I believe that is a major concern and stopping point for a lot of fans.

SMGO got together with WB, WB said “no” and SMGO has decided to “prove them wrong” then (hopefully) get back to the negotiation table after collecting pledges.

It is understandable to be hesitant to participate given that this is being done without the sanction of the intellectual and content property owners.

We are aware of this, and have posted about it on our #SMGO tag. The short version of my stance on it is:

1. SMGO is doing this without Warner Brother’s permission after having received a “no”, putting the entire operation in rather rocky shades of grey legal ground.
2. SMGO (a barely more than 2-month-old venture) is asking we take them at their word that they cannot touch the money despite SMGO Inc. being listed as the recipient on Paypal. (We are awaiting a statement from Paypal on how this works.) The answers to questions regarding legitimacy and legality seem to be trust us in a tone that indicates to me that this was poorly and hastily planned out but that they are unwilling to take a step back and plan properly before leaping forward.
3. The reward tiers being offered with the donations are out-rightly absurd and basically impossible between licensing permissions and cost. Their assertion that this can all be paid for with digital streaming commercials seems to jump several guns in order of production as well as being unrealistic. Additionally, we are concerned about the legality of them offering reward tiers of copyrighted characters that they do not own.
4. The assertion of SMGO that if this all goes through as expected that the new seasons would become exclusively available digitally on SMGO with only being paid for the actual production costs (no profit) and a broadcasting fee (one time profit) to go to WB while WB would lose both TV and digital broadcast rights to SMGO gives WB, the content owner, little incentive to go along with any of this. What I’m reading from SMGO indicates that the only broadcast rights WB would retain from them is international syndication an option to syndicate the episodes at a later date (reruns after the initial run of the show is complete). I would not think that this is an appealing offer.

Given the questionable nature of the circumstances, while we chose to believe SMGO likely has good intentions, I have not yet seen cause to believe in the method by which they act. Brandon Vietti of Young Justice has said in the past, “The sentiment is nice but fans should NOT organize a fundraiser for YJ or GLTAS. Such a thing MUST be sanctioned by WB first.“ [link], we are choosing to go with that for the time being and not support this new move until some sort of verifiable approval comes down either from Warner Brothers or someone else in authority regarding the shows.

Regarding the impact of this on “Green Lantern: The Animated Series”, at this point SMGO has (somewhat understandably) dropped support of GLTAS in favor of the cheaper-to-produce and larger fanbase of “Young Justice” — making this entire process frankly a bit off topic to this GLTAS blog. Outside of the overly-fantastical reward tiers claiming they will design and produce Razer and Aya action figures (tacking the need for a non-YJ license onto the rest of this mess) none of this has any direct bearing on GLTAS for the time being.

We urge DC Nation fans to use caution in choosing whether or not to support this move by SMGO, and what information I haven’t covered here is mostly collected here.

Just to be certain we are clear. The mods at greenlantern-tas (we are just two people folks) feel that the newest iteration of the SMGO campaign has potential to alienate WB rather than endear the save movement to them, and that without studio support it stands on very rocky legal ground with no history we can look to as a measure of how trust-able this less than 3-month-old venture is to behave as they claim on their FAQ. Without the studio being connected, we have not been able to receive an answer as to whose account these pledges will be made to since SMGO claims they will never be the MOR and they do not have a studio account to point at yet. We only have received a trust-our-word assurance that WB will be the final recipient of the money if and when it is collected.

We are encouraging fans be cautious in light of this. Ultimately, the choice is up to each individual fan whether or not they support this new move, and we will update you if we hear anything we believe to be encouraging news or a viable update in relation to GLTAS and the Fanterns.

I have been monitoring SMGO updates as best I can. I am not an official related to SMGO nor the GLTAS or YJ properties. SMGO’s prior official update was that WB had asked them not to release any information while talks are ongoing, so they have no cause to risk the talks by telling some blog-runner restricted information.

Have patience. This was not ever going to be a fast process, and I want to reiterate that SMGO is not the end-all be-all option.

There was a comment on SMGO’s FaceBook [direct link] two days ago that indicates we might hear something within the next week, but we’ll see what happens. I would note that this is a response by the FB page runner to an individual user comment — it is not a formal announcement and whatever is going on my be subject to change.

mmemento:

who is powerless and has no say in show renewals.

Why not focus your energy and be productive on messaging WB, CN,DC comics through Facebook, twitter and their own website? :) 

stay frosty

I encourage this Fanterns. We’ve had trolls before. We’ll have them again. This too shall pass.

Let’s go message better outlets. [link]

Presumably! Emerald Knights has not posted anything to their event calendar yet, but be assured as soon as I have details I will share them here!

Fanterns, I am hearing about SMGO page access problems. We are probably flooding their poor servers. (The site is only a week old.) I personally am still waiting to get the email with my login password before I can vote. Give it a little bit for them to catch up to the flood of new users and traffic.

It’s not funding anything yet. Apparently the site went live just last Friday. It hasn’t been open a week yet.

I’ve been over their FAQ and Terms of Use pages. They seem to say that they do not attempt to make a contract until after the slated pledge amount has been reached. That is some very sketchy legal territory there.

Additionally, the show creators/producers Brandon Vietti (YJ) and Giancarlo Volpe (GLTAS) have indicated on Twitter that SMGO’s method of operating without sanction from the copyright license holder (Warner Brothers) is not acceptable and have asked us (the fans) not to do so. [link]

I encourage being respectful of that and not using SMGO. If there is a legal kerfuffle of that level (attempting to raise money without sanction of the owners) at this early stage it is possible it may make WB less-willing to grant our requests for continuing the shows.

[source]

Please note that Giancarlo Volpe also re-tweeted this from Mr. Vietti.

Any fundraising campaign MUST be sanctioned by WB, or you are risking major legal trouble.

EDIT 2: GLTAS fans have been given the go-ahead by Mr. Volpe. There has been no word as of yet from the YJ staff. [link]

EDIT 1: Official word has come down from the shows’ creators asking that we DO NOT go through SMGO. [link]

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I’m not sure how to react officially to this entire SMGO thing being promoted at the moment. I would like to think it’s all well-intentioned people thinking that they are doing the right thing.

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