#copyrightgate

Not a game. An interactive online dramatic television series.

Netflix had initially filed the TM application for "an online television series" - the office thought this was too broad and suggested they change this to "providing interactive online action, adventure, and comedic television series".

Netflix rejected these suggestions, and limited the claim to an interactive online dramatic television series. Not action! Not adventure! Not comedy! A dramatic series! (Note: they're gonna file for products they intend to cover commercially, so they already knew approximately what type of content was coming when this was filed). The TM was filed in 2019, which aligns with the DBs saying they had figured out the ending around 5 or 6 years ago.

YAY! We're getting the interactive TV series! (note: not a video game! a tv series!)

WHOOOP - the US is also pretty strict on TM filings (you can't file for all goods & services under the sun) - you need to prove that you are either using it or have evidence that you intend to use that trademark for those goods & services in the future. This TM was filed in 2019, and is still upheld currently!

FYI - looks like Tales from '85 will actually be an animated show/episode/whatever they release (again, TM filings don't lie), so don't get your hopes up too high for that date. You can't fool me Netflix!

So sorry for taking so long to answer but life's been busy rn 🙈

Copyrightgate

Basically when copyrighted material is released it is standard to be submitted within a few daysto the Library of Congress as to avoid copyright issues. So far only episode 1 of Season 5 has been submitted and the rest of the episodes still haven't. Whitney theorizes that maybe it's because these episodes will be edited or changed in some way therefore the version we saw wouldn't be the final version and that's why they haven't been submitted yet. This reasoning would also support the theory I've seen floating around that, like a record that has sides A and B, we saw side A therefore we still need to watch side B.

"Documentary"

This one's self explanatory, zero chance they would had released that doc unless there were ulterior motives; it makes both Netflix and Duffers look incompetent as fuck, only reason it was released is to bury the lede and create maximum impact when all is revealed.

#WSQKsync

Most recently this whole hashtag, people synced the ENTIRETY of the show, INCLUDING the documentary and well, it's wild. You can see for yourself here

Duffers' egos

Listen ST has never been the best show ever but the Duffers have never been incompetent with what the show's doing and we know they keep EXTREME attention to detail; just look at Maya herself praising them for it, another example: just watch these 30 seconds to see how detail focused they are. This show is their baby, what launched them to stardom; with all this procurement why would they throw it all away at the last second? Wouldn't they want to be remembered like one of the greats? A la Spielberg? A false ending would surely cement that for them.

Not to mention Stephen King, one of their biggest influences, has a famous false ending in The Dark Tower.

Quotes from past Duffer interviews

A quote from a july 2022 Duffer article: "... while a lot of Season 5 is actually pretty blurry, the last 30 minutes of it are pretty clear in our heads." And all of a sudden in the "doc" they don't have it?? LIES!! Here's a november 2022 article: they wrote the outline for Season 5 during the pandemic shutdown, so even before finishing filming season 4.

Also note in this same article the Duffers compare the S5 finale to LOTR Return of the King "in that they jokingly noted it will have "like, eight endings" to wrap up all the different subplots and storylines"; did y'all see that in the last 4 eps? Cause I sure didn't!

"Fake" runtimes?

Maya's interview from when they were still shooting Season 5?? Maya says "We’re making, basically, eight movies. The episodes are very long"

Those "fake" runtimes that surfaced months before the S5 release? Hmm now why would there even be fake runtimes??

Now these, these align more with what both Duffers and Maya described.

Netflix executives crying

Haven't seen anyone mention this, a november 2022 article: "the brothers pitched the full season to Netflix during a two-hour meeting, and there were no dry eyes in the house." I'm sorry, Netflix execs crying? You think the finale we saw made those souless bastards cry????

Talk of finales

Cast and crew kept bringing up the worst possible finales, WHY??

Here's why, Finn literally says it!!

"Some people were mad about the last episode of Game of Thrones and this is the thing that kind of retcons that we go back, we go back and we rewrite history"

Natalia and Finn acting sus

I am sorry for such a long post but it had to be said.

And finally, one of my faves, an on camera slip up brought to you by Natalia and Finn. When I saw the clip I went to look for it in the actual youtube interview cause I had watched it previously but, it turns out that's not there, it's actually ONLY in this Instagram reel.

Mind you this was posted on December 30th 2025 so they couldn't have been referencing or mocking #conformitygate cause it didn't exist yet.

I feel like there’s so SO MUCH evidence to all this, but the things that are the most interesting and most confusing of the bunch are as follows:

THE TICKETS

like how when 05x08 was put in theaters the tickets weren’t sold as tickets originally, where Netflix would earn the most money and milk us for all we’re worth. No no. They were sold as concession vouchers, so you had to buy something at the concessions booth with what you paid for. And the seat was in that package (the voucher)

Because why the fuck wouldn’t they have just sold them as is or even raise the price to make the most money out of this???? Since they sold the tickets as vouchers Netflix got no money from any of the sales, they all went to concessions and the theaters showing the episode! (We know Netflix guys, they for sure wouldn’t do this without good reason or if something is off or something we don’t know is happening)

2. THE UNREGISTERED EPISODES (in volumes)

as we all know (I would assume), copyrightgate, the fact that most of the episode aren’t registered is confusing in and of itself. But with yesterday (or last Thursday I’m not sure), ST was registered for copyright, and so far, only the episodes for vol1 have been registered. Not for Vol2 or 3. (Though I’m not sure if that’s because they need other dates or something or if they should’ve all been registered by now).

Since it has been about 2 MONTHS since the “last episode” of st was released, the only registered episodes that were registered: the ones from vol1. But with them releasing the registration for said episodes, it saying they were dated on Dec 1?

which, shouldn’t everything have been done with registration by Dec 1 if they were also done on that day? Or at least last Thursday when they were supposed to be registered for copyright.

3. THE FOURTH WALL BREAKS

with there being fourth wall breaks every now and again in movies and shows, it’s a matter of time before they show up in st right? Yeah. But there were A LOT of fourth wall breaks man. (I’m not sure if that’s amount is normal for shows but I’m pretty certain it isn’t). Like: Lucas breaking the fourth wall looking at the camera saying he doesn’t believe in coincidences anymore, Derek looking at us saying monsters are gonna kill us all ha ha ha, Will looking at the camera/at us at the final shots of them going up the stairs and him being THE ONLY ONE TO DO THAT, and probably the most known one: hopper breaking the fourth wall looking at the camera/at us while he’s talking to mike after he goes “missing” in the epilogue, saying how he pushes people away until he’s all alone, and then just looking back at Mike like nothing even happened?? hello??

like the directors and editors and everyone there filming has to know that that’s what’s happening and going in the final shot. Like if an actor accidentally looks at the camera, they’ll just shoot the scene again and then there wouldn’t be a fourth wall break. It’s that easy. So what is it with the amount of them this season? It has got to be on purpose, there’s no way they just “didn’t catch it” like they have shown us they can go back in and edit something, with holly and the under armor logo on her shirt. (Also ties in with the fact they could’ve edited the voltage dial, and the date on the camera in the roller rink in Lenora)

4. THE AFTER SHOW STUFF

When a show ends, wouldn’t you expect there to be some sort of after series press tour, interviews, skits, q&as, ANYTHING AT ALL. But there hasn’t been much of any of stuff like that. No interviews, no q&a, no ANSWERS EITHER. If you finish a show and the fans have questions, wouldn’t you just answer them with a flat and simple answer instead of saying nothing or even the d*ffers saying ‘yeah I don’t know, I guess that’s what happened’ LIKE THE FUCK? ITS YOUR SHOW? YOU WROTE IT (presumably) SHOULDNT YOU KNOW THIS? Like even if the finale had been real and all that, they still could’ve had interviews and stuff where they voice their opinions and answer the questions of fans, and even just fucking confirm or deny stuff so the fans aren’t left with literally nothing. And they could’ve cleared up plot holes and stuff too? but I guess they just didn’t care enough to do any of that??

this whole thing doesn’t make any sense

there HAS to be something we’re missing, like ALL of this evidence (outside of what I talked about here) has to amount to something, like huh??

It looked so artificial, right like a theatre, yes?

a theatre.

A FUCKING THEATRE!!!!!!!!!!

Quoting Dustin: MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!!

It was on my damn nose!!! I thought that it looked like a theatre multiple times, but only now wording it in my comments I GOT IT 😭😭😭😭😭😭

It mentions that Cherry Coke played a role in Coco-Cola's success in 1985. Almost every article I can find about Cherry Coke mentions that it was released "around the same time" or "almost simultaneously" with New Coke but no one gives an exact date. Some sources just say 1985 or summer of 1985 or early 1985.

I could only find a specific date on Kiddle and from a Reddit post from six years ago. Even the official Coke website doesn’t mention it.

We know that original Coke was rereleased 79 days after New Coke (on 11th July). But I'm not sure how that lines up with CG because the season 5 book comes out in June.

If Original Coke = Stranger Things and New Coke = Tales from '85, then what could Cherry Coke represent?

Some Bylers have suggested Cherry Coke could be subtext for Byler itself.

I'm thinking we might be getting some sort of clue on the 19th or maybe even noticeable changes to episodes given that the episode copyrights haven't been registered yet.

How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base. #bandersnatchgate

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Check out the thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons.

I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has ONLY happened for interactive shows and movies.

Posts on this topic from me:

1. How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale.

2. The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight.

3. The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

In my posts, I will argue that the promo for both Netflix originals "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend" is eerily similar to what we have witnessed for conformitygate (CG). We will realize together that these worked as a prototype for CG. Netflix did not only take the time to improve the interactive element in their backend (Post 2), but especially worked out their flaws in setting up a successful promotional puzzle (Post 1 and Post 3). My promotional timeline posts, from beginning to end, mirror what we are about to witness here.

Thanks to @fixthehyper for collecting most of the sources in chronological order :)

Promotional timeline for "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" (BMB):

2017

Dec 17: Report on Netflix's mission to create "choose your own adventure" media for adults. (Bloomberg)

https://archive.ph/OBvT1

2018

Oct 1: Speculations about an interactive Black Mirror episode in Season 5. (Bloomberg, Verge)

Oct 3: Speculations continue about an interactive Black Mirror episode in Season 5. (The Independent)

Nov 5: Shutdown of multiple rumors about Black Mirror Season 5 by show producer Charlie Booker. He did NOT respond to BMB rumors. (THEWRAP)

Nov 21: Rumors about BMB continue, the name "Bandersnatch" is dropped by a random Twitter account. (I feel so vindicated about my Nikki Baxter coverage btw)

Dec 2: A verified Netflix "leak" confirms Dec 28 release date. Note how fans already had been speculating for days in a similar fashion to conformitygate. (TVGUIDE, Forbes)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/02/black-mirror-gets-season-5-release-date-via-leak/#e1b5deb211b7

Dec 3: Netflix deletes a tweet with the BMB release date, further fueling the flames of this being a trustworthy "leak". The Stranger Things ARG has shown me that Netflix leaks information on purpose, especially on Twitter. (Observer, THEWRAP)

Dec 19: First confirmation by Netflix of BMB being the interactive stand alone movie from the rumors, rather than part of Black Mirror Season 5. A Reddit user is credited for finding it, but a preview was posted on Netflix. Notice how the OG Reddit thread, to be found in links provided, reeks of plant behavior. (Forbes, Esquire)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/19/black-mirror-bandersnatch-is-revealed-to-be-a-film-via-netflix-heres-what-we-know-so-far/#7ce5b3957d53

Dec 20: Explanation of the promotion of and the fan speculations on BMB up until that point. We have seen similar articles on CG in Jan and Feb (2026). (Screenrant, Digital Spy)

Dec 27: Official announcement of BMB

Dec 28 (2018): Release of BMB

Look at a summary on Wikipedia of the events leading up to the BMB release (parts were highlighted by @fixthehyper ):

People noticed inconsistencies, clues and easter eggs in the same way we are doing for CG. Social media accounts speculated and leaked info, mainstream media reported on it, to create hype. We also see an early, non-coincidental reference to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which eventually turned out to be a little tease for the other interactive movie that was released later, in 2020.

Short promotional timeline for "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy versus the Reverend" (KvR):

2020

April 16: One month prior, a surprise announcement!

Of course, this is a lot smaller in scale, but notice how Netflix preplans their interactive releases far in advance and cross-references them in promotion. This becomes relevant, especially when examining the parallels with the Stranger Things ARG. Check out the post on Kimmy vs the Reverend parallels by @thebestofmyrmidons . @fixthehyper also has a post with evidence that the script of Stranger Things Season 5 was already finished in Spring 2023!

I encourage everyone to participate in dissecting both these interactive movies to predict what's coming next. That task would be a lot easier if Netflix had not removed both of those in May 2025.

Ohhh nooo, why did they do that???