r/mildlyinfuriating • u/slick7studios • Jul 16 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Apperantly A24 suddenly thinks they own all of the backrooms.

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Many people have been reporting copyright strikes for backrooms fan games, textures, and other references on Google play, Twitter and other spaces. Apparently the company thinks if they make a movie that suddenly they own the source material that existed years before the movie was even conceptualized. For an idea of how ridiculous this is, it's like saying James Cameron owns the Titanic and every survivor's story because of the movie he made.

With how shitty the world is becoming at what point is it enough, it's literally 1984, can't have shit anymore, even decades old community internet creepypastas apparently.

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u/AcceptablyThanks Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

One director vs the entire production company lol. Not gunna happen

Edit: it happened

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u/Djinnaz Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Can happen considering it was his idea.

Edit: the movie I mean.

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u/Scruffylookin13 Jul 17 '26

I like Kane's backroom canon the best, I think the kid is amazing. But to say it was his idea is crazy

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u/Physical-Mistake-199 Jul 17 '26

It was his idea to make the movie using his lore. Not that he came up with the idea of the backrooms

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u/LitLitten Jul 17 '26

there’s something fucking insidious about independent work or an amalgamation of independent creative minds being suddenly stolen and privatized by the executive class

Shit, the Disco Elysium debacle still makes me pissed.

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u/JackWickerC Jul 17 '26

What's the Disco debacle? I only just started it a week ago

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u/The_King_Of_Muffins Bah-doink Jul 17 '26

The post-release section on the Disco Elysium Wikipedia page seems to cover everything

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u/meerwednesday Jul 17 '26

I felt this way about There Is No Antimemetics Division, which was an SCP story that went to a big glossy publisher and had lots of other SCPs and lore woven through it. It's been recommended to me a lot and none of the people who have recommended it even know the back story at all. It just felt very very shitty to me for an author and publisher to make money and reputation off not just his own idea but off lore that's been communally developed over many many years, without any serious acknowledgement.

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u/Scruffylookin13 Jul 17 '26

The yellow hallways, the florescent humming lights, the endless hallways, etc ... the things they are trying to copywrite, weren't his idea though. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but its not like the studio is trying to copywrite the concept of "A memory of a memory" They are copywriting design choices that were all around before Parsons came on the scene

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u/wittyjokename92 Jul 17 '26

To be fair companies have been doing this for ages. They'll try to copyright anything and everything hoping something sticks. Costs them barely anything as long as it stays out of court and the fear of taking a corporation on in court works on a lot of people. Until people actually just force them into facing a judge and finding out they have no legal leg to stand on, corporations are just going to keep doing it.

A lot of these things aren't even real copyright claims but just the studios saying they deserve a cut or they'll take you to court. And then paying a lot of lawyers to make sure it never actually gets to court.

Don't let the fear of a copyright claim stop you. Art is art and at worst you'll just have to find a different platform to share it on. As long as you know what the fair use doctrine is and don't cross that line the big corporations can get bent. Hell even that Spider-Man kid still has Spidey all over his grave because Disney realized it was too expensive to visit it and see if his dad wasn't violating the court order

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u/Alex5672 Jul 17 '26

"They'll try to copyright anything and everything hoping something sticks."

Nintendo vs. Palworld comes to mind with Nintendo, at least, trying to copyright the idea of catching monsters with balls, forcing Palworld to change how their catching system works.

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u/Stampyboyz Jul 17 '26

Btw that was a patent and not a copyright lawsuit.

Nintendo also tried to patent multiple mechanics they didn't make.

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u/Alex5672 Jul 17 '26

Right, but the point definitely still stands.

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u/echoshatter Jul 17 '26

Nintendo is the most prominent company I can think of that goes hardcore after intellectual property theft.

There's good reason: the way the laws are written, it is your responsibility to tackle theft of your IP, and if you are negligent in doing so you run the risk of your IP becoming public domain.

Nintendo also has a specific public image of being family friendly and making quality games to maintain, they really don't want derivative works out there to tarnish that.

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u/TaleOfDash Jul 17 '26

I don't think you quite understand how much has the film industry by the balls right now. He has a lot more influence than you're thinking.

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u/2cheerios Jul 17 '26

"I'm irreplaceable" - guy who's about to be fired 

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u/raaaaaaze Jul 17 '26

Sure, but this doesn't really have any relevance to either Kane or his relationship with A24.

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u/2cheerios Jul 17 '26

It means that a big system sees every individual as disposable

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u/whitedolphinn Jul 17 '26

Plus the entire country backing this shit company and defending it like it's their god.