Star-studded Power Rangers fan film booted off YouTube

A hugely popular Power Rangers fan film was yanked off YouTube following a copyright challenge. The film’s producer vows to fight the removal.

Last Tuesday, a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fan film called Power/Rangers was uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube. Unlike an average episode of the series, which has been on TV in some form or another since it debuted in 1993, the fan film was gritty and violent. It revolved around a conversation between the Red and Pink Rangers (played by James Van Der Beek and Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff respectively) over how their multi-colored comrades met their not-safe-for-kids-TV ends. Directed by Hollywood veteran Joseph Kahn, Power/Rangers rode the nostalgia train to over 12 million views in just two days.

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The joy ride ended after Saben Brands, the company that owns the Power Rangers franchise, contacted Vimeo and YouTube and said that the film was infringing on its copyright. Vimeo took it down immediately, and YouTube followed shortly afterward.

Kahn said he is “very disappointed” that Saben Brands and its owner, billionaire Haim Saban, chose to do the turn his film into a legal dispute. “I think it’s a huge blow for fandom,” he told Deadline.

"I think they’re hurting themselves. I think with this short they’ve gotten more attention than ever before. How do you break the Internet with the Power Rangers? I think it gave them a lot of publicity and revived its pop culture awareness. Instead of supporting the good will of the fans, they’ve turned it into a legal issue. It doesn’t sound like they’re thinking of the fandom at all.“I hope they come to an awareness of how modern pop culture works. The audience will pay for the franchise, but they want to play with it as well. You can’t just dictate that these are the things you are going to watch in the way we want you to watch it. That’s not the way society works anymore. If you want the support of the modern fandom, you need to let them participate."

The issue of whether fans should be allowed to create original stories using someone else’s intellectual property is a thorny issue.

There are plenty of content creators, including Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin, who disapprove of the practice, but others remain neutral or even welcome it. When it comes fighting it out in the courts, the question becomes even more complicated, although Kahn definitely seems to think he’s on the right side of the law.

Here’s another statement from him:

"“Every image in Power/Rangers is original footage…Nothing was pre-existing. There is no copyrighted footage in the short. I am not making any money on it and I refuse to accept any from anyone. It was not even Kickstarted, I paid for it myself. This was made to be given away for free. It is just as if I drew a pic of Power Rangers on a napkin and I gave it to my friend. Is it illegal to give pic I drew of a character on a napkin to someone for free? No.”"

In any case, Adi Shankar plans to fight YouTube’s decision, whether privately or through a formal lawsuit.

Whatever happens, it can only be good news for the Power Rangers feature film Lionsgate is prepping for 2016.

H/T Badass Digest, goodreads

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