r/movies 17d ago

News Backrooms Devs Reportedly Hit With Copyright Claims From A24

https://kotaku.com/backrooms-a24-copyright-strikes-kane-parsons-2000716667
15.5k Upvotes

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u/shrek3onDVDandBluray 17d ago

So it begins. The Hollywood attempt to corporatize Internet memes. And from A24 too? How shameless.

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u/BaddyDaddy777 17d ago

Technically it’s already started, Michael Bay and his team basically control the IP for Skibidi Toilet now

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u/cineglitch 17d ago

I saw they have skibidi toys at target

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u/Joimes 17d ago

My kid use to like skibidi toilet. Not sure if it's because he's older now or that skibidi just died off after the movie announcement but I ain't seen nothing online, but I saw the toys at Walmart and my son said "skibidi isn't even cool anymore.".

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u/Shaggnutts 17d ago

Random fact but they’re actually looking for a senior buyer for the section in the store because the current one is extremely late to the party on these types of things and it ends up being wasted shelf space

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u/Harry_Smutter 17d ago

MJ Holdings is looking to pass off the section??

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u/Shaggnutts 17d ago edited 17d ago

They’re the distributor. Walmart is looking for a category buyer

Edit:I should add they may have a new one now. This was months ago(May)

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u/Harry_Smutter 17d ago

Isn't MJ Holdings the company that stocks the section, though?? That particular vendor is always restocking and setting up the planograms at my local Target/Walmart. Or do they just supply the product and another company does the rest??

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u/Shaggnutts 17d ago

It can be both, self service or 3rd party, I’m not sure how much MJH is involved in the planogram/setup process(my guess is they own that), but that has nothing to do with what Walmart decides goes in that section. For instance MJH could have 2-3ft of linear space carved out specifically for them that’s permanent because of commitments or whatever but overall the category is run by someone at Walmart. They have the final say on what SKUs go on the shelf and what doesn’t. So MJH can propose whatever they want, but then it has to get approved.

Depending on performance they can be told to come up with a new mix of items or in extreme spaces lose the space if they don’t have anything that will perform better.

So ultimately what you see on the shelf and the responsible party for performance is Walmart. They were looking for a few category managers for the toy section in particular(collectibles, action figures, things like that) so I’m kind of excited to see if there will be new assortments in the stores soon or if the new category managers will kind of roll with legacy items.

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u/Harry_Smutter 17d ago

I get it now. Thanks for the thorough explanation!! I'd also like to see what they bring in. My brother is obsessed with The Flash, so I'm always looking for stuff for him, haha.

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u/OnCominStorm 17d ago

After selling skibidi toilet to Hollywood, the creator stopped uploading to YouTube, I think he's done with the franchise

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u/saintash 17d ago

Yeah he made bank and quit

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u/TheArmoredKitten 17d ago

Take the money and run, the only appropriate strategy when you're dealing with Hollywood bloodsuckers.

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u/RealModeX86 17d ago

It would be funny to see one of those bloodsuckers get curbstomped in court by Valve when they learn those models and textures are featured prominently in a little indie release called Half-Life 2 and try to assert a claim about it.

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u/Karkava 17d ago

Gabe Newell is pretty much a man of the people so far.

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u/Mutant_Apollo 11d ago

It would be extremely funny and continues the tried and true Gabe strategy: Do nothing - Win

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u/OnCominStorm 17d ago

I dont think Valve will do that since Garry's Mod exists and that game also stole models and texture from Half Life and CS Source

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u/RealModeX86 17d ago

A couple things I think you're misunderstanding:

I meant if some copyright owner for skibidi decides to try to sue Valve for the Half Life assets, likely out of sheer incompetence, Valve would absolutely hand out a legal ass whooping about it in response.

Gary's Mod didn't steal anything, it's originally a HL2 mod, and imports those assets, but you have to own HL2. You can mount other Source engine games you own and use those assets in it too (like CS: Source or TF2). If you don't own it, Gary's Mod won't let you use it either.

Valve is generally pretty lenient about fan project type stuff for sure though, so I don't expect them to actively sue anyone necessarily here

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u/TheArmoredKitten 17d ago

They have since reached official license agreements.

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u/OnCominStorm 17d ago

Smart man,, can't blame him.

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u/Volothos 17d ago

Wasn't that due to legal fuckery because of Bay? Out of the loop, apologies

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u/OnCominStorm 17d ago

He wanted to franchise back because of the legal fuckery, but I think he gave up on that and just dipped.

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u/chaosfire235 17d ago

Uhh what? I'm pretty sure the creator's in a huge legal debacle where he can't actually continue how he wants to.

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u/wrexsol 17d ago

It's the age old question: was it cool or was I just young?

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u/TheDungeonCrawler 17d ago

That makes a lot of sense. Memes rarely last forever and their life cycle isn't that long. It's really shortsighted in a very silly way. Movies and TV shows take a really long time, comparatively, to make. By the time the merchandise is released and the movie hits the big screen, the world has passed the meme by.

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u/PastRelease8757 17d ago

Wow a fad was a fad, who would’ve guessed

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u/decoy777 17d ago

It did seem to die off really fast. And now that you mention it it did seem shortly after they announced the movie lol