Writers take on Disney over pay

Disney has been accused of cheating writers and artists of their royalties, said Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times. A task force led by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America concluded that “Disney may owe hundreds of writers and artists royalties averaging a few thousand dollars each,” with some claims reaching up to $20,000. Among those who have accused Disney of wage theft is Alan Dean Foster, a writer who “signed a contract with George Lucas to write a novelization of the first Star Wars movie even before it premiered in 1977.” Royalties from that book and a sequel “mysteriously disappeared in 2012, around the time Disney acquired Lucasfilm.” Disney initially told Foster’s agent it had “acquired the properties but not the obligations.”