Scott’s Rant Box: How Peter S. Beagle is Getting Ripped off & What We Can Do about It

I had planned to start off with a different rant until this came to my attention. Many of you have seen, or at least heard of, The Last Unicorn animated movie. And many of you may also know that the movie was based off Peter S. Beagle’s novel of the same name. It has recently been redistributed on DVD and sold well without any advertising by Granada Media.

But what you may not know is that Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, has not seen one single dime of the royalties promised to him. In fact, they even went so far as to tell him, in so many words, “Try to get it from us.” That’s just plain wrong and really bad for business.

Now, I’m a Capitalist. I firmly believe in the benefits of a Free Enterprise system. So nothing pisses me off more than to see that system get abused by unscrupulous dunderheads who think they can get away with ripping people off.

For the moment, negotiations have opened between Beagle’s legal representatives and Granada Media. A decision should be forthcoming by July 12. Hopefully, Granada Media will wise up. But if not…

You can find all the info you need on how you can help at:

http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp/

And here’s the url for the interview where Peter S. Beagle talks about it:

http://www.fast-forward.tv/archive/current.htm


The “Good Twin” in me hopes they come to a satisfactory agreement, for Beagle’s sake. But the “Evil Twin” in me dares them to keep screwing him. In fact, I double dog dare them. Because I want them to see what happens when the writer community in general and his fans in particular take action. I want to see their sales drop to a level they can’t maintain. I would love to see Granada Media become an example for the others on What Never To Do.

Maybe then other companies will at least think twice before attempting the same. But I’m probably just being idealistic.