No, Disney Does Not Own #MayThe4th
File Under: Lighten Up Francis.
Star Wars fans can be pretty serious. Case in point, The People vs. George Lucas (look it up).
Anyway, the latest incarnation of Star Wars fandom’s lack of perspective happened yesterday.
What happened, you ask? What was so heinous? How did the meanies over in Burbank attack the Star Wars fandom?
Celebrate the Saga! Reply with your favorite #StarWars memory and you may see it somewhere special on #MayThe4th.
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) April 27, 2020
The above legal language applies ONLY to replies to this tweet using #MayThe4th and mentioning @DisneyPlus. These replies may appear in something special on May the 4th!
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) April 27, 2020
Basically, Disney wanted to use the folks’ social posts as part of a celebration of Star Wars (probably having to do with the entire Skywalker Saga being on Disney+ a full two months early).
VIDEO – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Debuts on Disney+ On May the 4th
And they didn’t want to get sued.
Apparently, folks really took this poorly.
Mediapost.com explained:
Many “Star Wars” fans took that to mean that any use of the #MayThe4th hashtag would constitute legal acceptance of Disney’s terms of use and therefore consent for Disney’s use of their messages and account names “in all media.”
Cue a slew of outraged tweets and images (see above), as fans not only accused Disney of trying to infringe their rights re the popular hashtag, but raised everything from the company’s furloughs of employees during the pandemic to past refusals to grant permission for use of its characters. “I was born on May 4th — does that mean you technically own my birthday?,” tweeted one.
After five hours, Disney tweeted again, with a clarification: “The above legal language applies ONLY to replies to this tweet using #MayThe4th and mentioning @DisneyPlus. These replies may appear in something special on May the 4th!”
Anyway, media experts… Aw skip it.
Just relax people. It’s a funny pun on a (supposedly) fun day meant to celebrate space wizards using laser swords.
And, take it from Seargent Hulka and…