Tag Archives: intellectual property

Kirkman Responds To Lawsuit

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Things aren’t quite settled in the world of The Walking Dead.  Robert Kirkman has responded to the lawsuit against him by Tony Moore over rights.  Kirkman had this to say to the Hollywood Reporter:

The lawsuit is ridiculous, we each had legal representation seven years ago and now he is violating the same contract he initiated and approved and he wants to misrepresent the fees he was paid and continues to be paid for the work he was hired to do. Tony regularly receives payment for the work he did as penciler, inker and for gray tones on the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic series and he receives royalties for the TV show, to assert otherwise is simply incorrect.

 

Tony Moore vs. Robert Kirkman Over The Walking Dead

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Walking Dead CastIt’s been a hell of a week when it comes to creator rights.  Marvel continues to fight with the Kirby estate which lead to talks of boycotts, Marvel won it’s fight against Gary Friedrich over Ghost Rider, DC decided to do Before Watchmen, then there’s the Alex De Campi/Jimmy Broxton/James Hodgkins fiasco and so much more.

Now, Tony Moore is suing Robert Kirkman over The Walking Dead.  According to The Hollywood Reporter which broke the story:

Moore says he was duped into assigning his interest in the material over to Kirkman, who has since gone on to fame and fortune. Moore, on the other hand, has received very little compensation and has not be able to access profit statements from properties including Walking Dead, he says.

In 2005, Moore signed over his rights to Kirkman’s company for 60 percent of “Comic Publishing Net Proceeds” in connection with Walking Dead and another project called Brit; 20 percent of “motion picture net proceeds” in connection with Walking Dead and Brit; and 50 percent of “motion picture net proceeds” from another project called Battle Pope.  But according to Moore, he he hasn’t received much revenue nor any profit statements.

But, things get stranger from there:

Moore claims he was told in 2005 by Kirkman that a big TV deal was on the table but “that Kirkman would not be able to complete the deal unless [Moore] assigned all of his interest in the Walking Dead and other works to Kirkman,” according to the complaint. Thinking the deal would fall apart, Moore signed the contract, he says, allowing Kirkman to “swindle” him out of his 50 percent interest in the copyright and never intending to pay him his share of royalties.

Moore and Kirkman launched The Walking Dead comic in 2003, with Moore drawing the first six issues.  The interior art duties have since moved to current artist Charlie Adlard.

Here’s the actual complaint via Deadline.com.

Marvel, Ghost Rider and Their Tone Deaf Attitude

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It’s been a hell of a week when it comes to creator rights and shit hitting the fan online.  What started the storm was the lawsuit by Gary Friedrich against Marvel over his credits and rights to Ghost Rider.  Not surprisingly, Friedrich lost the case, but it wasn’t his loss that cause the shitstorm, it’s the decision that Friedrich now owes Marvel $17,000 according to a decision involving a counter-suit by Marvel.  They 68 year old Friedrich doesn’t have that type of money, showing how poorly creators are paid, no matter how iconic and popular their creations.  This was all on the heels of Marvel’s fight with the Kirby estate.  Things were ready to explode.

First up is the idiocy of the counter-suit.  Basically, Marvel is suing Friedrich for selling drawings he did of Ghost Rider at shows.  This is a common practice and usually you can get most artists to draw most characters.  It’s an unwritten rule that companies allow this to happen as it’s good promotion for them, generates good will within the community and as a whole is a bit difficult to police.  Well, Marvel just took a dump on that.

Now, all creators need to think twice about what they draw for fans, who knows how many years down the road they may be sued and asked for that money gained.  Not to mention the massive amount of unauthorized art on sites like DeviantArt and Etsy.  Really, I’m shocked Marvel was rewarded any monetary amount concerning they haven’t enforced their intellectual property anywhere similar and have gained WAY more than they might have lost.

Congrats Marvel for ruining the fun.  What’s more disturbing is Marvel’s very apparent shift publicly and their pissing on fandom.  The Kirby fight is over tens of millions of dollars, I get that, but there’s an amicable solution out there for all parties.  This lawsuit with Friedrich is just kicking a man when he’s down.  Marvel won, leave the man be now.  Allow him to call himself grandpooba if he wants, as long as he doesn’t license items, create toys, whatever, he should be allowed to draw whatever he’d like.  This is the way it’s been done for everyone else and should continue to be so.  On top of that Marvel and their parent company Disney supported the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act.  Both are very anti-consumer and fans.  That legislation took the might of hundreds of websites to defeat and luckily we did.

https://twitter.com/#!/TheBDAG/status/168144924850655232

But what can we do?  Talks of boycotts abound and as they continue to trample on fandom and creativity as a whole.  My enthusiasm to support them has been diminished and this is from a Marvel fanboy and I’m less inclined to give them my dollars and devote my time to promote their products.  Vote with your dollars and support creator friendly companies and indie comics.

But even more disturbing is their lack of response to all of the furor.  There’s nothing.  No interviews, no comments, no acts to show they care.  Instead we get silence.  It’s a court case and many times you can’t, but that doesn’t limit them from engaging the community as a whole.  Marvel comics has a black eye and they need to address this before things really gain steam.

What can do is SUPPORT GARY FRIEDRICH!

Steve Niles has set up a PayPal account where you can chip in what you can to help Friedrich with his debt.  I know it’s difficult financially for so many, but $5 goes a long way if enough of us give.  So skip the $10 you were going to spend seeing a Marvel movie this summer, instead give it to Friedrich in protest.

Gary Friedrich went to Facebook to give his thoughts on the subject:

Since the various news agencies and websites have reported the ruling against me on my claims against Marvel in the Ghost Rider lawsuit, and the assesment of a $17,000 judgment against me and my company instead, I have read an amazing amount of comments in my support on the internet, and have received many messages of support directly. Although the reports of my employment situation and financial difficulties as well as problems with my health are unfortunately true, I want to let everyone in the comic book world, especially my supporters and fans of the Ghost Rider character which I invented, created, and wrote, that I am going to appeal the Court’s ruling and continue to fight this as long as I am able and that your support of me means more than you will ever know. I have heard your voices. I thank you with alll my heart, and I appreciate your thoughts and best wishes as I soldier on.

It’s sad that it’s gone this far and a multi-million dollar company thinks it seriously needs $17,000 from a man they’ve shown little gratitude towards for making them millions.

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Marvel Demands Money From Penniless Creator

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Ghost RiderMarvel recently won it’s court case against Gary Friedrich as to who owns the rights to Ghost Rider.  Friendrich created the character and the court case was about whether any money or rights were owed to him.  With the second movie on it’s way, that’s pretty important (but then again, did the first one make money?).

The court decision sided with Marvel and said they owed Friedrich nothing, but agreed with a counter claim by Marvel that Friedrich owes the corporation $17,000.  That’s the money that Gary has earned over the years selling prints of Ghost Rider at conventions, etc.  Did we mention Friedrich is penniless?  Friedrich is also not allowed to say he created Ghost Rider for financial gain.  We’ll say it for him instead, than man did.

Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion, they spent millions on the movie and have gained god knows how much money from this character and they’re going after this man… can we now say Marvel is the unfriendliest comics company for creators?

Between Marvel and Disney’s support of SOPA/PIPA, their ongoing fight against the Kirby estate and this, what jackasses.  This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the fans.  Murmuring  of a protest and boycott of this summer’s Avengers movie have spread due to the Kirby fight and a petition has started on Change.org to pressure Marvel to give credit and royalties to Jack Kirby and his family.

Here’s the legal language concerning Friedrich:

1. The profits realized by plaintiffs in connection with the distribution and sale of goods depicting the Ghost Rider character appearing in Marvel Spotlight, Vol. 1, No. 5 (the “Work”) which is the subject of MCI’s copyright infringement counterclaim amount to $17,000.

2. Upon the entry of the Final Judgment (i) dismissing all claims pleaded in the amended complaint, (ii) awarding damages to MCI against plaintiffs on MCI’s counterclaim in the amount of $17,000, (iii) permanently enjoining plaintiffs and all natural or legal persons acting on their behalf or in concert or participation with them from manufacturing, reproducing, distributing, adapting, displaying, advertising, promoting, offering for sale, selling, using or purporting to authorize others to use the image of any characters appearing in, or any copyrightable material expressed in, the Work or any materials that are substantially similar to, or based on, any element of the Work in connection with the sale of any goods, merchandise or services including, without limitation, publications, posters, toys, games and playthings, prerecorded videotapes and DVDs featuring live action or animated motion pictures, video game software and other video products, T-shirts and other items of apparel (provided, however, that such injunction shall not prohibit plaintiffs from selling Gary Friedrich’s autograph by affixing the same to a product manufactured by MCI or by others under license or permission from MCI and purchased by plaintiffs at retail), and (iv) awarding defendants the costs and disbursements of this action available as a matter of law pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d) and 28 U.S.C. § 1920, MCI and plaintiffs will execute and cause to be filed a stipulation dismissing the Trademark Counterclaims without prejudice and without costs to any party.

3. In consideration for MC1′s agreement to dismiss the Trademark Counterclaims, plaintiffs consent to an injunction enjoining them and all natural or legal persons acting on their behalf or in concert or participation with them from using or purporting to authorize others to use the words “Ghost Rider” as a trademark, trade name, or similar designation of origin in connection with the sale of any goods, merchandise, or services.

(via Bleeding Cool)

SOPA and the Comic Book Industry

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On Friday, news broke that Marvel Entertainment and Disney both support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261.  That legislation in the House of Representatives as well as it’s similar sister legislation in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), S. 968 and S. 978, is the latest effort of copyright holders to crack down on the rampant piracy online.  Both pieces of legislation are broken and would do little other than to stifle technical innovation and free speech, but that hasn’t stopped the entertainment industry from spending over $1.9 million to get the legislation passed.

The legislation’s main thrust is providing tools to stop foreign infringing websites from being accessed in the United States and penalizing those websites.  Actions such as seizure, cutting off of funds and stopping of advertising are all methods that would be legal through this legislation.  Some of these techniques are currently being used today in mass seizure of websites by I.C.E.  The problem is, the legislation wouldn’t solve the problem.

The legislation is vague forcing websites, hosts, advertisers and payment systems to create a blacklist blocking offending websites from being accessed.  An internet blacklist is a technique employed by such stellar countries as Iran and China.  The problem is that this “tech fix” doesn’t solve the issue at all.  The websites can still be accessed in foreign countries, by masking your location and already there is a Firefox plug-in to get around such censorship.  There’s a reason that a group of 83 Internet inventors and engineers sent an open letter to members of the United States Congress voicing their opposition.

It would also allow mass seizures without due process by court order.  Websites would be able to respond and fight the seizure, after the act has been done.  So, in that year you spend in court fighting, your website is down.  Expect this to be used in retaliatory fashion.  I.C.E. has already shown they are utterly incompetent when it comes to this technique, usually catching innocent websites in the mix.  Keep in mind too that websites and individuals could share IP addresses and the whole process gets murkier.

CensorshipThe legislation also allows internet service providers to block websites that are deemed to be health risks to the public and they are protected from action by their customers.  There doesn’t have to be proof that there’s a risk, they can just do it.  So much for Net Neutrality.

What bothers to me is that the legislation also kills creativity and threatens innocent fans celebrating the entertainment they love.  We’ve posted videos of video game players doing walk throughs of games, the video of a wedding party entering to Chris Brown’s Forever, and our recently posted spoof videos of the Dark Knight Rises trailer, video of folks covering a song or singing karaoke, all would be illegal under SOPA.  Justin Bieber became famous covering other artist’s songs on Youtube, he could now be jailed for that, which is why this is called the “anti-Bieber bill.”  Prince has sued a mother for posting a video of her kid dancing to one of his songs.  Copyright holders as is can’t be trusted with the laws we have, we want to give them more?

Even crazier, just linking to an infringing website could get you in trouble.  There goes my Facebook status and Twitter posts and say bye-bye to Tumblr.

When it comes to the comic book industry, websites dedicated to art and fan art, like DeviantArt, could be caught in seizures.  A search on the popular website found 48423 items returned for Spider-Man, 59857 for Iron Man, 31760 for Captain America and 90334 for X-men

I’m not even going into the hypocrisy of elected officials writing pushing this legislation.  Piracy runs rampant in government offices (I’ve seen it first hand), but the RIAA has been caught torrenting as well as foreign elected officials and copyright holders.  That’s the definition of hypocrisy.

And that brings us back to the comic book industry.  Marvel and Disney have stated their support for the legislation.  We’ve reached out to them, as well as other comic book publishers for their stance and to explain their stance on the legislation.  Pressure has been brought upon other supporters of the legislation and resulted in a positive outcome (though there’s disagreement how sincere GoDaddy really is), but until I get clarification from Marvel I don’t want to call for a boycott quite yet.

I am calling for publishers to state their stance and make their opinion public, sign this petition and show as a consumer you want to know too so you can make a better informed decision as to whether you want to continue your support.

You can take action right now and voice your opinion on the legislation.  Tell your elected officials this legislation “shall not pass.”

Congress and the House Judiciary Committee where SOPA remains in mark-up are currently on break, but when they return in January it will be one a hot topic and debated early in the Congressional session.  We’ll bring further coverage of this important debate and legislation and expect further calls to action.

Update: Gizmodo has a list of all of the companies and organizations supporting SOPA according to the House Judiciary Committee, there’s also this crowd sourced Google Doc.  Take a moment to call and email some of these companies to voice your displeasure.  If you live in the United States, you can write your Representative and Senators through this action hosted by the Entertainment Consumers Association.

Full disclosure: I consult for the ECA which has been a lead organization fighting SOPA and PIPA

Take Action – Stop Protect IP and SOPA

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CensorshipYou might have noticed Wednesday numerous websites you went to had their logos blacked out, censored on their own.  “Don’t Let the Government Censor the Internet,” that’s the rally cry being taken up this week as people and organizations from all sides of the aisles have come together to stop H.R. 3261, S. 968 and S. 978 also known as SOPA and Protect IP.  The legislation is a scary specter looming over the internet and how we share information.

The legislation is the latest attempt to crack down on the theft of intellectual property and copyright.  The legislation does a couple of things that’s scary:

  • Through a court order the Attorney General can seize websites accused of violating copyright,
  • The legislation lifts the safe harbor language in the DMCA that protects websites from the idiocy of what their users do (for instance I’m not liable for your comments),
  • The legislation allows internet service providers to block websites (without fear of lawsuit) that are deemed a threat to “health and public safety”
  • The legislation would make it illegal to share material on the net the way we’ve done so for years and decades, it destroys the concept of Fair Use.  You could be fined or go to jail.
  • A few infringing links are enough to justify censoring an entire site, blocking good content along with the bad.
  • The US will be able to block a site’s web traffic, ad traffic and search traffic using the same website censorship methods used by China, Iran and Syria.

This legislation is ludicrous and scary.  The average person shouldn’t fear jail time because they remixed a song or music is playing in the background of a video.  We should be able to post our video game speed trials.  I should be able to post images of comics I review or show them off in video, without the fear of everything being seized.  The legislation is flawed.  Lamar Smith (R-Texas), one of the elected officials championing it and sponsor, has stated “I’m not a technical expert on this,” followed by “I’m trying to ferret this out.”  That’s his response to the fact the bill is flawed.  That shows how broken and not thought out this legislation is.

Take action now and write your elected officials in Washington, DC and tell them “HELL NO” to this.

Disclosure – Brett consults for the ECA as the Online Advocacy Manager

Tweeting About Piracy

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An interesting discussion broke out on Twitter this afternoon concerning comic books and piracy.  We’ve done our best to show the narrative as it unfolded, but there were a lot of Tweets, Replys, etc. and I’m sure some were missed.

Neil Gaiman Says Piracy is “People Lending Books”

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Neil Gaiman is a comic book icon and well respected author.  So, it came as a shock when he equated online piracy with lending of books.  Gaimain conducted an interview with the Open Rights Group where he expressed his evolving view on copyright.

Piracy has proven lately to be not all bad.  The Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber comic book Underground was posted to the online board 4chan.  The posting was by an enthusiastic fan who hoped to spike interest in the series.  They even offered to take it down when contacted by Lieber.  Lieber noticed that this actually lead to increased sales.  Lieber went so far to post the books himself (which we took advantage in downloading, though haven’t had a chance to read).

Gaiman noticed to same trend.  He himself experimented with releasing his books for free after noticing where his books were being pirated that sales increased, especially where it was being translated like Russia.  Gaiman saw sales increases of 300%.  This lead Gaiman to feel he wasn’t losing sales when he puts these materials out there.

Gaiman equates this with the idea discovering offers by being lent books.  Through asking his audiences he found so many more discovered new authors after being lent books, not walking into stores.  To Gaiman this is raising awareness, this is advertising in the new century.

Characters Go Creative Commons

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The idea of copyright and character/property creation is a touchy subject in the comic book industry.  There’s the current fights between characters or their heirs and publishers or the ongoing battles against piracy.  It’s big business with lots of cash flowing around, so of course it’s going to get heated on all sides.  Mark Waid caused waves when he addressed the issue at this year’s Harvey Awards.

But where does public domain come into it all?  This article over at Wikipedia covers public domain pretty well as well as this list of public domain fictional characters.  The bigger issue is why are we bringing this up?

In a pretty stunning move, Vito Delsante has released 35 characters into the public domain under creative commons.  That means today, you can take his 35 characters and create your own comics, stories, movies, whatever.  His logic is simple, he only has so much time to deal with all these characters, and why leave good ideas on the shelf?

So what do you think?  Do companies keep the rights to characters too close to their chest?  How do you think this shakes up the comic industry?  Can you see new revenue models generated from this?

DC vs. Superwog

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SuperwogDC is going up against Australian YouTube comic phenomenon Superwog.  Theodore Saidden applied for a trademark registration for the characters shield like logo.  Legal firm Baker & McKenzie and has filed its opposition to the registration application with IP Australia on DC’s behalf.

Saidden said he was sent letters months ago ordering him to close his website and stop producing stickers and t-shirts involved with his character.  Saidden said that the issue is the logo is a bit too similar to Superman for DC’s liking.

Their lawyers have come back to us saying I can keep using the name Superwog but not register it as a trademark. But this is just ridiculous; they are not the same.  I was just trying to do things properly and you get punished.

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