With the latest court rulings once again going against Todd, I an once more struck by how unnecessary this all is. All Todd needed to do was keep his initial promises to Neil. In a company that was founded on the basis of honoring creator rights, I would have to say–to use “Dark Tower” Gunslinger parlance–that Todd McFarlane has forgotten the face of his father.
What I found interesting, though, was the judge’s commentary on whether a subsequent Spawn was derivative of Neil’s work:
“If defendant really wanted to differentiate the new Hellspawn, why not make him a Portugese explorer in the 16th century; an officer of the royal Navy in the 18th century, an idealistic recruit of Simon Bolivar in the 19th century, a companion of Odysseus on his voyages, a Roman gladiator, a younger brother of Emperor Nakamikado in the early 18th century, a Spanish conquistador, an aristocrat in the Qing dynasty, an American Indian warrior or a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I? It seems far more than coincidence that Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is a knight from the same century as Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.”
Am I the only one who thinks those are some REALLY good ideas? When all this is over, Todd may want to seriously consider hiring the judge to develop characters for him. He just better be dámņëd sure to pay her.
And for anyone who thinks that this posting is entirely too favorable to Gaiman, and that I’m giving him a free pass in all this, well…uhm…
Neil…get a haircut.
Seriously. Check out the picture (along with the detailed coverage) at Maggie Thompson’s blog.
PAD
Right on all counts PAD.
Neil is too successful to look like that.
He is seriously getting into Dr. Brown territory. (Back to the Future reference)
The Man is a Wizard of Words. He may look the part if he wishes. 😉
I remember reading the Seventh Circuit’s 2004 opinion in Gaiman v. McFarlane in Copyrights class. (Who says law school isn’t fun?)
Amazing that, after getting slapped around by the Seventh Circuit–indeed, by probably the most famous non-Supreme Court judge active today–McFarlane would go in for another go-round.
Why isn’t THIS woman up for a Supreme court nomination?
“With the latest court rulings once again going against Todd, I an once more struck by how unnecessary this all is. All Todd needed to do was keep his initial promises to Neil.”
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Pretty much my first thought when I read this the other day.
I had the exact same thought when I was reading the order. I don’t think I’ve ever read such an entertaining opinion -it read more like a a typical comic book message board thread than a legal document in parts 🙂
Second thought – since those ideas are now in a court document, aren’t they now public domain and Todd could use them at will WITHOUT paying anyone?
And probably will.
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PAD
If they’re public domain, ANYONE could use them.
I smell SITCOM!
Nice to know the Judge took the case seriously.
Her ideas clearly show that she did.
Holy crap – talk about rolling out some seriously good ideas from the judge.
I read this Friday night/Saturday morning, when I should have been sleeping. I was amused that the Mcdonald’s/Kroft case came up in the cites.
If you go to Neil’s blog, he has linked a PDF copy of the decision too, so you can read it for yourself. I thought the judge made some excellent points. In particular, the fact that once it was established in Spawn that a Hellspawn could only return to Earth every X hundred years, why would you try and create another thinly-disguised Hellspawn in the same time period as Neil’s character. It seems wonderfully ironic now of course, but I don’t think Todd ever realized he would eventually be hoisted on his own petard.
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The other conclusion the judge made, which I found hugely interesting was that you didn’t necessarily have to read a comic to be influenced by it. Just the fact that it EXISTED is enough to be influenced on a subliminal level; witness the George Harrison copyright infingement suit the judge cites as precedent.
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Incidentally, apropos of nothing, does anybody else feel slightly uncomfortable buying Marvel’s new Marvelman book knowing they once did everything they could to keep Eclipse from publishing the character (which I presume is why they had to rename him Miracleman)? To me, it just feels like rewarding bad behavior, although I wonder how I would feel if they ended up publishing the final Gaiman/Buckingham issues. Sorry to go off on a tangent; it’s just that this lawsuit prompted my memory about the other one.
The discomfort would be much greater reading any DC-published Captain Marvel. They DID sue Fawcett out of the business, after all.
Of course, in the case of Harrison and “My Sweet Lord”/”He’s So Fine”, it’s very unlikely that he hadn’t heard the girl group song at some point – he said as much – and the similarity is so close that coincidence is not a likely explanation.
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Neil Innes said that when he set out to write the Rutles songs for “All You Need is Cash”, he hadn’t actually listened to any Beatles music (at least consciously) in several years.
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He wound up writing some songs that couldn’t be used because they came out identical to Beatle songs instead of Very Close…
Although apparently the Spawn universe has ignored the “once every X years” (Wikipedia says that there is a WWI Spawn and another guy took over the Spawn title when Al was killed off). I’m curious if the series started ignoring that rule before or after the Dark Ages Spawn.
It doesn’t change the fact that it’s derivative, but as something that’s quoted as one of the main reasons of the case, it would be interesting to see if that rule was in effect at that time.
I think any similarity between ‘He’s So Fine’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’ would have to be coincidental. They are two almost entirely dissimilar songs. I have listened to both many times and still can’t see how they managed to win that case.
He wound up writing some songs that couldn’t be used because they came out identical to Beatle songs instead of Very Close…
“Get Up and Go” was the song he was advised by John Lennon not to put on the soundtrack because it was so similar to “Get Back.” Ironically, because it wasn’t on the album in 1978, it’s one of the few original Rutles songs that Neil Innes retains full credits on; after ATV sued, the songs on the 1978 album are now officially credited as Lennon/McCartney/Innes.
I’d love a Rutles expansion for The Beatles Rock Band. 🙂 It’s unlikely to happen, but it would be fab. Pun intended, of course.
In reading Maggie’s blog post, I’m absolutely amazed by the detail of Spawn history that the judge put into her comments. She writes stuff like, “Not only does this break the Hellspawn ‘rule’ that Malebolgia never returns a Hellspawns [sic] to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years, as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4).” I think this judge is ready for a Comicon panel.
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On the other hand, there are also lines like, “all three wear battle uniforms consisting of thong bikinis, garters, wide weapon belts, elbow-length gloves and ill-fitting armor bras.” Reading about her taking this kind of stuff so seriously is almost like a Monty Python sketch.
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But hey, that’s the job. I respect her for examining the material well enough to make an informed decision about the claims involved.
On the other hand, there are also lines like, “all three wear battle uniforms consisting of thong bikinis, garters, wide weapon belts, elbow-length gloves and ill-fitting armor bras.” Reading about her taking this kind of stuff so seriously is almost like a Monty Python sketch.
Yeah, but this “attire” is largely standard in those comics aimed at a largely male audience — and part of the case.
(For the record, I loved the issue of DORK TOWER where a Kayleigh, a new female player, is told her character’s wearing a chainmail bikini, showing the character wearing such. She then announces that there’s no way she’d go into battle so unprotected, goes shopping, and when we next see her she’s in solid gray armor from her fett up to her nose.)
“Yeah, but this “attire” is largely standard in those comics aimed at a largely male audience — and part of the case.”
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I know it’s standard, but it’s also the part that is standard for us to get embarrassed about when people outside our fan community find out just how standard it is.
I know it’s fashionable to think of our legal system as being corrupt but, at the very least, that Judge did her homework.
A previous poster’s comments about Marvel Man also reminded me of when Marvel went after Defiant citing that their title Plasm infringed on the Marvel UK book Plasmus.
Very sad.
(sees picture of Neil. blinks in disbelief) Is that Neil?, because that’s not Neil, that’s Bob Dylan. And I thought Neil was hard to understand before.
That and a shave. Because the beard kind of creeped me out.
That being said, congrats to Neil winning and to the CBLDF who will hopefully eventually (I’m sure it’ll end up also getting dragged out) get that money.
Also, did anyone else who read the questioning of Gaiman think of Omar in court on The Wire? I loved that Neil kept taking presumptions about writing the lawyer would say and twist it around on him. There was even a paragraph’s worth there where Neil starting talking about writing the script in English and at one point he started talking to himself about whether or not the people at that point in history would have been using French.
“There was even a paragraph’s worth there where Neil starting talking about writing the script in English and at one point he started talking to himself about whether or not the people at that point in history would have been using French.”
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I’d love to read that. Do you have a link?
I think: http://files.neilgaiman.com/crabb_decision.pdf
Thanks for the link, Sean. Boy, somewhere Erik Larsen is spitting tacks right now.
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PAD
Actually, as it turns out, Eriks’ reaction is over here. Love the picture; he looks like he’s working on his latest plan to take over Metropolis.
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/08/03/erik-larsen-neil-gaiman-female-jury/
Boy, Larsen really can’t help himself, can he?
John, you can find the questioning of Neil in Maggie Thompson’s Blog – the reporting begins here
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http://www.maggiethompson.com/2010/06/june-15-in-madison-with-neil-gaiman.html
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Neil’s testimony starts in part 5, and the bit about if Medieval Spawn should have been speaking French is in Part 12 I believe… It is well worth reading Neil’s testimony, if only to see Todd’s lawyer way out of his depth in the cross-examination 😉
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Ben
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I’m really starting to think that Erik Larsen is in fact not a real person. He is actually a fictional spoof of what some real people can be if they’re ignorant and/or arrogant enough to say the things that most people are smart enough to not even consider as a reasonable idea.
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I just can’t figure out how they get the animatronics to work so convincingly at the conventions.
Actually, Larsen might have stumbled onto a point on the gender thing. Back in the early nineties, if you wanted to get your girlfriend into comic books, you gave her a couple issues of Sandman. Gaiman has always been catnip where women are concerned.
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On another note, I’ve always wondered if Curt Schilling and R.A. Salvatore know what they’re getting into with Todd and the MMORPG they’re developing.
That’s a scary picture. Larson just needs a wart or two and a bridge.
His comments are offensive and reprehensible.
I can’t believe I’d *ever* bought anything with his name on it.
Well, in fairness, lots of people (well, some) like “Savage Dragon,” and if they like that comic, then as far as I’m concerned they should be able to separate the creator from the creation and continue to enjoy his work.
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PAD
On another note, I’ve always wondered if Curt Schilling and R.A. Salvatore know what they’re getting into with Todd and the MMORPG they’re developing.
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One would think and hope so, but obviously strange people make stranger bedfellows.
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I must admit, when I first saw those names pop on screen (I think it was during G4’s coverage of SDCC), my wife and I both did a major WTF!?