Fan Flick - Denied!

It's stuff like this that gives companies bad names.

"Four years in the planning Damnatus, made by German fans of the Warhammer 40,000 game, cost more than 10,000 euros, took months to film, employs 11 principal actors, dozens of extras and sophisticated post-production special effects. Now finished the film runs to 110 minutes.

But Huan Vu, director and producer of the movie, said Damnatus' creators have now given up trying to get the film in front of an audience." Mostly due to German copyright law:

" Andy Jones, legal and licensing head for Games Workshop, said this law confers rights on the creators of works that cannot be given away. This means that the creators of Damnatus cannot assign their rights to Games Workshop even if they wanted to. But by sanctioning the release of the film without this "assignment" Games Workshop would essentially be giving up the title to the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property."

[link] via bbc