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SCP's staff say ShareAlike forces A24 to ship its 2027 anthology DRM-free
A24's V/H/S: SCP is due in theatres in 2027. The wiki's staff and authors say nobody contacted them, and that the Creative Commons license on their stories rules out DRM and exclusive distribution deals.
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What happened
- V/H/S: SCP was revealed in July and A24 joined the project in September, with the anthology set for theatrical release in 2027 and its segments framed as recovered footage of containment breaches.
- The SCP Wiki's staff and authors said in a published statement that they "were not consulted or contacted regarding this film", and that repeated approaches to filmmakers, producers and distributors went unanswered.
- SCP stories and concepts carry a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which allows commercial adaptation but requires derivative projects to go out under the same or a compatible license.
- By the wiki's reading, A24 and its partners may produce, screen and stream the film, but may not apply DRM or hold exclusive control over how it is distributed.
- The wiki team said the effect is that anyone could upload the finished film to YouTube or another service without paying the filmmakers, and other creators could build their own work on it.
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Why it matters
- constraint Windowing and copy protection are how this franchise has earned since 2021, when the films moved to Shudder. If the wiki's reading of the license holds, the 2027 plan has to work without either, and the exhibitors and streamers signing on have to price that.
- exposure The remedy the wiki names is loss of the right to distribute anything derived from the material. A breach threatens the film's own release.
- contradiction Deadline reported worldwide rights on Friday; the Foundation told AVClub that is incorrect. Until one of them is corrected, anyone underwriting the film is working from two incompatible descriptions of what was acquired.
- decision Any team whose product is built on ShareAlike material now has to decide before launch whether its shipping method is itself the breach, because paywalls, DRM and exclusive apps are conditions on the copy, not on the credit.
The wiki's writers publish under a license that invites commercial reuse and asks two things back: credit, and the same license on anything you make from it [3]. A distribution plan runs into the second condition.
The staff are not claiming A24 needs their permission to make the film. Their statement says the studio and its partners can produce it, screen it and stream it [5]. What they say the license rules out is DRM and, in the statement the Foundation gave AVClub, "any sort of exclusivity with respect to distribution" [13]. Since 2021, every V/H/S film has gone out on Shudder [15].
The franchise's theatrical history is modest. The original made $1.9 million in 2012, and the second and third films made tens of thousands during limited runs [16], roughly 1% to 5% of the first film's gross [18].
The wiki describes the penalty for breach as termination. "If anyone were to violate this license, that person or organization would lose all rights to distribute any works derived from the SCP Foundation Wiki," the statement said [7]. For a studio, that means a compliance dispute reaches the film's own distribution rights.
Then there is the question of who could sell exclusivity in the first place. The staff dispute the report that A24 acquired worldwide rights [4], telling AVClub that Deadline was "incorrect" on that point [12], while Deadline reported on Friday that the studio had worldwide rights and a global theatrical release planned [11]. Under the license as the wiki describes it, permission went to everyone in advance [3]. A meeting with the curators could settle credit and wording, but it cannot withdraw a grant already made to the public.
The Foundation also said the filmmakers have shown "having no interest in engaging with the authors or curators of the material they're adapting" [14]. Neither report says which wiki entries the segments adapt, and neither includes a response from A24 or Spooky Pictures [19].
More teams are about to be in this position. A24's Backrooms, another horror property that started online, was a record-breaking success, and its performance has reportedly sent Hollywood producers looking through internet communities for more material [17].
Any team building on this material has to work out what the license constrains before a launch date exists. It constrains how you distribute. Attribution fits in a title card; ShareAlike reaches the copy itself [3]. The license has also already granted everybody the same permission, so no single party has more of it to sell. That leaves a release plan that cannot include exclusivity, with revenue coming from what the license leaves alone, such as the paid screening the wiki says is permitted [5]. The staff said they would "love to sit down" with A24, Spooky Pictures and the other companies to discuss how the film could be released while complying with the license [8].
What to watch
- Whether A24, Spooky Pictures or the distributors answer the wiki's request for a meeting about license compliance.
- Whether the film's credits or marketing name specific SCP Wiki entries and authors, which would settle how far it is a derivative work.
- Whether any exhibition or streaming deal announced before the 2027 release includes exclusivity or DRM terms.