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Why is Disney accused of not paying royalty to writer Alan Dean Foster? 'Disney Must Pay' trends on Twitter

'The novelizations of ALIEN, ALIENS, and ALIEN 3. You’ve never paid royalties on any of these, or even issued royalty statements for them,' said the author

Disney author Alan Dean Foster has reportedly accused Disney of non-payment of royalties on several books he wrote for Star Wars and Aliens IP Foster, best known for writing in Star Wars and Star Trek series has issued a statement regarding Disney not paying him his royalty money through Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

In a SFWA statement, the 74-year-old author wrote a letter addressing Mickey stating, “When you purchased Lucasfilm you acquired the rights to some books I wrote. STAR WARS, the novelization of the very first film.  SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE, the first sequel novel.  You owe me royalties on these books.  You stopped paying them.”
The author further said, “When you purchased 20th Century Fox, you eventually acquired the rights to other books I had written.  The novelizations of ALIEN, ALIENS, and ALIEN 3.  You’ve never paid royalties on any of these, or even issued royalty statements for them.”

Stating that his books are very much in print and Disney is earning money from it, the author also talked about Disney wanting to sign an NDA even before entering a negotiation. He wrote, “Never once did anyone ever ask me to sign one prior to negotiations.  For the obvious reason that once you sign, you can no longer talk about the matter at hand.  Every one of my representatives in this matter, with many, many decades of experience in such business, echo my bewilderment.”

The author opened up about his advanced stage of cancer and asked, “You continue to ignore requests from my agents.  You continue to ignore queries from SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.  You continue to ignore my legal representatives.  I know this is what gargantuan corporations often do.  Ignore requests and inquiries hoping the petitioner will simply go away.  Or possibly die.  But I’m still here, and I am still entitled to what you owe me.  Including not to be ignored, just because I’m only one lone writer.  How many other writers and artists out there are you similarly ignoring?”

All these books are all still very much in print.  They still earn money.  For you.  When one company buys another, they acquire its liabilities as well as its assets.  You’re certainly reaping the benefits of the assets.  I’d very much like my miniscule (though it’s not small to me) share.

Fans of the Star Trek and Star Wars franchise along with several authors have taken to Twitter to talk about the supposed injustice by Disney and not paying Foster. But what is more worrying for the authors is the logic provided by Disney for not paying royalty money.

Cory Doctorow, an author, journalist, and activist for authors’ right stated, “This is Disney's theory: When they bought Lucas and Fox, they acquired the copyright licenses that enabled them to sell the Foster's books - but not the liability, the legal obligation to pay him for his books.”

This statement has brought a more problematic image for the authors, says Mary Robinette, SFWA president. “This theory could absolutely upend the nature of copyright itself. Any publisher that wanted to go on making money from an author without paying them could simply sell the rights to a sister company, which then denies any obligations.” John Scalzi, author of the ‘Old Man’s War Series’, wrote in Twitter, ‘What the hell, Disney. Alan Dean Foster deserves the compensation agreed to into his contracts. Any writer does. Pay up.”

Another user stated, “Alan Dean Foster is a pretty big name in SF and a huge name in licensed SF/F, without him I doubt ventures like Black Library or the Halo EU would exist. I hope other writers (eg. EK Johnston, Tim Zahn) seriously consider ending and/or not renewing their contracts based on this.” A tweet said, “I devoured his novels back in the day. This is all heartbreaking to hear.” Another user said, “Go read about Alan Dean Foster and #DisneyMustPay. I’ve said it many times here and I will say it again: pay writers. This is what we do. If anyone stopped getting checks at an office after doing their job, no one would doubt they’re owed money. Respect contracts and pay writers.” Another user stated, @Disney is screwing over an author of books for Lucasfilm and Fox. This would be an, ahem, novel outcome of their acquisition; in reality, they're fabricating nonsense to stop payment in the hopes he'll capitulate because he has cancer and his wife is sick. #DisneyMustPay

As per reports, SFWA’s grievance committee works anonymously with the author and the publishers while handling any grievance claims and this is an exceptional case where SFWA has gone public with an incident.