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A24’s SCP Foundation Movie Hits A Licensing Issue
Copyright-blocked
A24’s announced feature film adaptation of hit internet IP SCP Foundation just ran into a unique copyright issue that could potentially derail the project.
The Big Picture: After the success of movies like Backrooms, Minecraft, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, studios are rushing to capitalize on the demand for internet-native IP that Gen Z already loves. The problem is that large, decentralized communities are often responsible for building out these narrative worlds, complicating the ability to lock down the rights.
Behind The Scenes: Determining copyright for things made online is a lot harder than licensing a book, article, or toy, it turns out.
Case in point: SCP Foundation.
Last week, A24, Image Nation, and Spooky Pictures announced they were making a movie based on the viral property as part of the long-running V/H/S horror anthology… but that was news to the writers and staff who run the official SCP Foundation wiki.
SCP Foundation, which started back in 2007 on 4chan (similar to Backrooms), is unique in that the IP was organized on a Wikidot wiki in 2008 under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
Tubefilter describes a CC BY-SA 3.0 license as one that lets anyone add their own material to an IP and allows them to distribute material others have added to it, even commercially… but no one can hold an exclusive copyright to it.
That means that while A24 is free to make and release a movie based on SCP Foundation, the studio “would not be able to gatekeep its distribution or usage.”
Closing Thoughts: So, how big of a deal is this? The SCP Foundation wiki leadership alleged that, theoretically, “anyone could upload a copy to YouTube; similarly, any commercial streaming service would be free to stream the film without payment to anyone.” That’s essentially a non-starter for the movie as a sound business prospect, which is why no movie has been made about the IP, despite “prior interest.”
The leadership wrote that they’ve been trying to reach A24 to potentially strike a deal, but it’s possible this movie may never get past the stage of a buzzy press release if the legal argument holds up.
Coming Soon: Don’t be surprised if every popular decentralized community storytelling project is currently organizing a Wikidot wiki as you read this.
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.