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For the last decade, Marjorie Carvalho and her husband have produced Star Wars Action News, a podcast dedicated to Star Wars collectibles of all sorts. Predictably, they've had a lot to talk about, as waves of action figures and other collectibles have been launched in the run-up to the much-anticipated release next week of Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens.
On Tuesday, a Star Wars Action News staffer saw something he shouldn't have—and bought it. A 3 3/4" action figure of "Rey," a female character from The Force Awakens, was on display in a Walmart in Iowa, apparently earlier than it should have been. The staff member bought it for $6.94 plus tax, no questions asked. The following day, he posted pictures of the Rey figure on Star Wars Action News' Facebook page.
"Have we known this figure was coming?" the staffer, named Justin, asked in the post. "I just found her at Walmart—no new other figures."
A short time later, Carvalho got a surprising message.
"A friend texted my husband saying, hey, are you getting sued?" said Carvalho in an interview with Ars Technica. The image from the Facebook post was gone. "We looked and noticed we'd gotten a notice from Facebook saying our image violated copyright. It was confusing because our staff member, Justin, he took the photo."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Saturday December 12 2015, @10:59AM
Disney drops—then doubles down on—DMCA claim over Star Wars figure pic [arstechnica.com]
Man who took photos of a $6.94 Walmart action figure gets banned from Facebook.
A Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice sent by the Walt Disney Company earlier this week seems to have truly awakened The Force, and now the company can't seem to decide if it wants to be on the light side or the dark side.
Marjorie and Arnie Carvalho run Star Wars Action News, a podcast about Star Wars collectibles. Earlier this week, SW Action News staffer Justin Kozisek purchased an action figure of "Rey" in an Iowa Walmart. The figure, which hasn't been seen elsewhere, was presumably put on the shelves by accident ahead of its official release date. An image of the figure was posted on the SW Action News Facebook page—and promptly subjected to a wave of DMCA takedown demands by Lucasfilm. Many of those who had spread the image on social media were also subject to copyright claims.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:07PM
> Man who took photos of a $6.94 Walmart action figure gets banned from Facebook.
In the US you have freedom of speech as long as you don't threaten anyone's profits. Then you have to pay.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @02:50AM
In the EU you don't have freedom of speech. . .