So It turns out a lot of the legal court documents from Ken's court cases have been publicly unearthed, and a few dedicated people are taking a look that them. Ken has basically no ground to stand on. The settlement reached between him and Archie/Sega means he cannot release TLSC, he cannot use Knuckles, and he sure as hell cannot reprint M25YL like he's planning to. This man will fail. Edit: A glorious link for your viewing pleasure. https://twitter.com/CaptainAwfAdult/status/1518680441431236608?t=2IwgUDM-SkokgW0bWRrAzw&s=19
In the end I think we all kinda knew he couldn't legally release his furry fanfic, otherwise he would've done it ages ago already. It's nice to see it confirmed, but he's so delusional at this point I don't think it's gonna make him change his stance of "I'll release it when it's ready just wait for it guys", even when we all know he was bullshitting since the beginning.
Don't worry, guys, as long as he can legally sell at least one of those NFTs I'm sure he'll be set for life.
That does explain why progress has been so glacial, at least. Like Snoopy said, I think we all knew. But it's nice to have the answer so directly.
Question: I was under the impression that they settled out of court - terms which we still don't know. Why would these court documents being released to the public change anything? Maybe I missed something.
It's probably in his best interests not to release anything anyway. From all appearances, it looks awful, so I don't see how it could help his reputation with his remaining fans. It's funny, just a couple of days ago I was surprised to see a Penders-illustrated segment pop up in a Forgotten Realms annual I was reading from 1990. His artwork wasn't flashy or impressive in any way, but it also wasn't distractingly weird like it is now. It was just ordinary, serviceable artwork that did the job without detracting from the story. Usually artists improve over time, but it this case...
I knew, I fucking knew -- that Penders had to have been full of shit this whole time, but I never wasted my breath on it because I didn't think anything major was going to change regardless. That's still probably not true, but I had no idea we'd suddenly get our own Threadnought moment where all his dirty laundry is aired for everyone to see.
Apparently the settlement detailed that he could basically keep doing whatever he wanted and Archie/Sega would leave him alone, bar 3 important things- 1. He does not use Sega characters. Anything he produced had to be distinctly removed from Sonic as a whole. Ken has failed to do this. 2. The things he created under his (now proven) work-for-hire contract with Archie he has no ownership of- any of those characters, concepts, or ideas, and thusly also cannot use them. Ken has again, miserably failed here. And 3. Ken cannot reprint or sell anything produced under Archie. Guess who's been trying to get "Mobius: 25 years later" reprinted and sold? I must stress though that all of the information I'm sharing is just word of mouth on my part, but yeah- Ken's been full of shit and we now, afaik, have the legal grounds to shut him down for good and return things to the status quo.
Oh man, an awesome movie, some Origins news and pre-orders and for dessert, Penders being exposed as a filthy liar. Sonic fans of all media sure are having a delicious feast this month.
It wouldn't make any sense at all for this to be part of a settlement (or for Penders to agree to it) since it's about the same outcome as if the case was fully done through the legal system. "Let's meet in the middle. You can do anything, just not any of the things you're wanting to do, and we have full control over every single thing."
There's a ton of misinformation about the Kenders legal case around online - word of mouth, quite frankly, isn't worth much when it comes to down to it. According to Penders & this source, neither party is allowed to talk about the settlement they reached, so anything online regarding it is likely fake. "On July 1, 2013, councils for Penders and Archie indicated to the judge that they had reached a settlement, and had signed a formal Settlement Agreement. The judge signed an order dismissing Archie’s case against Penders. Penders then announced on his website that he would be continuing to work on The Lara-Su Chronicles. The final details of this settlement are not known, and the parties cannot release the details of the mediation agreement because those details are under a confidentiality clause. However the initial agreement from November 2012 to October 2013, seemed to indicate that Archie would not acknowledge Penders’ ownership of anything, and would simply agree not to pursue legal action against him for using certain specified things." (italics added for emphasis on my part)
I dunno man. That's what's being passed along. Ken has now been proven to have joined Archie under work-for-hire, and along with all that other contractual hoo-hah that other former Archie employees have confirmed, it basically just means Ken can't profit from the things he created for Archie- and yet, he's trying to. He's digging his own grave right now lol. Double post, please forgive me. This info is supposedly coming from the legal documents being shared today. We'll just just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
Oh, okay! My other question would be: if Archie or SEGA hasn't tried to sue him yet, then why would they start now? He's been very open about his intentions since the beginning. SEGA & Archie should know whats in the court documents regardless of what the public does or doesn't know. Honestly, I really don't know what anybody is supposed to be celebrating here - nothing has changed, we're just finally getting some transparency on the court case. Which is interesting, for sure, but shouldn't change the status quo. Penders is still going to make annoying tweets and drag his feet and never release anything and people will still spam his comments with "you dont own scourge t hedgehog1!!1!" and SEGA and Archie still won't bother him because it's really not worth the time or effort and the cycle will continue until he dies or deletes his Twitter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, yeah nothing's gonna change. What we're celebrating is more or less a "haha told ya so, I was right all along" kinda thing. Also, for those interested- Here is the current status on things. The settlement reached went undisclosed for a while, yet is supposedly mentioned twice in here. In other words, we more or less have the truth about Archie and Ken's "agreement". Ken still can't do what he's trying to do.
Because he hasn't done anything yet: all he's done is put up some awful Sonic the Hedgehog fanart. Once he actually starts selling it, then there's an issue. There's also that little usage of Anthony Mackie's likeness without permission...
His echidnarium is so weirdly drawn it wouldn't pass as a sonic product even if he redrew his entire run of Archie and re-released it keeping the plot and characters intact. Oh, and Sega doesn't do anything so they don't have to take a look at those horrible illustrations, everybody knows that.
Maybe Penders never publicly said he was tricked into signing anything... but he did confess to signing work for hire contracts in emails featured in the legal documents. IIRC Years later, In episode 3 of Tom Campbell’s “A History of Sonic the Hedgehog”, Penders stated that he called the contracts forgeries during the trial but according to the legal doc penders provided no evidence to back this claim. I’m going to wait to see what the full document says before I comment on the settlement. What I will say is that I don’t think Penders is delusional. He knows what he’s doing. He wants engagement whether it’s good or bad. He wants his fans to be mad. It’s too bad Ken’s full of crap. I hope the full doc’s released soon
None of the things you said would exclude him from being delusional. This man was, what, a week ago? Saying that because the Sonic movie 2 has a flashback with Knuckles's dad, that he could somehow wage a legal campaign that would eventually result in him being able to use SEGA's characters. It's a delusion. If his plan is to go "jokes on them I was only pretending", then I am wondering exactly when the fuck he's supposed to say that. Once he's alienated every last person to ever show sympathy for him?
Hey, do we have that screenshot of Penders back in '99 or whatever openly admitting Archie/Sega owned everything he created? It's important for something.
A couple hours after the guy posted excerpts of the legal documents Ken posted on twitter that he was selling prints. Ken will never publicly say that he was pretending. He’s a grifter looking to get as much attention ASAP without thinking of the longterm consequences. Where he is still delusional is his instance that he’s still a big deal. He’s $&@%ed around and found out... and finding out has cost him fans. The more and more fans he loses the more outrageous he acts to get attention. Because he has to make himself believe that he’s still a big deal. A big enough deal to sue paramount. I guess the tldr is that I see your point, but I wouldn’t put it past Ken to do stuff just for attention. http://www.sonichq.net/nostalgia/shqclassic/news/archive/News/7_99.htm It’s on this page
