The Trust refuses to come to an agreement where they will support the Flat Stanley Project in any way. For many years, as a courtesy, Hubert advertised Flat Stanley books and recently even promoted the musical on his site. Hubert has never sought compensation for the Flat Stanley Project and runs the site out of his own pocket. The Trust plans to trademark the name "Flat Stanley", after which, Hubert says, "their position is they'll be able to own or take anything that uses that name" including pursuing an administrative transfer of his domain name A retroactive trademark? They want to annex a URL? According to Hubert, "They'll still 'allow' me to carry on the Flat Stanley Project at but they will take the domain and they will use the site and the traffic I've generated to promote the musical, advertise merchandise and to sell books." The website for The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley has lifted imagesfrom Hubert's website without permission from either Hubert or the photographers (who still retain the copyrights) and slapped their own copyright on the bottom of the webpage. It is not just a simple case of cease and desist. According to Dale Hubert, the Trust has contacted him regarding The Flat Stanley Project website with what sounds suspiciously like scare tactics. Now the late author's Trust is promoting a musical version of the book and plans to publish additional Flat Stanley books penned by another author.
Author Jeff Brown encouraged teacher Hubert to continue with the project, crediting it with renewed book sales, and publisher Harper-Collins encouraged Hubert to purchase the URL Unfortunately, due to the goodwill involved, no one put anything in writing.
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