Elaine Lee & Mike Kaluta sent cease/desist letter by Disney/Marvel for Starstruck...

ChrisBeckett

...which they CREATED AND OWN, and which was published through Epic 30 YEARS AGO!

LINK

Seriously, this pisses me off and is only part of why I do not buy Marvel comics any more.

chris

John_Steed

Just another tessella in Marvel/Disney's pursuit of world domination :-<

nweathington

Follow-up Link

Sounds to me like the lawyer who sent the cease and desist simply saw the title “Starstruck” and went by their usual procedure. Maybe they’ve been going through Marvel’s catalog and were challenging actual ownership rights, but I doubt anyone at Disney even saw the original contract.

Either way, their practice of sending out C&Ds first and asking questions later is pretty arrogant. It’s basically them saying, “Why bother doing research ourselves when we can force you to do it for us?”

Chuck_Melville

nweathington said:

Follow-up Link

Sounds to me like the lawyer who sent the cease and desist simply saw the title “Starstruck” and went by their usual procedure. Maybe they’ve been going through Marvel’s catalog and were challenging actual ownership rights, but I doubt anyone at Disney even saw the original contract.

Either way, their practice of sending out C&Ds first and asking questions later is pretty arrogant. It’s basically them saying, “Why bother doing research ourselves when we can force you to do it for us?”

I agree, though it's just as likely to have been some overzealous junior member being careless. Whichever it be, either arrogance or carelessness, neither of which does any good for Disney's image.

nweathington

Chuck_Melville said:

nweathington said:

Follow-up Link

Sounds to me like the lawyer who sent the cease and desist simply saw the title “Starstruck” and went by their usual procedure. Maybe they’ve been going through Marvel’s catalog and were challenging actual ownership rights, but I doubt anyone at Disney even saw the original contract.

Either way, their practice of sending out C&Ds first and asking questions later is pretty arrogant. It’s basically them saying, “Why bother doing research ourselves when we can force you to do it for us?”

I agree, though it's just as likely to have been some overzealous junior member being careless. Whichever it be, either arrogance or carelessness, neither of which does any good for Disney's image.

True enough, though I’m sure they like the image it projects. How many times have you heard the phrase, “Don’t mess with the mouse,” or something to that effect? What corporation wouldn’t want that image, especially when it doesn’t seem to effect their bottom line in a negative way? So until it does them more harm than good, it'll remain shoot first and ask questions later.

SolitaireRose

Disney is VERY nuts about this. I'm sure that every so often we all hear the story of a nursery or day care that has to cover up paintings of Disney characters because they aren't authorized.

Hopefully this was just an error on someone's part.

David_D

This has been updated in the last hour, below includes commentary by Steve Bissette:
Followup, posted 12/7 (same day) at 6 PM:

Elaine Lee posted on Facebook: “Announcement! Just got it in writing. The matter has been resolved. Sent to our lawyer around 3:00 PM EST.”

In a private FB message, Elaine thanked me, noting that we’ll never know if this online dustup (this went viral on Facebook, and was picked up by BleedingCool.com) made a difference or not—but thanking me nonetheless.

I expect, if asked, Marvel/Disney will forever claim otherwise, but I believe speaking up and out, loudly, particularly when you have evidence (specifically clear legal evidence, as Elaine and Michael did and do) backing you up, is a good idea. Had Elaine spoken up last week, I suspect this would have been resolved even sooner, but we’ll never know.

Still, Marvel/Disney has now shown its true colors, folks.

My cautionary statement to all who ever worked with or for Marvel, even its Epic imprint, stands. Get your legal paperwork in order and in reach, and be prepared.

DoctorDoom

David_D said:

My cautionary statement to all who ever worked with or for Marvel, even its Epic imprint, stands. Get your legal paperwork in order and in reach, and be prepared.

Scar agrees with you.