So would he have not made it at all if he knew Disney would claim it?
Man, he is using the Star Wars IP. They have a right to do whatever they want with it. He’s manipulating yours guys’ emotions because he think he is owed money for his hard work.
If it was an original work, sure he would. But it is not. It is a fan film of a Star Wars IP, and he actually has little if any right to it because he doesn’t own the original IP. Of course he can’t make money off a fan film. Just like fan editors shouldn’t make money off their fan edits.
This guy clearly doesn’t have a full grasp on how IP law works, and he should know Disney has an obligation to make claims like this whether they personally want to or not, but he is treating himself like a victim knowing that this could happen.
He just wants you guys to feel bad for him so you buy his merch. If he really cared about his fans he would try to make them understand more.
If this is really a big deal to him, then I would recommend he take it off YouTube, which already has a cooystrike problem that is a whole other subject (but not like it matters to him because he can’t make money off this regardless), and maybe host the fan film on a site like Vimeo. I would also get his composer to rescore that particular part of the track that pinged on the copyright radar. That’s really all he could do if he doesn’t like Disney monetizing their own IP, which they have a right to do and what every company that owns IP also does.