Litigation Nation
Jan. 28th, 2013 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23I always meant to do a Fifty Shades of Grey post in 2012. During the summer, I wish I had made a count of how many copies I saw. The big booksellers often had displays in which they featured books that were 'similar'. Friends and acquaintances often spoke of it, with those younger amazed by it, while those in their 50s and 60s often commented their was certainly better smut out there. I didn't read it of course, but the parts I did read (for science) were less explicit (and certainly less imaginative) than a Soft Cell record.
Yet I also feel bad about saying anything bad. It did encourage reading in adults (and I saw a lot of physical copies of actual books), and also provided a self-publishing success story. Surely, something can be said for that.
Besides the obvious books with titles like "100 Feelings of Emotion" or something similar, there was a cottage industry based about the book. There was the musical Spank , Fifty Shades parodies like the Fifty Shades of Chicken cook book and Fifty Shames of Earl Grey; and the tourism industry put together Fifty Shades vacation plans to cash in, with helicopter rides and $1000 bottles of champagne.
Of course, inevitably, the pr0n industry wanted in.
There's plenty of mainstream entertainment that the Adult Movie industry takes aim at, and Fifty Shades seems a natural fit. Smash Pictures said that although they know the books were going to be filmed by Hollywood, they were going to stay true to the spirit of the book, and even lifted some verses.
Well, you can't do that.
"Beginning with the first XXX adaptation's opening scene and continuing throughout the next 2½ hours of the film, Smash Pictures copies without reservation from the unique expressive elements of the Fifty Shades trilogy, progressing through the events of Fifty Shades of Grey and into the second book, Fifty Shades Darker," the complaint continues. "The first XXX adaptation is not a parody, and it does not comment on, criticize or ridicule the originals. It is a rip-off, plain and simple." the plaintiff claims.
In more legal news (this time, a story you could discuss with your mom), Denny's was taken to court by the estate of JRR Tolkien.
While I didn't think such things worked, my friends went gaga over the Hobbit Breakfast- The menu includes such items as Radagast’s Red Velvet Pancake Puppies (named for the wizard Radagast the Brown), Gandalf’s Gobble Melt, Bilbo’s Berry Smoothie, and Hobbit Hole Breakfast
This lawsuit is a little bit more (*groan*) grey than the one above. It's based on an agreement made in 1969 with Warner Bros.
“The original contracting parties thus contemplated a limited grant of the right to sell consumer products of the type regularly merchandised at the time (such as figurines, tableware, stationery items, clothing and the like). They did not include any grant of exploitations such as electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in services,
The fight, then isn't over Bilbo Baggins figures, but intangible items. The disputed items would include ring tones, online poker games, and yes, the Gandalf Gobble Breakfast.
Yet I also feel bad about saying anything bad. It did encourage reading in adults (and I saw a lot of physical copies of actual books), and also provided a self-publishing success story. Surely, something can be said for that.
Besides the obvious books with titles like "100 Feelings of Emotion" or something similar, there was a cottage industry based about the book. There was the musical Spank , Fifty Shades parodies like the Fifty Shades of Chicken cook book and Fifty Shames of Earl Grey; and the tourism industry put together Fifty Shades vacation plans to cash in, with helicopter rides and $1000 bottles of champagne.
Of course, inevitably, the pr0n industry wanted in.
There's plenty of mainstream entertainment that the Adult Movie industry takes aim at, and Fifty Shades seems a natural fit. Smash Pictures said that although they know the books were going to be filmed by Hollywood, they were going to stay true to the spirit of the book, and even lifted some verses.
Well, you can't do that.
"Beginning with the first XXX adaptation's opening scene and continuing throughout the next 2½ hours of the film, Smash Pictures copies without reservation from the unique expressive elements of the Fifty Shades trilogy, progressing through the events of Fifty Shades of Grey and into the second book, Fifty Shades Darker," the complaint continues. "The first XXX adaptation is not a parody, and it does not comment on, criticize or ridicule the originals. It is a rip-off, plain and simple." the plaintiff claims.
In more legal news (this time, a story you could discuss with your mom), Denny's was taken to court by the estate of JRR Tolkien.
While I didn't think such things worked, my friends went gaga over the Hobbit Breakfast- The menu includes such items as Radagast’s Red Velvet Pancake Puppies (named for the wizard Radagast the Brown), Gandalf’s Gobble Melt, Bilbo’s Berry Smoothie, and Hobbit Hole Breakfast
This lawsuit is a little bit more (*groan*) grey than the one above. It's based on an agreement made in 1969 with Warner Bros.
“The original contracting parties thus contemplated a limited grant of the right to sell consumer products of the type regularly merchandised at the time (such as figurines, tableware, stationery items, clothing and the like). They did not include any grant of exploitations such as electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in services,
The fight, then isn't over Bilbo Baggins figures, but intangible items. The disputed items would include ring tones, online poker games, and yes, the Gandalf Gobble Breakfast.
