This is the first time I have ever been interested in any aspect of the legal process. I echo Aquaslash's thoughts. This is sad and embarrasing and depressing, to see the man who - whatever the issues' flaws - once entertained one and all fleshing out the Sonic universe, now end up throwing his career into the legal woodchipper out of... spite? Jealousy? Furfaggotry for his own characters? Sad and embarrasing and depressing and yet I can't not watch.
Makes me wonder though….how would he prefer his characters to be killed off in this comic. A couple of issues to demonstrate how cool/important/dangerous the echidnas were and an honorable death montage, or a single panel of a burning structure they were supposedly in? He does know that the legion are a single button push away from being written out of the story by the hands of the “less superior” Eggman, right?
I'm no expert but if what I've read is true, the comics could just pull something as crazy as the whole Roboticization/Xorda/etc thing and say some massive disaster just wiped out the entire Legion. Unless some sort of injunction is done, they could potentially pull it off before Ken "won" the trial, in this theoretical backwards world. Thus, Ken would win the war but that would come too late to prevent them from being written out the way the comic people would want them to be.
Wow. I must admit, it's been a few years since I've heard the name Ken Penders floating around the internet. Perhaps he realised this and decided he needed a nice dose of drama to get him back in the celebrity spotlight. This does remind me very much so of the 'Axl Rose trying to sue Activision over Guitar Hero III', four years after the game had been out, and was long forgotten by everyone and their mums. http://kotaku.com/5697737/axl-rose-sues-guitar-hero-maker-for-putting-slash-in-its-game Except obviously, this is a tad different since Archie and Sonic are still around and kicking. Although I must add, why would he wait five years before trying to pull this stunt? I'm not expecting a sensible answer to that, I just find it rather amusing and baffling... That being said, I hope Ken learns a good lesson in non-douchery from all this.
If I recall, his reasoning was that he learned reprints were being made of his stories, and that the game Sonic Chronicles featured a group vaugely similiar to the Dark Legion.
Very vaguely. As in, dark body suits, happen to be Echidnas, and were in another dimension for a while vaguely. Not a single one of his characters were used, or referenced. The entire thing was just your standard shitty Bioware plot.
And yet he sued EA and Sega for copyright infringement. I still wish I was making that up. His characters being relatives to Knuckles is not infringement at all in his eyes, but having a group vaugely similiar to his is apparently crossing the line.
He claims that Sega or Archie or whoever handed them copies of the Knuckles series, and said "do this". Which is still within their rights regardless, because Sega specifically owns everything in those comics.
Really, this whole kerfluffle comes down to something like this I think: 1.) Archie/Sega had Ken sign a work-for-hire agreement. As such, under that contract, and Archie's contract, Sega would own all his creations and win this case. 2.) Archie/Sega messed up and forgot to have him sign a work-for-hire agreement. If this is the case, then Ken will likely win some amount of control over these characters. Either way, what he's fighting over isn't even that great. As the Echidna Turns was far from amazing, and even if he were to win you'd likely not see much of a change in the current comic book.
Basically that, yeah. The thing is that, apparently, Archie has presented a work-for-hire agreement, but Ken claims it's a forgery. If Ken's being truthful and it really is a forgery, that could mean far worse reprecussions for Archie than just losing the case, since I'm pretty sure that'd be illegal. If it's authentic (It's quite possible Ken just forgot considering it was over 15 years ago), the only issue is that Archie failed to specify if they or Sega got the rights. But the document apparently still says it's one of the two, in which case there's still not much of a problem. All it would mean is Ken had agreed either Archie or Sega got the rights, and all Archie and Sega would have to do is both agree that the rights go to Sega. EDIT: I get the feeling I've been posting in this topic a bit too often when I have the first post on a page for four of the past five pages.
Pretty sure Archie wouldn't be stupid enough to trot out a forgery, when it would be far easier to write the characters out of the comic altogether. Or just hand Penders a settlement. I'm pretty sure he's waiting for a settlement, honestly. So he can go "We came to an agreement and things are ok now, no bad blood between us" and try to salvage his career, while still getting money from the deal. If it IS a forgery, well... that's a little odd. Why go through the trouble? That's just going "here, legally we just sunk ourselves in the eyes of the judge". It seems very counterproductive to the case. I think I see Archie's actual strategy, though; the reprints are also showing continuous usage of these ancillary characters by the company, so he can't claim that they were abandoned legally either. I'm not sure exactly what the legal matters are, but it seems a pretty good way to say "Hey, we still make money off these, we're using them". The only thing I would say I'd like to see happen for Penders is royalties. That's all. Morally, I think he should get those. Not the rights or anything, though. The man's an ass. Royalties, sure, anything else, fuck off.
I could agree with that. Douchebag or not, he is the creative power behind many characters that archie continues to use. It's really only fair that he be compensated or credited in some way. I hate Penders and what he did to the comic just as much as everyone else, but that doesn't mean that he deserves to have intellectual property stolen from him.
Well...They sure aren't using his name when it comes to the Knuckles Archives. He is just "various artist". EDIT: Also for the Knuckles Archives they are doing six issues per book as opposed to the 4 issues per book of the regular Sonic Archives so I'm assuming they want to get Knuckles Archives done ASAP.
So, guys. You know how one of the most derided things about the Sonic fanbase is the whole "ORIGINAL CHARACTER DO NOT STEAL" thing, and has been one of the silliest things about the Ken thing because it makes him part of the most mocked type of fan? Well, until the other admin on Ken's forum, his old friend Bob R., spoke up, I had always thought that at the very least, things couldn't get silly as, say, people actually copyright fan characters directly related to Sonic in some way. I looked it up, and apparently he isn't making this up. I could go right now and copyright a version of Sonic with a beard and robe, say he's Sonic's grandfather Speed the Hedgehog or something, and I'd be officially granted copyright. And that goes for any other franchise too. I... I'm not sure I want to live here anymore. This is a terrifying prospect. EDIT: Member registration seems to have reopened on Ken's forums. Also, one of Ken's supporters having a laugh about Chris-chan. Dare I even mention how people have been comparing Ken to him? I'm kind of tempted to.
It's not that simple. Derivative works. Also, on Knuckles Archives, his name is still credited in the stories the same as it always was. They didn't edit the credits, they just added a big blob of catch-all to the front. In addition, Knuckles was almost exclusively printed in 3-issue arcs (because Penders can't do anything without dragging it over twenty fucking years). Putting out 4-issue trades would completely cut up arcs, so it's really a necessity to do it this way.
Of course if Archie's work for hire agreement is true (and it probably is, it seems like standard legal stuff for them to have) then no intellectual property is being stolen—they technically own all of it. Therefore Ken Penders is just trying to throw a fit over long after the fact discovering that yes, he doesn't own them. Seems a bit closer to what is happening than SEGA 'stealing' characters from him. If they were such a great idea, why did he make them for SEGA at all? They coasted off of Knuckles' popularity, not the other way around.
Well, the funny thing is that Ken's tried to argue over the past few days that the characters are worth something by saying the series coasted off his characters' popularity.
That's basic human psychology; he projects his own problems onto something else. Namely, his characters coasted off of Knuckles. His mind rejects this possibility and projects it onto Knuckles instead. Given that people still widely know Knuckles and he continues to be put in games while Penders' characters just kind of hang out in the background in the odd comic here or there you might see what I'm getting at here.
MAN, I just read the last few pages of this topic. Fan characters can actually be copyrighted? WOW, I didn't see that one coming. Also Ken winning this case? That is VERY unlikely, he has a better chance catching big foot or bringing world peace then winning this case. I do see some kind of settlement from Archie and Sega just to get him to shut the fuck up at the very least, either that or he'll lose the case. Though he will always be credited for creating some things in the comic, that's the only thing Ken is entitled to.
