither side has actually coughed up a WFH agreement entitling the author to royalties, it's just speculation. Apparently, ADF actually has a copy of his contract, per the SFWA president (but again, she's made incorrect statements about the parties before). If that's the case, ADF could resolve this very quickly by showing the part of the WFH contract where it says he will be getting paid royalties.

gamblor956 6y ago

Disney acquired Lucasfilms in 2012, not 2014, so ADF continued getting payments for something for almost 2 years after the acquisition. (Disney didn't acquire Fox until 2019, so the Aliens books would be an entirely separate issue.) The SFWA president has made some earlier misstatements of the law, and it appears she doesn't have a clear grasp of the timeline, so I'm not putting much weight into anything she says. She's correct that the WFH agreement is binding on Disney, but Disney isn't disputing that (though the SFWA claims otherwise). The issue, from Disney's standpoint, is that clearly they don't think there is anything in the contract requiring them to pay. It is very possible Disney reviewed all of its payments and ended the ones for which it could not find a contractual basis for continuing payments, such as for example, paying royalties on a WFH contract where they owned the rights to the work. But as neither side has actually coughed up a WFH agreement entitling the author to royalties, it's just speculation. Apparently, ADF actually has a copy of his contract, per the SFWA president (but again, she's made incorrect statements about the parties before). If that's the case, ADF could resolve this very quickly by showing the part of the WFH contract where it says he will be getting paid royalties.