Consumers Pay for Their Own Viral Marketing

Universal Studios is sending a bill to supporters of its newest movie "Serentiy (pictured right)," a spin off the television series, "Firefly." 'What did the fans do that could be so bad?' is probably your first reaction. The answer is they sold t-shirts and created Web sites, how horrible, right?! (I'm using sarcasm if you can't tell)

Yep, Universal's legal department sent cease and desist letters plus a licensing fee of $8,750 to a t-shirt peddler. Now the fans are forwarding those bills to Universal for their services. P2pnet.net says the consumers' bill is $1,822,275 to be exact. And as p2p-weblog.com says, "It's about time that fans were recognized and not attacked for their efforts."

One consumer's parent said in response to the charges:
Universal will disregard everything that they (and anyone else) do. It's going to take a hot poker to get Universal to do anything pro-consumer. Remember, all of the decisions are made by a group of women and men sitting at a table trying to figure out how to maximize profit. And that they are going to try to do, even if they are shortsighted about it."

If the consumer is right, Universal is being outrageous. Universal Studios should take tips from the #1 movie of the past two weekends and learn to embrace its consumers. "Borat" encourages its fans to repost videos on YouTube and post comments, but in this case consumers are pouring money out of their pockets to increas the fan base and Universal is obviously not appreciative.

Hasn't Universal learned to appreciate its consumers not insult them! I could see their fan base dropping if they don't make a statement about the matter soon or at least work it out with the fined consumers.

All I have to say is where is the love?!