The Daily "MOHOTMU"

TheOriginalGMan

A thread devoted to Murd's dramatic reading of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe ... aka "Murd's Oral History of the Marvel Universe" aka "MOHOTMU."

I shall from this point on (or until I get bored with it) refer to @Adam_Murdough‌ as "MOHOTMU Gandhi" for the Zen-like wisdom he drops on the listeners of this podcast.

TheOriginalGMan

Things I learned today:

Never knew Abomination was an Eastern European spy.

Crusher Creel/Absorbing Man was only 6'4, 265 lbs? To quote the classic movie "Road House" ... thought he'd be bigger.

NathanPMahney

Sooo... Is this legal? I would have thought it was a breach of Marvel's copyright.

TheOriginalGMan

Hmmm, you may be right. If he's reading directly from the Handbook, then I would think it's a copyright violation. If he's providing his own summary of these characters, then I think they're probably okay. I would recommend they refer to it as "Murd's *Oral History* of the Marvel Universe" though to distinguish it.

TheOriginalGMan

*cough* @ptsteelers‌ *cough*

TheOriginalGMan

Something I learned from MOHOTMU Gandhi:

Apparently there's a character named "Aguila." :-)

Thor_El

These are a blast. It's been quite a while since I've read the original edition of the OHOTMU, and it's great hearing these classic profiles. Though I seem to be having trouble with iTunes automatically downloading episodes lately. :-(

rebis

TheOriginalGMan said:

Something I learned from MOHOTMU Gandhi:

Apparently there's a character named "Aguila." :-)

Aguila is Spanish for Eagle.

Sincerely
Captain Obvious

TheOriginalGMan

rebis said:

Aguila is Spanish for Eagle.

Sincerely
Captain Obvious

Gracias, el Capitan de Obvio!

Corwin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egQ3k3Kltns

Mic drop

TheOriginalGMan

Was surprised Ajak's entry failed to mention that he is the only Eternal capable of interacting directly with the Celestials, but then I googled it and saw that ability was only added in during Neil Gaimann's run (which I loved btw).

TheOriginalGMan

And hey, speaking of which ...

http://comicbook.com/2014/09/12/neil-gaiman-and-john-romita-jr-s-eternals-coming-to-dvd-from-mar/

"Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr.'s Eternals Coming to DVD From Marvel Knights Animation Next Week"

You are thousands of years old. You have amazing powers. You have watched civilizations rise and fall. So why don’t you remember any of this? Best-selling author, Neil Gaiman (Marvel: 1602) is joined by superstar artist, John Romita Jr. (Amazing Spider-Man), to bring you the extraordinary tale of the Eternals. Medical student Mark Curry’s world is turned upside-down when he meets Ike Harris, a man who believes that he’s part of a centuries-old race of super-powered beings put here on Earth by aliens to preserve and safeguard the planet – and even crazier, tries to convince Mark that he is one too. On September 16, 2014, Marvel Knights Animation’s ETERNALS DVD debuts for the first time on home entertainment shelves from Shout! Factory.

AxelBrass

Love this podcast. Simple. Straightforward. Informative. Excellent.
An all around delight.
Please keep doing these!

TheOriginalGMan

Ah, another follower of the cult of MOHOTMU Gandhi, I see!

RepoMan

I think I'd prefer a summarization over a straight read myself as mentioned above. The awesome Christmas casts were awesome because they were stories. But reading a dry bunch if facts comes across as a little forced. Glad others are enjoying them! There's not much surprise anymore or uniqueness for me after the few I've listened to to carry on listening. I too would be careful about the legality of this - especially considering these are done in fun. The intention could be misinterpreted. O:-)

DMHaight

These are a great look back at classic Marvel characters, some of which haven't been seen/heard from in quite awhile (El Aguila, I'm looking right at you...:). As I listen to these summaries, I also can't help thinking about what's changed in some of the entries between then and now, and wondering if the writers, or even the editors, at Marvel these days even bother to look back this far into a character's history when they use them to prevent more obvious or egregious continuity errors.

Webhead

I'm loving these episodes.

I'm already planning to save all the episodes and combine them into larger episodes one for every letter of the alphabet.

David_D

Count me in as someone that is enjoying the zen and pace of these a lot, and it is making me realize that if the OHOTMU was available as an enormous audiobook I would listen to it down to the last minute. As I kid I poured over the OHOTMU issues, and this really brings me back.

But I also agree with those that would like the reading from the book to then lead to Adam making some personal comments and observations. Doesn't have to be a whole footnote, it could even be as little as another minute or so. Maybe as simple as describing the picture of the character in his own words. Or a few words about what he knows about the character from his own reading, or something he is curious about when it comes to a character he has never read.

I also would think-- and it may not come to this-- but if the podcast includes content and commentary on top of the copyrighted material being read, then you will have a better argument that this is fair use rather than infringement.

TheOriginalGMan

Agree 100%. Bonus observations by MOHOTMU Gandhi would be awesome.

nweathington

David_D said:

I also would think-- and it may not come to this-- but if the podcast includes content and commentary on top of the copyrighted material being read, then you will have a better argument that this is fair use rather than infringement.

No, that wouldn’t help in this case. He’s still reading entries in their entirity. It doesn’t matter how much comentary you add if you’re still reproducing the entire work. To be fair use, he would have to be reading only a limited number of select quotes, and then adding commentary on top of that.

David_D

nweathington said:

David_D said:

I also would think-- and it may not come to this-- but if the podcast includes content and commentary on top of the copyrighted material being read, then you will have a better argument that this is fair use rather than infringement.

No, that wouldn’t help in this case. He’s still reading entries in their entirity. It doesn’t matter how much comentary you add if you’re still reproducing the entire work. To be fair use, he would have to be reading only a limited number of select quotes, and then adding commentary on top of that.

Is it in their entirety, though? It sounds like just the information at the top of the entry (the stats), and not the paragraphs of further text. It may still be considered too long of a quote, but it doesn't sound to me like any of these have been a complete entry.

TheOriginalGMan

Doe it have to be considered in the context of the entirety of the source? Ie ... the limited number of entries he's using compared to how extensive the OHOTMU as a whole is?

nweathington

David_D said:

nweathington said:

David_D said:

I also would think-- and it may not come to this-- but if the podcast includes content and commentary on top of the copyrighted material being read, then you will have a better argument that this is fair use rather than infringement.

No, that wouldn’t help in this case. He’s still reading entries in their entirity. It doesn’t matter how much comentary you add if you’re still reproducing the entire work. To be fair use, he would have to be reading only a limited number of select quotes, and then adding commentary on top of that.

Is it in their entirety, though? It sounds like just the information at the top of the entry (the stats), and not the paragraphs of further text. It may still be considered too long of a quote, but it doesn't sound to me like any of these have been a complete entry.

I haven't listened to them, so I'm not sure how much of the text is being read, but going by what you’ve said, I think it would still be considered too large a percentage of the text. I mean, that’s still about 20–30% of the text in most cases, right? A lot is left up to judicial interpretation, but that would still be too much.

TheOriginalGMan said:

Doe it have to be considered in the context of the entirety of the source? Ie ... the limited number of entries he's using compared to how extensive the OHOTMU as a whole is?

A court wouldn’t look at the separate episodes individually, but all of them as a whole. For Marvel’s side, it would be on an issue by issue basis. In other words, all the episodes covering issue #1 would be looked at together as an infringement on issue #1, and so on with each issue. So if the podcast continues all the way to the end, it would mean multiple counts of infringement.

Now, I don't think Marvel/Disney would bother suing over this, but they might be inclined to send out a cease and desist and ask that the episodes be taken down. In fact, if it were discovered by their legal department, that would probably be an automatic response.

David_D

nweathington said:

David_D said:

nweathington said:

David_D said:

I also would think-- and it may not come to this-- but if the podcast includes content and commentary on top of the copyrighted material being read, then you will have a better argument that this is fair use rather than infringement.

No, that wouldn’t help in this case. He’s still reading entries in their entirity. It doesn’t matter how much comentary you add if you’re still reproducing the entire work. To be fair use, he would have to be reading only a limited number of select quotes, and then adding commentary on top of that.

Is it in their entirety, though? It sounds like just the information at the top of the entry (the stats), and not the paragraphs of further text. It may still be considered too long of a quote, but it doesn't sound to me like any of these have been a complete entry.

I haven't listened to them, so I'm not sure how much of the text is being read, but going by what you’ve said, I think it would still be considered too large a percentage of the text. I mean, that’s still about 20–30% of the text in most cases, right? A lot is left up to judicial interpretation, but that would still be too much.

TheOriginalGMan said:

Doe it have to be considered in the context of the entirety of the source? Ie ... the limited number of entries he's using compared to how extensive the OHOTMU as a whole is?

A court wouldn’t look at the separate episodes individually, but all of them as a whole. For Marvel’s side, it would be on an issue by issue basis. In other words, all the episodes covering issue #1 would be looked at together as an infringement on issue #1, and so on with each issue. So if the podcast continues all the way to the end, it would mean multiple counts of infringement.

Now, I don't think Marvel/Disney would bother suing over this, but they might be inclined to send out a cease and desist and ask that the episodes be taken down. In fact, if it were discovered by their legal department, that would probably be an automatic response.

I guess it depends on the size of the entry. In the case of today's Alpha Flight, I would guess what is read is less than 20%, but that is probably an entry with more history paragraphs than some others. But as there is no original content, just copywritten stuff being read as a podcast, then there would be no grounds to even argue Fair Use. I would guess if the original commentary/review matched or exceeded the excerpt they might be able to argue review purposes or something, but that is just a guess.

I think you are right that, regardless of what portion is excerpt and what isn't, the default would be a C&D. Hopefully it simply flies under the radar.

Putting aside the legal concerns, I would be interested in more commentary being added as it would also be more enjoyable, and original.

TheOriginalGMan

Re: Arnim Zola

"Unusual Features: Zola has an ESP Box instead of a head."

Yeah, I guess that qualifies.

SolitaireRose

I guess I'm in the minority...I'd like it as a separate feed.

David_D

TheOriginalGMan said:

Re: Arnim Zola

"Unusual Features: Zola has an ESP Box instead of a head."

Yeah, I guess that qualifies.

Totally. He has to have that in his driver's license photo, or else he gets in trouble.

TheOriginalGMan

David_D said:

Totally. He has to have that in his driver's license photo, or else he gets in trouble.

Just spitballing here, but I'm guessing he's not an organ donor.

luke52

Loving these.

bralinator

SolitaireRose said:

I guess I'm in the minority...I'd like it as a separate feed.

I would also like these in a separate feed, à la the Crisis Tapes or the Time Bubble. Which reminds me, thank-you @Adam_Murdough for being the leading voice of supplemental CGS material.

alienal

I've only listened to one (Abomination) and I enjoyed it. I am also somewhat worried about the copyright infringement thing, but I guess unless Marvel calls, keep it going!