Many of you might already be aware of this but I consider myself a Star Wars nut and I had no idea about it so perhaps many of you haven't either.
Basically, a very large group of super-fans led by Danny Ramirez and produced by Star Wars Theory made an excellent fan film featuring everyone's favorite bad guy, Darth Vader. It has very high production value and was basically made simply because the guys involved love Star Wars, there was no grand notion of making a bunch of money for the studio. Well, that's silly for me to assume... but that is their public statement anyway.
They used characters and costumes and names from the now Disney-owned franchise but the acting, the voices, the music and the clips were all home-made. They did not take any stock footage from the films at any point during the production.
It should come as no surprise that Disney took notice of this and copystriked the video and YouTube took the movie down. It was viewed 5 million times before it was taken down. Then something amazing happened....
The fans (you know, the people that pay the bills for Disney) rallied and created a massive group that reached out to Disney / Warner to allow the film. Surprisingly, Disney's problem with the video wasn't the story or characters, but the music. However, the creators of the film actually hired a composer and if you listen closely, you will hear that the famous "Darth March" songs are actually slightly different than those used in the films.
The outrage of the group led to a group plan to boycott episode 9 among other things. But the really neat thing that ended the ban on this film is who came in to help: LucasFilm.
That's right! George Lucas' own company and original creator of the Star Wars universe we all know and love talked to the people at Warner / Disney and the copystrike ended. This came with conditions such as the short film being demonetized and what not - which i am sure was annoying to the creators, but at least it is still available for everyone to watch legally.
Now the really cool part is that the guys who made this had so much fun and are recieving such wonderful feedback that they are going to make further episodes. Personally, I would really like it if Disney would work out a deal with these guys in order to make a full series. This film is done in the dark style that Star Wars used to have before it became a whimsical journey filled with SJW glory.