Stargate : Command - ideas, suggestions, problems and feedbacks

[NickEast]

Studios are not great about communicating the machinations of their business models to consumers. That usually gets to us when creative people who work for them talk about it.



You want them to comment on the individual deal they have in each and every market? I don't know a single studio that does that.

Game studios tend to do that. They're quickly becoming much more transparent. Hell, we are regularly able to look behind the scenes as they're developing a game, being able to follow every little update. There was a time they didn't do that, and most AAA studios still don't, but that's quickly changing. Why? Because if there's transparency and their customers are being involved in the production of a game, they will gain the trust of those customers and eventually make a game they actually want to play. Keeping a game completely behind closed doors until release time, with just showing a few previews at conventions, just won't cut it anymore. That's the same with any other medium. Big studios with big names (Marvel, Disney, Universal, Fox, Paramount) have big money and they can afford taking risks, but even that is gradually changing. Right now, MGM is keeping a close lid on anything related to Stargate and I don't think that's a good idea. If they involve us, the fans, right from the start, considering we are their primary audience, then we can make sure they develop something we want without taking a huge risk of spending millions on something nobody wants. It's quite possible that if we had known about what Origins was going to become we could have "fixed" it before there was no going back.

Right now, Stargate is a lot like an indie video game. Star Wars and Star Trek are like AAA games. Indie developers don't have the budget that AAA developers have, nor the resources to develop such games to AAA standard, so they have to be creative. And that makes indie makes far more innovative and unique compared to the same old AAA games (Call of Duty, Battlefield for example) with a fresh coat of paint. But the only way indie games work so well is because the developers communicate with their audience at all times, making sure the game is headed into the right direction.

Stargate has a niche audience, it never had a huge budget compared to other more popular shows, and MGM definitely failed i the marketing department because there was so much more potential. They clearly haven't learned that much since then, since they are still failing to market anything that well and bring in new fans (who is going to pay for a crappy unknown service when they have Netflix or Amazon Prime Video). I want them succeed, but they can't if they only tell us things at the last moment when it's too late.

Germany came up last time, and if I remember correctly, it came out then that the show is primarily syndicated on the German version of the Sci Fi channel (I'm not going to spell it with y's). Obviously, whatever deal they have with them is non-exclusive.

I don't know what's going on in the Netherlands. When did they stop airing it? Was it after MGM released their digital service or before? If after and there was an exclusive contract, it's possible that it expired and was not renewed because MGM wants to open their digital service to that market. If before (and there was an exclusive contract), it's possible that whoever bought the rights to it decided that it wasn't attracting enough viewers for it to be worthwhile to keep airing, but that doesn't mean their exclusive rights have expired yet.

How do you know for certain that the Germany Syfy has a non-exclusive deal? German Syfy is still Syfy, it's the same company just a different branch. In the Netherlands they stopped airing before Universe came out. I think they never even finished Atlantis. So that's at latest 2009, probably 2008. That's on the normal Dutch syndication. We had Syfy which did have Stargate Atlantis and Universe for a time, but Syfy was shutdown in the Benelux in mid-2016 because they didn't have a big enough audience.

But even then, 190 countries still having some form of exclusive rights and 6 of the countries don't? I find that hard to believe and without confirmation, all we can do is speculate. And that is the problem, we are allowed to speculate.

That said, contracts aren't the only issue. Investing in servers that can service individual markets is always a slow rollout. The servers cost money and advertising availability in new markets does as well, so companies exploit the larger markets first and then, once they are on firm footing, they move into additional markets. It's fiscally irresponsible to put forward the amount of company money that would be necessary for an all at once international rollout on a service that is untested.

Perhaps, but again why not be fair and tell us straight up, instead of allowing us to speculate on such things. They should now by now that simply by not telling us and allowing us to continue to speculate will only make things worse. The irony is that Stargate was, and still is, massively popular in Germany and France. So why would Germany have access and not France? Germany is also the only non-English country to have access, so what makes them so special?

Regardless about contracts, Origins and Dial Home are new productions and not bound by any contractual relationships so why not give use access to that? Why not a cheaper All Access pass that would give us access to everything not bound by contractual obligations. The release of the full feature film proves that there is no issue with that.

And regardless about servers, the first three Origins episodes are available worldwide for free, no All Access needed and no geo-blocking. If their servers were limited, how then could they handle all the traffic for those free episodes? If their servers were limited, why does the rest of the site work everywhere? And it's 2018, nowadays servers can grow dynamically depending on traffic. So the more people pay for All Access, the more they can spend on expanding the servers to handle more traffic, and allowing more people to get get All Access, and repeat.

But it still boils down to one thing, why not tell us straight up from the beginning? Instead of "we're working on it" they could've said "we don't currently have sufficient servers to handle all the global traffic" and/or "certain countries still have exclusive rights to our licenses" with perhaps a list of the most prominent ones. They made a list of a few countries where the feature film would be released. Lists aren't hard.

[Platschu]

I love your image spam at the moment though.

FH talks about this :
https://www.stargatecommand.co/profile/Platschu

I have been a quiz writing guy in the Hungarian Stargate Community. Trust me, if I say I have got more evil and much harder ideas...

Actually I try to NOT spam their message board. Just I have felt nostalgic after seeing these images, so maybe it will motivate some people to re-watch SG episodes, so technically I am advertising the SG:C with these photos. By the way I have offered our little database here and there, but nobody cared. So no magic happened, just I have grabbed a few photos from our "planets" page and I have posted there a few... Okay... 20.
http://csillagkapu.hu/bolygok.php?betu=mind

I miss this type of visual quizeses on the page. Sometimes they publish articles about intesting ideas (like extinct races, AU episodes), but none of them are really detailed. Most of the official articles about races and bad guys feel like an amateurish writing. I won't say I am much better, but I try to post about different logos, props, mythology related mini-articles, some serious talk, list of mistakes, list of Jaffa guards then some fan fiction etc. while it shouldn't be my job.

FH was right about it is really annoying to see the "re-enlist" buzz at the moment, but the message board will be a half-dead place again within 2-3 weeks. Only 10-15 people post something there, so I try to be worth of being followed. So far I have got 16 (!) people. :applause:

[Falcon Horus]

Most of the places I instantly recognize -- and a few I don't.

I have a surprising amount of followers -- considering I'm viewed as the annoying voice of reality better ignored and downvoted.

[Platschu]

I tried to choose pictures from different difficulty levels. I should have posted a BSG or FarScape photo to fool them.

I would be still interested how many active users and how many paying active users they have got. Some articles get 100+ likes, but the message board is really quiet and it is very hard too to reach 50+ likes even with the best and most interesting posts. But don't tell me that only 30-50 people pays attention to the posts out of thousand users.

[Falcon Horus]

I would be still intersted how many active users and how many paying active users they have got. Some articles get 100+ likes, but the message board is really quiet and it is very hard too rich 50+ likes even with the best and most interesting posts. But don't tell me that only 30-50 people pays attention to the posts out of thousand users.

There are very few no-access people around. Many signed up but obviously didn't stick around to see if they would ever open it up to more countries. I wouldn't have if I didn't start the Proper Stargate Rewatch, but that lost traction pretty quick on there. I think by the time I walked into season 3 all but one had moved on, and there were a lot of people interested. They just didn't stick around, not in the rewatch or the message feed.

I can't blame them for leaving either. All we have access to is that horrible feed and the even more horrible message feed. Beyond that, the website is just one bad update after another.

More than half of the people who were there since the beginning have long since disappeared. I have no idea if we'll ever see them again, to be honest.

Thetre are several currently on the feed who've never posted on it before I think. At least I've never seen them comment on anything.

I'm sure all-access accounts are pretty populated but more than half of them are only there for the streaming. They don't go onto the message feed. And the all-access bubble is quite contained that way. They have no clue they are literally living in a stargate bubble unknown that most fans don't have access to their bubble (but they generally don't care -- as long as they have what they want -- and don't dare to tell them about their privilege cause they'll see it as an attack on the fandom).

[Platschu]

This bubble can grown or pop this weekend.

[Falcon Horus]

This bubble can grown or pop this weekend.

I don't expect it to grow.

If they want people to come back, they'll have to do a 360 on that ridiculous "founding member" idea. That's simply backwards marketing. That's telling everyone else, "yeah, we had to give you access cause you wouldn't stop complaining about it, but you're not the people we're looking for really so we're giving our preferred fans 3 extra months for the same amount of money the rest of you get 12 months for. Oh yeah, and they also get extra privileges cause you're just extra baggage we weren't looking for really."

It's like saying that every account on Gateworld which has been here since the start gets extra privileges, just because you were here from the start. They all get a custom title and they are the only ones who are allowed a signature and an infinite amount of posts a day. Everyone else can only choose an avatar from a set of 5, a limited amount of emojis to choose from and a max post count per day of 20 (counter resets at midnight PT).

Guests obviously get nothing -- only access to the main page.

[Falcon Horus]

The SG:C website had even more details :

https://www.stargatecommand.co/feeds...tml&k=b4ff8e7b

No, it doesn't. The link is not accessible by anyone who doesn't have a premium account.

I just noticed that the articles designated all-access are no longer showing up in the feed for me so I knew you had posted that link here. I just clicked it and got this wonderful message on my screen:

Sorry, this content is not available in you[r] location.

The added r is by me, because the message actually has a spelling mistake. I should possibly inform them of this, but I couldn't be bothered really.

They finally figured out how to set to VIP-lock to true so that regulars don't get to see the all-access content on the feed, like all the dial home interviews. I once mentioned that, and they might have actually listened.

So, talking about expanding in an article that's not available to anyone else pretty much seals the deal, wouldn't you say so.

Now, I dare them to lock the message feed.

[Platschu]

If it cheers you up, think about yourself as an Ancient like me. We have been here for ages and maybe we haven't agreed on everything all the time, but we guided the younger races (the younger fans) with our extra effort, energy, care, spirit and creativity what we have put into the communities of Stargate. Websites can come and go, but hopefully we will still be here even if MGM doesn't want to recognize such fans like us.

[Xaeden]

Game studios tend to do that. They're quickly becoming much more transparent..

The problem is that they likely don't know for sure what they're going to do and don't want to make announcements before they have a plan/deal in place. The film industry is fickle. Proposals fall apart regularly because of a single executive or sudden disinterest from a business partner (e.g. a network). TV shows now regularly do the same things that games do; they put out all sorts of web material detailing what's going on as a way to promote an active project and keep fans engaged. They don't do that until something is in production, however, because if they did the majority of projects they try to engage fans over would end up never seeing the light of day.

This is something that Joe Mallozzi is dealing with right now on his blog. He has recently made headway on a TV project, but hasn't yet gotten approval to mention details:

I’ve been in discussion with the show’s creator for a couple of months now, brainstorming his vision and beating out a rough ten-episode first season narrative arc. This Monday, the writers’ room convenes for a 4-5 story breaking session. Would love to tell you more, but I’m going to defer to the decision makers and get clarity on their social media policy before revealing too much.

He could still get fired, the project could still get canceled, it could go to a pilot and then end up never airing. There's a lot of room for error atm. As evidence of that just look at the list of vague descriptions for other potential TV show projects that he was/is in talks overs:


That Supernatural Small-town Mystery Series: Looks like it could be fading like a pier-side Carson Beckett at the end of that explosive tumor episode. I’ve followed up twice now on the status of the project with no definite word. I feel like I’m one more follow-up email away from them filing a restraining order and relocating.

The Untitled Awesome Project: Fear not! This one is still in play. It’ll take a while to close the deal, then some time to come up with a game plan on the creative, so this one is a way’s away. Still, it’s going to be a blast.

...

[I cut all but the first two to get under Gateworld's character limit. The others can be found at the link below.]

And that’s that. It’s still feeling like the calm before the storm, but the winds are definitely picking up.

Source: https://josephmallozzi.com/2018/09/04/headed-to-series-on-another-show/#more-49401

I wouldn't be surprised if MGM has been trying to pitch a TV show revival to a network much of this time and are now looking for new original web content that they are still listening to pitches for because talks with networks didn't go anywhere.

Right now, Stargate is a lot like an indie video game.

A lot of indie games that developers talk about too early also end up not getting made/completed/end up in prolonged development hell. I once worked on an indie whose lead developer ended up dragging people along with various promises for over 5 years before they had something to play. Many stopped believing him because they were wasting a lot of time stuck in a cycle of getting their hopes up and then dashed.

Studios do the same thing sometimes. Did you know that "Green Lantern 2" was once greenlighted? Just before the movie came out they announced that there would be a sequel. Studios have a habit of doing this with various movies that they know will tank in the weeks before a release. The idea is that it's easy press that sends a message that they have such rock steady belief in their upcoming movie that they're willing to commit to a sequel before the first movie is even out in the hopes that they can squeeze a few extra dollars out a bomb. Nothing is actually done; nobody is hired yet and no script is in development, so it costs them nothing to quietly make it go away a month or two later.

The Sci fi channel basically did that with the Atlantis movie. When Atlantis was canceled it was announced that there would be a movie that would air on the Sci fi channel. They likely thought at the time that it would limit outrage against the cancellation and once buzz for SGU starting picking up, they quietly stopped talking about doing that. It instead became an issue of whether MGM would greenlight a direct-to-dvd movie. Before we knew about their bankruptcy woes people were in an uproar at MGM for not moving forward with it and most people seemed to forget that it was originally supposed to be jointly financed by the Sci fi channel (thanks, in part, to the producers/writers likely not wanting to stir fans up against them while SGU was on the air).

There's such a thing as announcing things to early. In some cases studios weaponize early announcements. In others, studios know better than to get fans excited about things before there's actual progress because most things never see the light of day.

Stargate has a niche audience, it never had a huge budget compared to other more popular shows, and MGM definitely failed i the marketing department because there was so much more potential.

Actually it did. Early on Sg-1 cost $1.3 million to $1.5 million an episode. By 2006, it cost $2.2 million an episode, and that was made possible because MGM was willing to front 2/3rds of its budget (BSG had $1.5 million to work with in the same year). That doesn't usually happen. Networks typically front the majority of a show's cost with production companies paying a smaller amount, but Stargate was a big hit for MGM in syndication, so they were willing to invest in keeping its production budget high. Outside of what HBO was paying for shows, what a top rated sitcom pays its actors, Lost, and ER's massive budget, this was quite good at the time. The per-episode cost is higher for a lot of shows today, in part because of inflation, but also because high budget fair has become more important to attract an audience that now has so many more options available to them.

You'll hear Shanks talk about them having budget problems from time-to-time, but he means they were getting less than SGU ended up getting and the corner cutting issues they had were systemic.

They clearly haven't learned that much since then, since they are still failing to market anything that well and bring in new fans (who is going to pay for a crappy unknown service when they have Netflix or Amazon Prime Video).

I wouldn't blame MGM for not having Stargate on another service. Origins seems to me like an attempt on their part to try to maintain interest and show platforms/networks there is still a fanbase for new Stargate. The problem is almost certainly that nobody is biting, so this is all they can do right now.

How do you know for certain that the Germany Syfy has a non-exclusive deal? German Syfy is still Syfy, it's the same company just a different branch.

That they were able to release their service there demonstrates that there's not an exclusive airing deal in Germany. And, yes, it's a branch of the same company, which may be why there is not an exclusive deal (the Sci fi channel may be able to air it in Germany as part of their overall licensing deal).

In the Netherlands they stopped airing before Universe came out. I think they never even finished Atlantis. So that's at latest 2009, probably 2008.

Okay so, yes, it's definitely a cost issue associated with rolling the service out to the Netherland's smaller market.

But even then, 190 countries still having some form of exclusive rights and 6 of the countries don't? I find that hard to believe and without confirmation, all we can do is speculate. And that is the problem, we are allowed to speculate.

Again, that's one of two issues that I referenced. It's a problem in some places, but the majority of markets don't have access because they haven't yet invested in additional severs and other related costs associated with releasing the platform in those place.

So why would Germany have access and not France? Germany is also the only non-English country to have access, so what makes them so special?

I know France is one of the places they released Origins as a movie through a partnership with a third-party digital service, so while I can't speak for what is going on there or any other individual market, I can tell you that they know it's worthwhile to release content there and are trying to exploit that market.

Regardless about contracts, Origins and Dial Home are new productions and not bound by any contractual relationships so why not give use access to that? Why not a cheaper All Access pass that would give us access to everything not bound by contractual obligations. The release of the full feature film proves that there is no issue with that.

Again, following the release of Origins on their service, they repackaged it, and made deals with third-party digital services to release it to other markets. This was said to include France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Latin America, and "elsewhere." Making just it and a series of interviews available in those markets on their own service would probably cost them more than they would make because, as you said, they would have to charge people less than they do for all access, and the number of people willing to pay primarily for interviews is not going to be very large.

the first three Origins episodes are available worldwide for free, no All Access needed and no geo-blocking. If their servers were limited, how then could they handle all the traffic for those free episodes? If their servers were limited, why does the rest of the site work everywhere?

Hosting a website containing text and maybe some small flash based content to a global audience is different than hosting video content. The latter not only needs a higher volume of servers, they would also need servers in other parts of the world to prevent irritating interruptions to their customers.

I haven't seen even the first three episodes of Origins. It appears they're now blocked unless you login. I don't know how long they had them openly available for, but depending on your distance from the nearest server it probably wouldn't have been the best buffering experience, and paying for people to watch three 10 minute clips for a short period is different than opening up hundreds of videos to a global audience all at once.

the more people pay for All Access, the more they can spend on expanding the servers to handle more traffic, and allowing more people to get get All Access, and repeat.

Yes, this is what I was saying about them needing to have some success first before expanding their operation.

why not tell us straight up from the beginning? Instead of "we're working on it" they could've said "we don't currently have sufficient servers to handle all the global traffic" and/or "certain countries still have exclusive rights to our licenses" with perhaps a list of the most prominent ones. They made a list of a few countries where the feature film would be released. Lists aren't hard.

The difference is that by listing countries where existing syndication deals prevent them releasing their overall service, you're asking them to call out companies as obstacles to you getting what you want. People could identify them as the only ones airing syndicated Stargate episodes in those markets and MGM obviously doesn't want people sending angry emails and such to people they do business with.

Could they explain those things in broad strokes? Sure.

[NickEast]

I haven't seen even the first three episodes of Origins. It appears they're now blocked unless you login. I don't know how long they had them openly available for, but depending on your distance from the nearest server it probably wouldn't have been the best buffering experience, and paying for people to watch three 10 minute clips for a short period is different than opening up hundreds of videos to a global audience all at once.

It's free as in you don't have to pay, or live in the 6 All Access countries. You obviously still need to have an account on the site.

You had an interestingly detailed response, but it's too much for me to respond to in equal detail. Suffice to say is that simply because of all these issues, there is now a much smaller chance for them getting enough funds to justify expanding, since most of us have moved on and feel betrayed or let down (regardless of whether MGM meant to). While I am still occasionally visiting the site, Stargate is like a drug to me so I'm addicted to anything related to it, they would have to come with something a lot bigger to convince me to pay for it. The Founding Member stuff only reduces the chances. Previously I would have been happy to support MGM even though I have everything on DVD and I really hate Origins. But because of Origins and not having All Access, they would have to go all out if they want to convince and I think it's safe for me to say that this counts for a lot of other non-All-Access-eligible fans. Considering the costs for making a 20-episode in-canon Wright/Cooper(-style) non-Universe/Origins-style show (as I would like, it may not be what others like of course), I consider those chances (for me) quite small.

In a sense it doesn't really matter to me. I have a big enough imagination and growing writing/art skills to create a fan-made alternate universe exactly the way I want it to be, which I am doing by the way. Given how much MGM seems interested in fan participation, I don't think they will be that restrictive to limit fan-fiction. That's the least I want for them to acknowledge.

[Falcon Horus]

If it cheers you up, think about yourself as an Ancient like me. We have been here for ages and maybe we haven't agreed on everything all the time, but we guided the younger races (the younger fans) with our extra effort, energy, care, spirit and creativity what we have put into the communities of Stargate. Websites can come and go, but hopefully we will still be here even if MGM doesn't want to recognize such fans like us.

Oh goddess, now I'm really feeling old... ...and I was already feeling so old when I learned that Ellie Gall wasn't even born with SG-1 first aired.

I wouldn't blame MGM for not having Stargate on another service. Origins seems to me like an attempt on their part to try to maintain interest and show platforms/networks there is still a fanbase for new Stargate. The problem is almost certainly that nobody is biting, so this is all they can do right now.

Considering MGM has an online platform of their own, I doubt they are offering it up to anyone right now which is quite honestly very limiting their audience. Unlike CBS-All-access who put Star Trek Discovery on Netflix for all to see and boy am I glad they did (looking forward to season 2).

I know France is one of the places they released Origins as a movie through a partnership with a third-party digital service, so while I can't speak for what is going on there or any other individual market, I can tell you that they know it's worthwhile to release content there and are trying to exploit that market.

No third-party digital service. iTunes already has the rights to MGM's library.
Google Play Store and Microsoft Store, and the Playstation Store were also among the digital download services worldwide.

...they would have to charge people less than they do for all access, and the number of people willing to pay primarily for interviews is not going to be very large.

Allow me to burst your price-bubble here: Stargate Origins: Catherine is available as digital download for the same price as what a premium access membership costs on Stargate Commend. We literally get one film for the same price as all-access members get all the series and films, all the dial home interviews, all the behind-the-scenes-stuff and all the episodes, including a free copy of the film.

So no, we didn't get charged less. We get charged the same, for less.

Hosting a website containing text and maybe some small flash based content to a global audience is different than hosting video content. The latter not only needs a higher volume of servers, they would also need servers in other parts of the world to prevent irritating interruptions to their customers.

Ask TopFan where they are hosting their different templates, because they are the owners of the template and the people behind the website scriptings.

I haven't seen even the first three episodes of Origins. It appears they're now blocked unless you login.

Like nivao mentioned, you need an account to watch the free episodes or to interact on the message feed. The episodes are still available because just recently someone watched them and wanted to know how to watch the rest.

Suffice to say is that simply because of all these issues, there is now a much smaller chance for them getting enough funds to justify expanding, since most of us have moved on and feel betrayed or let down (regardless of whether MGM meant to). While I am still occasionally visiting the site, Stargate is like a drug to me so I'm addicted to anything related to it, they would have to come with something a lot bigger to convince me to pay for it. The Founding Member stuff only reduces the chances. Previously I would have been happy to support MGM even though I have everything on DVD and I really hate Origins. But because of Origins and not having All Access, they would have to go all out if they want to convince and I think it's safe for me to say that this counts for a lot of other non-All-Access-eligible fans. Considering the costs for making a 20-episode in-canon Wright/Cooper(-style) non-Universe/Origins-style show (as I would like, it may not be what others like of course), I consider those chances (for me) quite small.

Pfew... not just me...

In a sense it doesn't really matter to me. I have a big enough imagination and growing writing/art skills to create a fan-made alternate universe exactly the way I want it to be, which I am doing by the way. Given how much MGM seems interested in fan participation, I don't think they will be that restrictive to limit fan-fiction. That's the least I want for them to acknowledge.

Wait till people start to realize that by signing that release form they loose all ownership of their "work".

[NickEast]

Wait till people start to realize that by signing that release form they loose all ownership of their "work".

That's not what I meant though. I meant that MGM doesn't seem to intend to actively start hunting down fan-fiction authors (be it comics, prose, videos or mods/games) with cease-and-desists. Paramount began to heavily limit fan-fiction (well, fan-films mostly) due to how "fans" were abusing their fair-use rights with professionally-produced films starring well-known (Star Trek) actors. I just hope MGM won't do the same and force us to go through that creativity-breaking hellhole.

But we don't have any ownership anyway since we use their license without permission. They can revoke it at any time simply by sending cease-and-desist letters and suing those that don't cease and desist. Based on things like Stargate Network and Stargate Space Conflict (two fan-made games) MGM isn't that strict with fan-fiction and I hope it stays that way.

[Falcon Horus]

That's not what I meant though. I meant that MGM doesn't seem to intend to actively start hunting down fan-fiction authors (be it comics, prose, videos or mods/games) with cease-and-desists. Paramount began to heavily limit fan-fiction (well, fan-films mostly) due to how "fans" were abusing their fair-use rights with professionally-produced films starring well-known (Star Trek) actors. I just hope MGM won't do the same and force us to go through that creativity-breaking hellhole.

Ah... I did not know that.

But we don't have any ownership anyway since we use their license without permission. They can revoke it at any time simply by sending cease-and-desist letters and suing those that don't cease and desist. Based on things like Stargate Network and Stargate Space Conflict (two fan-made games) MGM isn't that strict with fan-fiction and I hope it stays that way.

Not of fanfic content no, we're not.

But what about "original artwork" -- gate themed?

Stargate Command made a request recently for it to be displayed in their booth. A release form would be provided. I took the liberty to look at the release forms used by Thongal. Y'all better think long and hard about the rights your signing away and what MGM could potentially do with your artwork.

I mean, artwork gets "stolen" constantly to do things with that you might not like as the original artist.

[NickEast]

But what about "original artwork" -- gate themed?

Stargate Command made a request recently for it to be displayed in their booth. A release form would be provided. I took the liberty to look at the release forms used by Thongal. Y'all better think long and hard about the rights your signing away and what MGM could potentially do with your artwork.

I mean, artwork gets "stolen" constantly to do things with that you might not like as the original artist.

If you mean "fan art" as in 3D models, drawings, paintings, uniform patches, even clothing for cosplaying, then yes technically we don't own it even if we made it. We recreate something that has been copyrighted and trademarked, which is no better than knockoff Nike shoes or Gucci handbags. Through "fair use" we have some freedom, and so far MGM, like most production companies, are quite mild by allowing it. Considering how big especially cosplay is, they can't really do anything about it. But selling things is a very dark grey area, at least as far as I know. MGM and most others seem to allow it (I bought several uniform patches at the Dutch Comic Con two years ago), but it's not without risk.

If they give us permission, which I think is the case with cosplay and general fan-art, then they can't really do anything about it (like claiming it or something) as long as it's not sold or otherwise profited from. Other than that, I don't know.