runequester
Swordsman
- Joined
- 29 Apr 2018
- Messages
- 474
If you wont mind me interjecting, a few things that are worth noting with the law suit, as far as American law goes:
Unless I am very mistaken, it is filed in the wrong state. Unless you are claiming damages (which for all their talk they are not) you have to sue in the state the target resides in (Headquarter or incorporation for a company). WOTC is a Washington company and was incorporated in Delaware.
The suit is filed in North Carolina.
It is very likely to be thrown out for this reason.
Second, I am not sure the filers actually understand the difference between trademarks and copyrights. They talk about the trademarks being abandoned (which is a thing) but then talk about getting the rights for specific pieces of art (which are covered by copyright). Unless there is specific evidence to the contrary, the copyrights reside with WOTC.
Even if a specific copyright had NOT been transferred to WOTC, it would have reverted to the creator. The "new TSR" is not the original company. Simply filing for a trademark does not give you that companys assets, liabilities etc.
Third, copyrights don't lapse from non-use. If WOTC owns the copyright to, for example, Star Frontiers, it doesn't matter if they don't do a damn thing with it. Until the expiration of the copyright, they still own the original creation, artwork and so forth.
Fourth, all the talk about the WOTC disclaimer is pretty funny, because as far as I can tell thats not actually something they are suing over. They SAY they are on the crowdfunding page, but the suit seems to just be a trademark judgement.
There's a lot of talk about how the disclaimer is libel but it is very difficult to prove libel in the US court system and WOTCs disclaimer is no such thing. As lawyers are fond of saying "opinion is not libel" and the disclaimer makes no statement that every writer or player or buyer is an evil nazi.
Even if WOTC was specifically and explicitly saying that Gary Gygax was a racist (which they dont) thats not likely to hold up as libel, because a claim of racism is not something that is provably false.
Lastly, even if it WAS libel (which it isnt) and nu TSR was suing for libel (which they are not), nu TSR does not stand to gain anything from this because you have to prove damages, which they can't because they are not the creators or owners of any of the works in question, since they are all owned by WOTC.
Despite the reputation abroad, you can't simply declare in the US court system that you are offended by what people do with their own property and therefore would like money and / or censorship.
Unless I am very mistaken, it is filed in the wrong state. Unless you are claiming damages (which for all their talk they are not) you have to sue in the state the target resides in (Headquarter or incorporation for a company). WOTC is a Washington company and was incorporated in Delaware.
The suit is filed in North Carolina.
It is very likely to be thrown out for this reason.
Second, I am not sure the filers actually understand the difference between trademarks and copyrights. They talk about the trademarks being abandoned (which is a thing) but then talk about getting the rights for specific pieces of art (which are covered by copyright). Unless there is specific evidence to the contrary, the copyrights reside with WOTC.
Even if a specific copyright had NOT been transferred to WOTC, it would have reverted to the creator. The "new TSR" is not the original company. Simply filing for a trademark does not give you that companys assets, liabilities etc.
Third, copyrights don't lapse from non-use. If WOTC owns the copyright to, for example, Star Frontiers, it doesn't matter if they don't do a damn thing with it. Until the expiration of the copyright, they still own the original creation, artwork and so forth.
Fourth, all the talk about the WOTC disclaimer is pretty funny, because as far as I can tell thats not actually something they are suing over. They SAY they are on the crowdfunding page, but the suit seems to just be a trademark judgement.
There's a lot of talk about how the disclaimer is libel but it is very difficult to prove libel in the US court system and WOTCs disclaimer is no such thing. As lawyers are fond of saying "opinion is not libel" and the disclaimer makes no statement that every writer or player or buyer is an evil nazi.
Even if WOTC was specifically and explicitly saying that Gary Gygax was a racist (which they dont) thats not likely to hold up as libel, because a claim of racism is not something that is provably false.
Lastly, even if it WAS libel (which it isnt) and nu TSR was suing for libel (which they are not), nu TSR does not stand to gain anything from this because you have to prove damages, which they can't because they are not the creators or owners of any of the works in question, since they are all owned by WOTC.
Despite the reputation abroad, you can't simply declare in the US court system that you are offended by what people do with their own property and therefore would like money and / or censorship.
