Why was this copyright war so intense?

Well, the main reason is that most young people haven't made a film before, and therefore aren't fully aware that there are these fundamental things called IP rights and budgets and shooting windows. To them, it's all disposable content. So, yeah, they would think that all I have to do is just walk down the streets with my mates, and that's the movie. It's not that simple, and one of the problems is that I fundamentally disagree about the notes that I've been given regarding that Weeded Out screenplay. I disagreed so much with them that I started writing the book to show that my approach wasn't anodyne, but rather snippets from life. As a shoot, it would've been an absolutely mammoth undertaking, and I've just done one of those, thanks very much. - The reason it was so intense was because it touched on politics that are traditionally seen as the turf of identity politics, and the film explicitly disavowed that lens. Naturally, the people with English and Theatre degrees that think they're better than me wanted to prove that their notes - and, by extension, their philosophy - would improve the show. But they forgot to ask... If they'd decided that my script was inspirational and written their own to plug the gaps, then that would be totally reasonable. Using my characters without my permission is really bad form, and that's actually why I won't sign a deal. - Films are intensely difficult beasts to put together. It's really not for the faint of heart. On the plus side, people who followed the war reckon I behaved fairly professionally, and all the old people are thinking about similar feuds in their own lives. Pulling the plug wasn't the most noble thing to do, but when I pulled the plug and pivoted to the Dakumentary, it was still just my own money that was going into those webseries films.