Just an article I found while digging around in some Associated Press stuff.
High Court Urged to Hear Comic Book Case
Now, I must say that I just love this line:
“Hollywood has a message for the Supreme Court: comic books are good, constitutionally protected fun.” It’s like a rainbow of happiness and bunnies.
The guy is not doing this because he’s been poked, but just because he saw what seemed to him an easy way to make a few millions real quick. I just hope the judge and jury have some common sense and declare Todd innocent.
This has to be the most retarded lawsuit I’ve ever heard of next to the 12-year-old girl who got sued by the RIAA.
And don’t forget the guy who sued McDonald’s for his obesity.
Wow, the world gets stupider and stupider each day. Thats a very stupid lawsuit.
Originally posted by ahkeeyuu
This has to be the most retarded lawsuit I’ve ever heard of next to the 12-year-old girl who got sued by the RIAA.
The problem with most people is, they think if it’s possible to sue someone, no matter how stupid or moronic the claim is, they should. I’ve heard people who think that if they amend the constituion to stop all this, then the problem will be fixed.
To those people, I say this: It’s a pretty cynical view, but no matter how many times you amend the constitution, the world will never be rid of stupidity.
I wonder why people bother doing this stuff anyway if they know they’ll probably lose. It reminds me of when Nintendo was being sued for Donkey Kong and Nintendo of America actually did something useful for a change to save it millions of dollars. It wasn’t as stupid as this, but it came close.
Worst lawsuit ever-
The people of claifornia versus the heinz corparation. They couldnt get all the ketchup out of the bottle so they sued. Thats why ketchup bottles are squeezable now.
I can actually understand that, Devillion. Squeezing it out is easier and more convenient. No doubt they were motivated by self-interest, but suing was probably the best way to get the company to improve the product. Get rid of ‘silly lawsuits’ and it’ll be just one more way in which the corporations have taken away our own rights and power by fooling us.
Comic Book-related lawsuits aren’t absurd, guys. Not when MILLIONS of dollars can be made thru them, especially now that Marvel has resurrected the Superhero movie.
I assume most of you never heard of the Captain Marvel case?
Some of you might remember Captain Marvel- he’s the kid who, by saying SHAZAM! transforms into an adult, Superman-like hero. Had his own show back in the 70’s.
Well, CM was created in 1940, two years after Superman, who was the first SUPERhero, and made comics the smash success they were back then. The resemblance between Supes and CM is no accident; there were LOTS of other superheroes inspired by him.
(Note, BTW, that Superman’s creators- a couple of Jewish guys named Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster- SOLD the character to National Periodical Publications (later known as DC Comics) and therefore earned NOTHING from the HUGE earnings the character has gotten thru the years. This proves how little people knew about copyrights back then. They ALMOST died in poverty, had not many Superman fans who grew up to be Comic Book people themselves, started a movement for DC to admit its moral debt to them.)
The CM comic sold pretty well too, and National took notice. They SUED Fawcett Comics, accusing them of having ripped off Superman! Which was absurd- other than superficial resemblances, the characters were TOTALLY different. Such a case would go nowhere TODAY. But, these kind of cases were NEW back then. Further, DC had more money than Fawcett to spend on litigation. After several years of trials, Fawcett gave up; it stopped publishing Captain Marvel- and went bankrupt.
The very name “Captain Marvel” was now up for grabs. Other comic-book companies used it without permission! (Again, that wouldn’t happen today.) One of them was MARVEL comics, who created their own Captain Marvel, who became one of their best heroes. They also were smart enough to COPYRIGHT the name.
And what of the original CM? Well, believe it or not, in the 70’s, it was bought by… DC COMICS! That’s right, the company that once tried to destroy the character for stealing Superman’s Thunder now published him! But note- since Marvel Comics has the rights to the name Captain Marvel, DC had to name its CM comics… SHAZAM!
(BTW, I hear there’s a SHAZAM movie in the works… I hope so!)
One clarification, Wilf, this is a character in Spawn. Spawn is THE comic of Image, the third biggest comic company. It is FAR behind the two, well, superpowers of the comic industry in populatrity, mainstream acceptance, and profits. Hell, Spawn had a movie, but it failed pretty badly. The HBO series did fairly well though. ANYWAY, the money isn’t as much there as it is in Marvel or DC. It is funny to note that McFarlane bought McGuire’s (sp?) 70th homerun ball for about a million bucks just a year or two before good ol’ Barry Bonds broke the record.
If that actually goes through, I’ll sue.
Oh, wait…