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NEWS: Stan Lee Files Lawsuit Against Pow! Entertainment, Seeks US$1 Billlion in Damages




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Яeverse



Joined: 16 Jun 2014
Posts: 1140
Location: Indianapolis
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 9:04 am Reply with quote
Darn theres goes my hopes and reams for a Ultimo anime.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2514
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 9:48 am Reply with quote
Sad. I guess when it comes to $$$ you can't trust anybody. Most certainly not Chinese businessmen...Stan deserves better than this in his Old Age
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13552
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 10:18 am Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
Sad. I guess when it comes to $$$ you can't trust anybody. Most certainly not Chinese businessmen...Stan deserves better than this in his Old Age

Exactly. His career in comic books and comic-related entertainment (video games, movies, etc.) began back in 1941 when he was 18. While there are still surviving people from the Golden Age of Comic Books*, he is the most notable.


*Usu. dated between the debut of Superman (June 1938) until 1950-54. Intersecting the Golden Age of Comic Books was the Golden Age of Radio (variously dated between the early 1920s-1950s). The Golden Age of Hollywood was roughly 1927-1947.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4079
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 11:26 am Reply with quote
Cool guy, not always the most forthcoming when it comes out to giving credit where credit is due and the fact that he's suing a company he owned for using his name without his permission is pretty ironic when so many comic book writers and artists couldn't escape out from under his name and credit as the writer.

These days, he'd be called a "scripter". I can't deny he had an ear for dialogue but sometimes, he just didn't get what Kirby, Ditko and the rest were doing. The funniest part was when the mistakes made it into print and they never fixed it.

Bruce Banner became Bob Banner in Fantastic Four 13 which made the poor guy Robert "Bruce" Banner for awhile until everyone managed to forget the "Bob" name. Peter Palmer? That was just outright ignored...
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-SP-





PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 11:59 am Reply with quote
Яeverse wrote:
Darn theres goes my hopes and reams for a Ultimo anime.

Was most likely not going to happen as seeing how the manga ended 3 years ago.
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XSp



Joined: 23 May 2014
Posts: 255
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 1:21 pm Reply with quote
I love Stan Lee and his legacy, but I'm just gonna play the devil's advocate on this one and before assuming Pow Entertainment! and Camsing really is at fault here, I think first of all people have to realize that Stan Lee is pretty old, might not know much around social networks, possibly surrounded by very bad people trying to exploit his name, assets and actions for profit, and in kind of a dangerous position to be used for lawsuit trolling, etc.

This doesn't put his lawsuit out of merit, but rather that his situation have to be looked upon very carefully because there's as much potential for Pow Entertainment! to be exploiting contracts and whatnot, as there is to be people behind Lee fooling him or Lee himself misunderstanding the contracts he signed, what's happening in his social network accounts, and what Pow Entertainment! is really doing.

It's a sad story. He deserves way better than this, but people should read more into it:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/report-the-stan-lee-saga-is-only-getting-stranger-and-1825149805
https://io9.gizmodo.com/in-a-new-video-stan-lee-threatens-to-sue-anyone-report-1825212978
https://io9.gizmodo.com/confusingly-stan-lee-is-now-suing-his-former-business-1825264077

The courts will decide I guess.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Is a billion dollars a morally appropriate amount to expect in damages? It seems excessive by any stretch.
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4609
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 1:53 pm Reply with quote
^^ It's an amount to spur a settlement amongst all parties. Like most lawsuits, this will never see a courtroom.

...but if you could value the entire company at a billion (not too hard for a mult-national) and say the true value behind the name is Stan Lee... and they are using his name without his permission... I guess you could say he's suing for the value of the company as the control of it has seemingly been taken from him.


... not to say I didn't immediately get a picture in my head of Stan lifting a pinky up to his finger and doing a Dr. Evil impression.

Mwa-ha ha ha ha!
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11348
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 3:35 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Lee alleges in the suit that he did not agree to the sale to Camsing and notes that Pow! Entertainment shareholders are now suing him due to the deal. ... Lee stayed on as chief creative officer...

Why is he only suing now if the sale happened a year ago? If he stayed on after the sale, he apparently knew about it. Shouldn't he have been shouting about this then? Why are the shareholders suing Lee (which sounds like it answers the "why now?" question)? If they could sell the company without his approval, how is he responsible? If they couldn't legitimately do so, again, why wait to protest the sale?

Unless they settle out of court quickly, he may not live to see a resolution. :/
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SWAnimefan



Joined: 10 Oct 2014
Posts: 634
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 3:52 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Why is he only suing now if the sale happened a year ago? If he stayed on after the sale, he apparently knew about it. Shouldn't he have been shouting about this then? Why are the shareholders suing Lee (which sounds like it answers the "why now?" question)? If they could sell the company without his approval, how is he responsible? If they couldn't legitimately do so, again, why wait to protest the sale?

Unless they settle out of court quickly, he may not live to see a resolution. :/


Such questions is only for the legal minds, and articles never paint the entire picture. But why it took so long? Perhaps they had to gather proof before making the accusation, because "he said so" doesn't work too well in court.

Hopefully this works out. If Stan can get that $1 billion in the lawsuit, I hope he can gather the right people to handle his legacy. Because a Stan Lee foundation would do wonders for new artists and for those that enter the realm of comics and perhaps anime as well.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1997
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 4:00 pm Reply with quote
Seems odd... I believe most celebrity social media accounts are usually managed by their PR department. So it's not surprise that this would be the same case here.

Zin5ki wrote:
Is a billion dollars a morally appropriate amount to expect in damages? It seems excessive by any stretch.


It's like bargaining.

You start big, and then lawyers argue it down to a more realistic proposition.
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unready



Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Posts: 399
Location: Illinois, USA
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 7:38 pm Reply with quote
jdnation wrote:
Zin5ki wrote:
Is a billion dollars a morally appropriate amount to expect in damages? It seems excessive by any stretch.

It's like bargaining.

You start big, and then lawyers argue it down to a more realistic proposition.

The actual amount awarded in a civil suit is limited by the amount of actual damages. I doubt anyone can realistically argue Lee has suffered $1 billion in damages.

So, no, it's not bargaining, but it does make a splashy headline. Otherwise, it's nothing.
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2018 8:05 pm Reply with quote
unready wrote:
jdnation wrote:
Zin5ki wrote:
Is a billion dollars a morally appropriate amount to expect in damages? It seems excessive by any stretch.

It's like bargaining.

You start big, and then lawyers argue it down to a more realistic proposition.

The actual amount awarded in a civil suit is limited by the amount of actual damages. I doubt anyone can realistically argue Lee has suffered $1 billion in damages.


But the statement of claim is the damage you believe has happened given the information available to you. Obviously some of that belief will turn out to be false... but you don't know which bits exactly until after the case has finished.
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