Power Rangers Fan Film Under Fire From Saban

Power/Rangers Director Joseph Khan with fight coordinator Don Thai Theerathda setting up a fight in the Power/Rangers fan-film

Earlier saw a Power Rangers fan-film released starring Katee Sackhoff and James Van Der Beek.

The video is up on YouTube with over 2.6 million views, but it’s learned that Vimeo has taken it down at the request of Saban, who owns the rights to Power Rangers.

Saban apparently filed a copyright infringement request with Vimeo, with Vimeo telling the director of the fan-film, music video director Joseph Khan, the following: “Vimeo is the host for your videos and as a host for user-generated content we are fully compliant with the notice and takedown provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It looks like your video was removed due to a copyright infringement claim by: Tim Quinlan, SCG Power Rangers LLC.”

Khan took to his Twitter to release a series of tweets asking fans to contact Saban to stop the harassment.

“Saban is trying to shut POWER/RANGERS down,” Khan tweeted. “If you’d like to keep watching, tell them to stop harassing me.”

Khan then directed people to Saban’s customer support page at: sabranbrands.com/contact.

It probably should be noted that Khan’s Power/Rangers fan-film uses no actual Power Rangers material, but contains all original footage.

It’s unclear where the law lies on Khan’s fan-film as if it is considered a parody, then no copyright can be claimed. In addition, Khan is not getting paid, which is usually a factor in copyright claims as well. Possibly the only argument Saban could make is that Khan’s film hurts the Power Rangers brand as it’s better than anything they have put out themselves. Or the obvious opposite argument would be it’s benefiting Saban and the Power Rangers brand as it’s giving them free promotion.

“I just wanted to make Power Rangers good for once,” Kahn told Deadline. “It’s kind of a silly franchise. It was an experiment in tone; it was a challenge. I took the silliest property I could think of and tried to see if I could make it serious enough.”

Watch the Power/Rangers fan-film: