Yesterday, it was revealed that A24 is planning to produce a film based on the SCP Foundation universe: a collaborative horror project online that is covered under the Creative Commons terms. Today, the SCP Foundation has stated that it has “not had any communication with the filmmakers, producers, or distributors for this project,” and that A24 “does not and cannot have any exclusive rights to anything related to the SCP Foundation…”
Variety broke the news of A24’s SCP film last night, in which they explained that, in collaboration with Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios, A24 had secured “worldwide rights to the project.” The film is set to be an “untitled extension” of the V/H/S horror anthology universe, titled V/H/S: SCP.
The “staff and authors of the SCP Foundation Wiki” released an official statement regarding the V/H/S: SCP film earlier today, which notes that the SCP Foundation was “not consulted or contacted” regarding the announcement despite “attempting to contact the filmmakers” directly beforehand. For context, prior to A24 joining the project, Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios announced V/H/S: SCP back in July, 2026.
As the SCP Foundation’s statement explains, all of the “SCPs, and related concepts, characters, etc.” included in the SCP universe are covered under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 3.0) license.
SCP Foundation states that this means A24 would “not be permitted to distribute [V/H/S: SCP] with DRM or other effective technological measures that would prevent it from being copied.” Likewise, this means “any commercial streaming service would be free to stream the film without payment to anyone” and that “anyone could upload [V/H/S: SCP] to YouTube.”
The CC BY-SA 3.0 Licence, And What It Protects Against
Obviously, I’m not a copyright lawyer, so take what I’m about to say with a huge grain of salt, but the case the SCP Foundation is making appears to be quite straightforward.
The Creative Commons’ BY-SA 3.0 page states that “you may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits,” and that anyone who chooses to “remix, transform, or build upon the material” covered under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence “must distribute [their] contributions under the same license as the original.”
In simpler terms, it’s fine to sell something based on a CC BY-SA 3.0 licence. However, by doing so, you’re bound by the same rules of the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence…which basically means that A24’s V/H/S: SCP film could, indeed, be uploaded to YouTube for free. In fact, basically any streaming service could upload the film without asking for A24’s permission.
But here’s the rub: What would happen if A24 simply chose to ignore these rules and, for instance, began copyright-striking those who uploaded the V/H/S: SCP film to YouTube? Interestingly, something like that did actually happen in 2019.
A Russian man named Andrey Duksin filed a trademark for the SCP Foundation’s name and logo, and began using said trademark to limit the sales of SCP products in Russia. The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service ruled in the SCP Foundation’s favor in 2021, and Duksin’s trademark was then dissolved in 2022.
The issue here is that A24 has a lot more money than some random dude in Russia. Considering that the SCP Foundation had to crowdfund its legal funds when combating Duskin, it stands to reason that it would also have to raise funds for a legal battle against A24…and that sounds a damn sight more costly.
Plus, A24 drew the ire of the Backrooms fanbase for issuing copyright strikes against video games, artwork, and videos based on the Backrooms universe earlier this year. While A24 ultimately reversed these strikes, explaining that they were “automated” and that A24 did not claim ownership over “any community works that have since been built around” the Backrooms universe, the SCP Foundation’s stance is understandable given the film studio’s prior slip-up.
