Red Sonya LLC threatens legal action over blue sonya parody comic
(fandompulse.com)
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So a company that makes it's living off of using other peoples IP is suing because someone is doing the same to them?
Red Sonya is a character by Robert E. Howard anyways.
Which is in the public domain as well
Well, akshually, Howard's Red Sonya was a mercenary in medieval Europe, definitely not a chainmail bikini-wearing Hyrkanian from the Hyborian Age. That character was invented wholecloth by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith in the 70s and that copyright hasn't expired yet.
Yes but couldn't you just say you were parodying howards red sonya
OK, yeah, I goofed. Well, we all did. Howard's character was named Red Sonya, but the character invented by Roy Thomas and subsequently published by Marvel and Dynamite is spelled Red Sonja. As far as copyright claims go, this one was even more tenuous than I originally thought. I guess the threat of lawsuit was all it took, even though AP was 100% in the clear. Even with the chainmail bikini. It's been about two years since I stopped watching Comicsgate YouTube, but the US comic book industry is fucking UGLY. Bunch of spiteful, backstabbing crabs in a bucket.
EDIT: Yeah, and it's called Red Sonja LLC, akshually.
"Look, I really don't want to do my job, please don't make me".
So what are the odds this lawyer is diverse? My first guess with that level of not pulling their weight is it's a brave front hole owner.
Lawyers are a profession where half of what makes a good one is them doing the most minimal amount of work possible. Because its a sign they aren't going trying to milk the hours and money out of you, which is where most people get completely fucked in court costs.
That has to be balanced by them still doing a proper job of course, but with copyright cases being able to say "we don't need the details, this is so obvious a random person could realistically confuse them" is in fact enough to win in a lot of cases.
Eh, I figure "A list of examples that is not to be considered exhaustive includes: The characters having identical names prefaced by their striking hair colour. The bikini shaped chainmail outfit. The characters being sword fighters in a fantasy setting." Is like 50 characters more and requires zero actual extra thought, shouldn't actually require any extra billable work unless they're open about using copypasted boilerplate claims when you instruct them.
To us normal people, absolutely.
But this is the legal system. The judge might find you including extraneous examples to be annoying and turn him against you. You might add in an extra adjective somewhere that opens you up for being dismissed based on Precedent Fuck You 47:3 on the books somewhere. Giving examples gives them specific targets to counter you on.
Its usually best to keep it to the tried and true copy/paste lines to angle for an instant or swift resolution. Provide the specifics if asked later.
They should just go the extra-meta route and call her Blue Sonya of
FireIce or something.Choosing something like Blue Tanya would have completely shielded them from lawsuits and still made the parody connection obvious.
Tanya the Blue just to be extra sure.
Unfortunately I think having the Blue Sonja out there as an intermediate step makes anything they do after harder to defend, hence why they maybe went to the extreme separation with the reimagining now.
Isn't parody protected under federal law?
Color me intrigued. Is there a link to where I can keep tabs on this for when it eventually releases? I know Antarctic Press publishes some other people in the industry I like such as the brilliant mind behind this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFe0t8-kidg
Yes I played on Midardsormr.
Might have checked out as 'Blue Sonya'. Not interested in weak ass 'Kendra' especially considering the murky ground related to the original character being in the public domain, and parody being protected.
If those of means don't stand up for parody, why the hell are they getting rewarded (by numpty "fans") for said parody?
Is it too late for Bread Sonja? Whether it's Rye, Vienna, Ciabatta, or sourdough, she'll defeat them all.
ohhhhhhh muh riiiiiiiiights
muh copy riiiiiiights
sure we didn't create fuck all, but we have the riiiiiiiiiiights