The Science Fiction Writers of America had a press conference today, calling out the Walt Disney Company for failure to pay a writer’s royalties. News that a quarter-trillion dollar company is doing something that screws over individual artists isn’t particularly shocking, but the nature of Disney’s justification in this case is wild.

Background: Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox used to be big, independent media companies. Now they’re part of Disney. Since Disney bought them, they now own the Star Wars and Alien media franchises, each of which contain a teeny-tiny crumb made up of novels.

Alan Dean Foster wrote the original novelization of Star Wars, and a sequel novel, Splinter of the Minds Eye. He also wrote the novelizations of Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3. Apparently, all five of these books are still in print. But, while the books are still for sale, Alan Dean Foster is no longer receiving royalties. Disney has explained to the Science Fiction Writers of America that this is all fine:

Disney’s argument is that they have purchased the rights but not the obligations of the contract. In other words, they believe they have the right to publish work, but are not obligated to pay the writer no matter what the contract says.

SFWA president Mary robinette kowal

I thought I was already maximally cynical about the habits of megacorporations, but I’m actually astonished at how brazen this is. I mean, I’m sure there’s a deep, rich body of legal theory that I’m about to ignorantly stomp all over, but: isn’t the entire point of a contract that you don’t get to pick and choose after the fact which parts apply?

I’d be shocked if this went to court. I suspect #DisneyMustPay will result in Foster getting what he’s due, if only because I can’t imagine the legal fees being less than the royalties. If this did go to court, though, I would assume it was because Disney has purchased “the rights but not the obligations” of so many contracts that it was worth the expense. And Foster’s experience does make one wonder: has Disney been paying royalties to any of the authors whose books came along with those acquisitions?

Also, is this a fight that Disney really wants to win? They license a lot of IP. Do they really want it to be possible for someone to just buy up a licensee, then carry on selling Mickey Mouse-branded red wine or whatever without paying any more fees? Because, by their own argument, that seems like it should be a-okay. Would that really be better than just paying authors the rounding error on Disney’s books that is their royalties?