A24's plan to build a V/H/S horror anthology installment around the SCP Foundation has run into licensing trouble, calling into question the studio's ability to control a film based on material that must stay openly available. The studio and its partners at Image Nation Studios and Spooky Pictures have said their worldwide rights cover only the specific film project being produced. That claim sits awkwardly beside the SCP Foundation's licensing rules, which require works based on its material to carry the same open terms as the original.
SCP began as a creepypasta on 4chan, much like Backrooms, and grew into a sprawling body of wiki entries describing a fictional foundation that documents, captures, and contains paranormal anomalies. The SCP Foundation Wiki said after the film's announcement that it had not communicated with the filmmakers, producers, or distributors despite its own efforts, and believed the other side had not tried to make contact. Wiki administrator DrEverettMann told The Verge that several attempts to reach the project since the announcement had gone unanswered. The statement and the silence point to a break from how A24 handled Backrooms, where it worked with the creator of a popular YouTube series tied to that community.
The central issue is that the SCP Foundation operates under a Creative Commons license, specifically CC BY-SA 3.0, which allows commercial use but requires adaptations to be released under the same terms. Creative Commons CEO Anna Tumad贸ttir said anyone may use ShareAlike works commercially, but adaptations must carry the same license, with credit to the original creators and no exclusive distribution rights, unless a separate agreement is reached. She added that CC licenses, including ShareAlike, have been enforced in courts around the world. Paul Szynol, a law professor at the University of Michigan and Villanova, said anyone, including A24, Netflix, or members of the public, is free to make an SCP film and release it in theaters, but a studio could not stop others from adapting or redistributing its version. He called that an extremely unusual business model for a major studio. DrEverettMann said the license would not block theatrical screenings or ticket sales, though traditional distribution would be trickier, since no one can hold exclusive rights and audiences could legally download the film at home for free.
A24's recent history adds pressure. After Backrooms, the studio angered fans by filing copyright claims against other Backrooms creators, then withdrew them after director Kane Parsons intervened. The possible paths forward include releasing the film under the ShareAlike license, proceeding without addressing the licensing questions, or dropping the SCP branding while drawing inspiration from the material, as the novel There is No Antimemetics Division did. Szynol said moving ahead as planned would leave A24's version unauthorized and infringing, which he described as the death of the project. A24 declined to comment.
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