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Uri Geller sues Nintendo's Pokemon
The-Forge writes "In this article at IGN's Sci-Fi Network, everyone's favorite spoon bending psychic, Uri Geller, is sueing Nintendo over a Pokemon charcter. The Pokemon, #65, is named Alakazam. At this point, you're probably asking yourself why. In Japan this Pokemon is called Un-Geller and carries bent spoons around all the time. And the fact that Geller got mobbed when he went X-Mas shopping in Tokyo by kids wanting him to sign their Un-Geller Pokemon cards didn't help much either. " The great part of this whole deal is the dollar amount - Geller's asking for $97 million.
... but I'm backing him on this one. I mean, an "Un Geller" who bends spoons? Not to mention the fact that a poor OCR system could confuse "n" and "ri". I can't believe that they didn't even bother to consult him or ask his permission. Or failing that, create another character who can bend spoons. !!
Maybe this will slow down the pokemon buzz. Would this be a bad thing?
I speak for me. Not my employer, not slashdot, not Xenu.
Uri Geller is a fake. He's an opportunist. He's doing this for the money. He's described as a real-life spoonbender, which he may well be. But he does it using regular, non-psychic methods.
I can see Uri's point... Un Geller is rather similar to Uri Geller, and he surely has a right to be at least consulted before they do something like this, but as for the bent spoons... surely that's up to him to patent?
I do not care if he wins or lose, I just hope he autographed the kids Un-Geller Pokemon cards. As a matter of fact, if he didn't, I hope he loses. If he did, I hope he wins, but perhaps the sum of $5mil.
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
If this pokemon character can really bend spoons, then there is little similarity to Mr. Geller
my uncle looks like pokemon. can i have a dollar?
when Push Comes to Shove
I'm going to sue them, too.
Because of their character charmander:
After I eat lots of curry my arse is on fire too.
Anyway, as much as I hate to say it, Uri Geller clearly has a case here, and he ought to win, but $97 is far too much. Yes, Pokemon has been a huge moneymaker, but how much of that can be attributed to that one, single Pokemon? If it was Pikachu, maybe, but Un Geller? No way.
Powers&8^]
This guy hasn't been on TV since the Mike Douglas show went off the air. This is the best publicity he's gotten in decades. He should be paying Nintendo.
Is it too late to legally change my name to pikachu? /. readers willing to change their names so we can get all the pokemon off the market.
C'mon i'm sure there's enough
Gotta sue 'em all!
Besides, there's a little thing known as Fair Use. Ask Negativland . . . they've been fighting this battle longer than anyone I personally know. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against suing the Big Evil Corporation(tm), but I DO have something against frivolous lawsuits.
oh yeah, vote for me for best dressed
Bad things often happen to good people,
It is up to them to see that they remain good.
Everyone is sue happy. I do not know much about japanese or anything. Does that word have some other meaning? Anyone here know? Before he gets away with that much money you need a LITTLE more than a freaking spoon that is bent ( I can bend them to. I use the deadly frozen ice-cream trick ) Okay the name thing is close but Uhm. Ive never heard of the guy and he has not really trademarked or copyrighted any of the spoon bending stuff (has he?) so how can he dream of pulling this off? *shrugs* IANAL so I would be interested in hearing what anyone has to say.
97 Million? What the fsck?! How the hell did they come up with this amount. Lawsuits like these just really get my back up. Surely the best thing to do would be to dump Uri and these Pokemons on some planet and leave them there. Lets see him bend himself out of that one...
"Some smegger's filled in this 'Have You Got A Good Memory?' quiz!"
There is no spoon!
God Fucking Damnit
I believe this is just the beginning of an evil plot by Nintendo to replace all the important and famous people in the world with Pokemon characters.
Picture if you would a grotesque little monster with greying hair named Clintoboinko that defeats his opponents by whipping out his... umm... on second thought, actually, don't picture that.
i was told the same thing by a small child dressed as a buhdist monk. i think it was hemos.
Uri Geller has a long history of filing lawsuits against anyone who criticize him, debunk him, or even just incorrectly describe his past. Witness, for example, his various suits against James "Amazing" Randi, who published The Truth About Uri Geller . I don't recall all the details of Geller's suits against Randi, but you can probably find more info at randi.org. Fortunately, Randi is a bulldog who doesn't let Geller intimidate him. The long and the short of it is that Geller is a fraud and will sue anyone who dares to say so.
--Jim
It is a simple case of deduction. Uri Geller is psychic, so he knows what will be the outcome. He wouldn't have placed the suit if he knew he would not win.
So we can all go home now...lawyers step aside, he is obviously more than you can handle.
V
He's actually a former -- lame! -- magician. Since he was'nt skilled enough to do it the honest way, he pretended to do it by supranatural power. This way, he got fame, money, girls ... And HE'S A FRAUD. The magic community is laughing at him. The bent spoon is an ultra easy trick. You can do that really simply with shape-memory (don't know the english term for it) material.
A group of french skeptics are offering $20000 to anybody who will be able to bent THEIR spoon, which is placed inside a sealed glass tube, without opening / breaking the tube. Oddly, Uri Fraud Geller never tried to do it!!!!
Unfortunately, this looks like just another attempt by a fading star to regain their celibrity. From another view though, it's the lone ranger crusading for basic human rights (EG Not to be portrayed as a pokemon card.) Still, that much money is very, very excessive. I severely doubt that it hurt his reputation that much.
He won't get his 97 million, but he will get a lot. Japanese companies are notoriously afraid of unpredictable U.S. courts and so they settle, settle early, and settle big.
Oh and as for everyone quoting The Matrix, I give you The Tick: Spooooooooooooooooon!
If a tree falls in the forest, and it falls on a mime, does anyone care?
I think it comes down to whether it is coincidence. There's some SMALL possibility that it was (doesn't seem very likely, but let's never assume anything). If it wasn't, then certainly they didn't have the moral right to do what they did.
Whether or not they have a legal right, I don't know... I'm not a lawyer, least of all a Japanese lawyer, but in America, it'd proably be covered under Parody clauses of Copyright laws, which basically state that you can pretty much rob someone blind of intelectual property such as names, as long as you're doing it to make fun of them.
WOOHOO!!! About 400th Post!!!
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Uri Geller isn't a spoon-bending psychic. He's a money grubbing charlatan who has tried to employ the same tactics as the Scientologists (lawsuits anyone?) against his detractors, albeit with less success. He's now jumped on the new age bandwagon and his latest snake-oil are crystals and tapes on how to develop your ESP and other psychic abilities.
Suing over the Pokemon card is just another attempt of his to get rich quick. He might be on to something but I doubt it. The Pokemon card could probably be defended as a parody of Uri Geller, a public figure.
Click here. Professional skeptic, James Randi (also a shameless self promoter, but hey, at least its for a better cause) has debunked Geller in a book. He's also challenged him to perform his feats of telekinesis under controlled circumstances for a million dollar prize. Given he loves publicity and will do anything for a buck his refusal to compete for the prize speaks volumes about his credibility.
Bastard Pokemon stole it!
Psychic whoop-ass time
Personally, I find the idea of Uri Geller being mobbed by children asking him to sign their Pokemon cards quite hilarious.
He should have seen it coming... ;)
LouZiffer
LouZiffer
It reminds me this story: a few months ago Dr. Bernard Lewinisky (Monica's father) got upset when the TV Show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit used "lewinsky" as a colloquialism for oral sex. Annoying, but probably not actionable (at least under US law; I don't know about Japan) given proof that the name is in general use as a common word.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Well, I know that a while back, some company couldn't get the right (or permission) to use Sean Connory's likeness for some game (another CCG?), so they had to use a shadow that vaguely looked like him. I'm not sure if it was illegal for them to use his likeness without his permission, or if they did it just to be nice. Also, I'm not sure what the laws in Japan. 97 million is pretty steep though, but if it's a company that has a lot of money, I guess you try to take it to the bank. I wouldn't want to see him win either, but it appears inevitable. I guess a fictional character with the same last name as you and who bends spoons (allegedly) like you counts as a likeness.... any thoughts though?
...."SPOON!!!"
Uri Geller has filed suit against Sarah Michelle Gellar, alleging "a conspiracy to defraud and confuse" the public. The main thrust of Geller's suit is that the uncanny similarity between their names and their involvement in the magic field "can't be a coincidence". Attorneys for Ms. Gellar responded with the statement "It's just a TV show, stupid. I mean, it's on the WB, and who even watches that? WB stations are usually in the UHF band, anyways."
In a related development, NSI responded by immediately placing all related domain names on hold.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Let's see; it's called Un Geller, and it can bend spoons psychically. He's called Uri Geller, and he can't. Seems to me, they named the pokemon correctly: it is definately an unGeller.
"Moderation is good, in theory."
-Larry Wall
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
Yet
Another
Uri
Geller
Lawsuit
Story
Pokemon sux
Pokemon rox
Pokemon sux rox
I wonder what a Beowulf cluster of Uri Gellers would be like...
[Insert your favourite "there is no spoon" quote here]
[Insert your favourite Natalie Portman naked and petrified nonsense here]
Et cetera, ad nauseam. There, I've done it for you. Now you can go home.
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
After a few minutes he seems to have smelt a rat, and stopped. Geller's supporters claimed that he had obviously detected the cameras by psychic powers.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
people have the right to make parodies of celebrities. like it or not.
What an a-hole. $97 million, huh? Makes a whole lot of sense to me.....
Why does he need 97 million dollars???
He _bends spoons_ for a living! Is he gonna sue the Wachowski Bros too for the little bald kid?
______
everyone was born right-handed, only the greatest overcome it.
http://leftorium.net
IMHO, if you create a fictional character with a very similar name, and various hallmarks that clearly identify the original person, then you have a clear-cut case of misuse of that person's name, unless they've given permission. You can't get away with saying "any resemblance of real people, living or dead, is coincidental", if there is good reason to believe that that is so much bullshit.
Now, I'm not standing up and saying "all hail the great and wonderful Gellar!". What I =AM= saying is that the law must apply to EVERYONE, EQUALLY, or it's no law at all. If Uri Gellar feels that his character has been seriously besmirched, or that Nintendo has sought to profiteer off a celebrity's image without permission or recompense then I say "go for it!".
Nobody should be allowed to covertly or overtly profit off another's name, no matter WHAT people think of that name. To profit like that is flat-out WRONG, and Nintendo deserve everything they get for it. $97 million seems odd, though. Surely a round figure would be better. $100 million sounds much more impressive.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
In an article I chanced upon about a week ago, Geller said one of his main objections was that the character is described as being violent which he thought was associating defamatory statements with his name. Or words to that effect.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
RUSSIA, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading spoon bender Yuri Geller has been awarded a patent for its innovative 1-glance spoon bending method, wich allows one who uses this technique to easily bend spoons. It is rumored that Geller is going IPO. The market is waiting anxiously.
In other news, Geller is going to sue Matrix movie makers, because of that famous Matrix scene, in wich a boy teaches Neo how to bend spoons.
-"This is an obvious infingiment of my patent" -angrily said Mr. Geller.
-
Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
Nintendo got careless.. But when you get careless, you get burned. Hey, and looking through the character lists, I found some other notable sue-ables: Sgt. Taco, who can destroy with the crushing power of a /.-attack JamKatz, wielding the powerful stick up his ass Lime Torvalds, wielding the power of God Shill Gates, wielding the power of Satan Albo Cox, who could probably crush you with his bare hands.. Maybe if everyone gets up the guys to tell Nintendo that we've had enough, we can put this pokemon garbage out to sea where it belongs.
Nobody really knows this beside Geller, and that's beside the point.
There two important facts here:
1. People have the right not to be depicted as a little orange monster by a multibillion dollar multinational organisation.
2. $97 Million has more to do with greed than about redressing one's violated rights.
If Mr Geller really wants to make a point, I suggest that he declares that if he wins, he will donate the money to charity.
Anyway, Mr. Geller is simply looking for publicity. He's got a book on psychic healing (or something equally stupid) and nobody noticed, so he's decided to up the ante by suing someone.
. . . and while I'm at it, why hasn't he sued Buffy? Isn't her last name Gellar? Sounds like infringement to me!
...which is almost enough to buy one of the offending cards.
Geller geller? Geller geller geller!
Geller is, as we all know, a fraud. He alone probably did more to harm the reputation of research into the veracity of potentially psychic occurrences than anyone before or since. However, his likeness is his own to profit from, and any idiot ought to associate a spoon-bending twit figure with Uri Geller, so he would seem to have a case ...
I am, therefore you think.
What's the matter, Mr. Geller? Bending spoons not as lucrative living as it used to be? Trying to move up to bending corporations? Really, if you don't want media attention, you shouldn't fucking bend spoons for a living. That was supposed to be the whole idea, wasn't it?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
- The last Pokemon show has aired in Japan, bringing the total to about 160 some episodes. Warner Bros. current have the rights to about 100+ of those, and will probably get the rest as 4Kids translates them. However, there's only a limited number of episodes left; unlike certain other TV shows in the states that get run into the ground (The Simpsons, for example), the show had a story arc, and it finished it and ended.
- Pokemon have been reported as tools of the devil, etc etc, by a number of critics.
- Pokemon toys was the big hit this Christmas. There's yet to have been a single popular toy to continue dominating Christmas sales two years in a row. Anyone remember Cabbage Patch Dolls, Tamagachi, or Furbys?
- Pokemon card trading has been banned from many schools because students spent more time doing that than learning.
- A wrongful death lawsuit may be brought against Pokemon and has forced the recall of millions of pokemon toys: a toddler suffocated to death when she placed half of a Pokeball that came from Burger King over her nose and mouth, and couldn't breath.
- Pokemon, the cartoon, is overplayed way too much on WB networks: Pokemon's on about 7 to 9 times (depending on the weekend schedules) on the WB network, and so far, WB's only had 60-some episodes to rotate through. Doesn't take a math genius to see how fast it would take to get boring.
- "Pokemon the First Movie" was a practical failure in the states: sure, it got a profit for the WB as they spent nearly nothing to get it, but compared to something like Toy Story 2, it did not get a lot of return viewers as some were expecting.
- Pokemon's been spoofed by MAD and South Park.
:D.
It's not that Pokemon is bad, but it was pushed in our faces to the point where you could not ignore it, and now people are getting disgusted with the entier concept and are now fighting back."Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
So how do they spell it, since the language has no "L" sound? I suppose they handle the "r" at the end using the usual "ru" with a silent "u"... Is it Un Geruru or something?
Rename the pokemon "BHM" (stands for "butthead magician").
Justice should be served.
1. It is just that Geller should win the suit if they did not make the appropriate contacts.
2. It would also be just for Geller to be slapped with a frivelous filing of suit given the amount of money he is asking. My first response to this story was "Who the heck is Uri Geller?" If the character had been "Pizza the Hut" and it had a red roof looking top half, ok maybe there is a reason for there to be alot of money because the business has a ton of face time with the world and they have paid for that face time. It would be more interesting if the jury was allowed to set damages in cases like this rather than the plaintif.
In a place beyond time and space, in a land far better than this, look for me there...
As a representative of the New Age community, I am APPALLED at the lack of sensitivity to correct terminology by you people.
Mr. Geller is a MYSTIC not a psychic!
For people who get their underwear in a knot whenever someone gets hacker/cracker wrong, how can you people not do your homework and understand the simple difference between psychic and mystic?
A psychic is someone who has knowledge about events (past/present/future) through extra-sensory means.
A mystic is someone who has the ability to affect the environment/objets around them by force of will alone.
Would you people please do your homework next time?!?!?!
Note: any negative replies/moderations to this post will be noticed, and will be posted as replies the next time the "hacker/cracker" debate comes up.
That's absolutely incredible!
From the lack of typos and extraneous characters, I gather that either she's not doing it right or you need to see a doctor.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
First of all there is no better press than a scandal that you can legalese your way out of. If you look like the underdog being viciously prosecuted by psychos and you win, you are a hero.
Secondly, Uri should be happy he is getting all this publicity. I am an avid Pokemon television show watcher, and I loved the movie. If it weren't for Pokemon, and this story I would have no idea who Uri Geller was. Now I think he is cool b/c he is modeled after my favorite pokemon.
I could have sworn the cards where put out by Wizards of the Coast, unless I am missing something here, did Nintendo buy Wizards, I really hope not.
Why is still every book quoted here has a link to amazon. Wasn't someone supposed to remove all amazon links on /.
And for the posters, can't you just have a plain pointer to a compare and shop site (there are hundreds now) with the ISBN if you know the book ?
Can I sue Nintendo too? I always thought that Brock guy was way to much like me. Chases after every girl he comes across, only to get shot down by all of them. He can spend day after day camping with the same young girl and still not score. Has a strange fixation with breeding strange and exotic animals...oops I think I said to much.
When is the world going to realize that names, ideas, words, ANYTHING that one human comes up with is, by default, rightfully usable by another human? The idea of "this is mine, you can't have it" just plain sucks. Just imagine where we would be if people would just work for a common cause, not for their own personal gain. I can.
Don't forget that there are also pokemon called Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee that are martial arts experts.
Do you think Marcel Marceau could sue over the pokemon called Mr. Mime?
Also, Alakazam is the third evolution of the pokemon. The earlier forms are called Abra and Kadabra in English, I wonder what their Japanese names are and if they have anything to do with other con artists.
I only know about pokemon because I have a four year old!
Ramdi (Flimi-Flami) Pokemon doll collection in
case more lawsuits are filed. They could become
collector items.
George Lee
Yeah, but I bet you two pounds that Connory would never sue anyone over using his likeness. He has to much karma going on for that.
All opinions are my own - until criticized
Since everything is about suing and patents, I guess I can't be the "Don't sue people"-Panda.
Anyway, asking for no less than $97M shows that he is nothing but a hoax. First he hoaxed the world by claiming the ability to bend spoons telepatically, and now he asks Nintendo for no less than ninety-seven mills? Get a grip, Geller - I don't think it hurt THAT much.
www.6502asm.com - Code 6502 assembly or.. DIE!!
shut the hell up. mystic, psychic, both of them suck. why? because neither one of the REALLY does anything. at least a little script kiddie knows how to incant some cracker code and get it to do *something*...
Speaking of Pokemon parodies and South Park, Superosity has a short movie parody, Parkemon.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
OK, so how can someone who has built up all his career on deceiving the scientific community have the guts to sue someone?
For YEARS the academic circles have been proposing to Mr. Geler a scientific investigation of his spoon-benidng capabilities, yet he has ALWAYS declined. He didn't like the aseptic lab environment and scientific methods, I guess.
OK; don't take my words for it, check on the facts yourself. What you will realize is that Mr Geller has as much credibility as the Zodiak or Numerology. I believe many people have built a fortune on the guillable and sily people of the world. I just don't get it when one of these criminals has the guts to sue for money! It just rubs me the wrong way.
Sigged!
It doesn't matter if you don't like the guy or you think he is a fraud or you just plain don't like guys whose name starts with 'U'! The pokemon craze is all over the place and there are millions of dollars invested and millions more to be made. If they wanted to use his likeness, they should have asked his permission period.
Why do you think everyone of those millions stupid sweepstakes letters makes you think you have won but still has the legal wording so that they can use your likeness?? The operative word is likeness: it doesn't have to be a picture or an accurate description, if people can identify me from it, it is my likeness. Of course, if you go ahead and name it after me, there is no grey area left!
I don't particularly care about the guy or pokemon, but do you want to be mobbed by a bunch of people and find out there are a zillion copies of your likeness out there that you never new about??
There are some exceptions here for celebrities etc in the law which allows us to criticize polititians indiscriminately (watch jay leno), but I don't think that kicks in here as they are commercially exploiting his likeness.
On the other hand, if the pokemon could bend stuff and was called "Bender-mon", could the people down at futurama sue them??
Conclusion: futurama rox.
It will come down to a question of his credibility, like a trial of magic vs science. He'll probably get the O.J. jury and walk away with $97 million.
I dunno. Perhaps the wierdest part of all this is that Uri Geller is writing book reviews. (In the article, he also reviews The man who invented the 20th century (Nikola Telsa), and tries to discredit Prof. Richard Dawkin's book Unweaving the rainbow, because that book explains why Geller is a fraud.)
Why is this a troll? It should be given at least a +1 and labeled as funny?
Geez, didn't you moderators ever see The Matrix?
Shut up, be happy. The conveniences you demanded are now mandatory. -- Jello Biafra
There IS no spoon! Sorry, I couldn't resist. J
I could understand if there was even a glimmer of quality in it all but there isn't. It's garbage pure and simple. I pity the kids who buy into the hype and feel very sorry for the parents too.
1) He's before our time. He was more of a celebrity years ago. He may be a fake, but he certainly was quite well known, almost a household word.
2) Whether or not we consider him a fake has nothing to do with the validity of his claim, which clearly has basis.
3) The utterly overinflated amount is probably a tactical move in the plan to get lots of dough from the settlement.
I noticed several posts that were poorly moderated today. Has /. finally implemented the dreaded moderation bot? It must be making heavy use of the rand() function and have sense_of_humor set to false.
If you created a new line of toys called "pokermon", do you think Nintendo will be sending their lawyers after you?
that I found at Rotten:
Jan 4 1997
Rumors run rampant through Israel, particularly over talk radio, that a UFO will land at Tel Aviv on the following day. The predictions are purported to have been made by spoonbender Uri Geller. Thousands flock to the beaches, but no saucers.
Just thought it was an interesting bit. Find it today, Jan 4th, on their daily dose of Today in Rotten History.
When I've seen Geller bend spoons, he didn't use memory metals. Instead he used the "Hey, is that Elvis over there?" [bend quick with both hands] technique. It's much simpler.
I have a distinct memory of that Johnny Carson show, but it went down a bit differently than you recall. First, you must recall that Carson was an amateur magician. Carson had contacted none other than James Randi and (together) they devised a series of demos to fairly test Geller's psychic abilities. Nothing was rigged, per se ... a real psychic would have had no trouble, but Geller fell flat on his face after each of his stock tricks failed to come off. One particular example leaps to mind: Geller was presented with a series of empty 35mm(?) film cannisters. One contained an object. Geller was supposed to identify which. Randi had taped the bottom of the cannisters to the desk, so that Geller could not "accidently" bump them during the course of his spiel. Of course, he fell flat, begged off for some anemic reason, and Carson went to a commercial. When they came back, the band was playing and Uri was clapping wildly and stomping his foot, apparently
enjoying the music. But it was pretty obvious to everyone in the know that he was merely trying to jiggle those damn cannisters -- ! What a riot. Carson was deadpan and totally neutral to Geller's antics throughout, which made Geller look even more foolish.
And in related news, Uri Geller has filled an injunction against the Wachowski brothers, to prevent them from making any Matrix sequels.
Apparently, the sci-fi hit sequels were rumored to involve reviving stopped watches and taking photographs without first taking off the lens cover. Slinky Carrie Ann Moss was also to be featured wearing a skin-tight aura of bio-energy.
Actor Keanu Reeves was quoted as saying: "Whoa.."
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
There is no spoon. I don't see what Geller is worried about if, in fact, there are no spoons to bend.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
Is the suit being brought in japan? I didn't see any information one way or other in the original article? Do they feel differently about parody there? My guess is this guy just files suits once in a while to keep his name in the papers.
I don't understand how anyone can think this is OK. Parodies of famous people populate many, many forms of comdey.
If this is OK, then Saturday Night Live owes an awful lot of money to all ex-presidents over the past few years. And just imagine what South Park owes to Barbara Streisand.
IMO, he has no case at all.
I mean, the guy has nothing left but his image. Here in Canada, musician Nash the Slash sucessfully sued Pepsi for using his likeness in a commercial with Carol Pope. Stars have a certain image, a persona that they use to sell their product, be it their acting abilities, their music, their "mystical powers". The last goes for both Uri Geller, and the Catholic Pope. I don't judge them, but I don't believe in them, either...the "mystical powers", that is.
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Previous results of Geller lawsuits.
Why is anyone surprised? Oh, no one is. Well, $96 million is about as silly as $14 million (or was that crowns?) for hot coffee. OK, he should get reimbursed. Give him a buck for every game of pokemon that is sold. And $5000 for the kids harassing him. That's a lot of money. $96 million is just silly.
Uri-diculous
Uri-diculous
I mean if every public figure had the right to sue over something like this, editorial comics and satire wouldn't exist.
I think its funny though. especially since nintendo has a full war chest.
Uri Gellar has a right to sue Nintendo of Japan. Everyone of the Pokémon names is trademarked (at least here in the U.S.), and the fact that the Pokémon is named Ungellar in Japanese obviously isn't coincidental. As has been previously stated, the katakana glyphs for Ri and N are strikingly similar. It can therefore be determined that Nintendo's name 'Ungellar' was a play on Uri Gellar's name. Mr. Gellar obviously would have a winning suit if not for the international complications.
Gellar cannot sue Nintendo of America - that Pokémon is called Alakazam here and a simple "He bends spoons too!" suit would not hold up in a civil court. The only way for Gellar to get money would be to sue Nintendo of Japan, and then you obviously have international trademark and copyright law coming into play with every one of the Pokémon names being trademarked (at least in the U.S.)
With all the difficulties that are inherent of an international suit, I doubt that he'll get the money, even though he probably deserves it.
printf("Why have a signature?");
...just not using his mind. Reading of his various exploits, I'm not surprised he has to make a living suing people. He certainly couldn't make it as a (honest) magician.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
... Marcel Marceau (did I spell that right?) is suing Nintendo for their use of the "Mr. Mime" Pokemon.
What the fuck does this have to do with "those jews"? Why do some imbeciles on slashdot post something anti-semitic at every chance they get? Now, I have no idea whether Uri Geller is Jewish or not, but I don't see what fucking relevance it has. If you actually believe that somebody can bend spoons with their mind then you are an idiot, and you missed the whole point of modern "magicians"/illusionists as entertainers.
Learn the ultimate truth about Pokemon here at http://cornswalled.webjump.com/pokemon/pokemon.ht
First of all, it's #64 (Kadabra, with one spoon), not #65 (Alakazam, with two spoons). The kana read YU-N-GE-RA-A. That's YU, pronounced like the English word "You", same as the "U" in Uri (pronounced Yuri).
And #63 (Abra) is KE-E-SHI as in Edgar Cayce. If someone can tell me WTF "FU-U-DI-N" (#65) is a reference to, I'd appreciate it.
What I find odd is that kids anywhere could recognize this guy on sight. He's been out of the publicity spotlight for well over a decade now. Maybe this is just a publicity stunt to get the spotlight back on him. What was he doing Xmas shopping in Tokyo anyhow?
And don't forget, there is no spoon.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
The Japanese parody laws are much more lenient than those in the USA. In the USA, you have to defend trademarks or lose them. That includes trademarked cartoon and comic book characters.
In Japan, random people can publish parody comics, in particular "hentai" (putting the characters in sexual situations, even characters from kids shows), with no worries at all.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I seem to remember a "Super Mario Bros." cartoon that was out about 10 years ago. It also featured Legend of Zelda shorts. There aren't any new episodes being made, but gamers are playing new releases of Mario and Zelda games. Final Fantasy games inspired several animated films. We're on FF8 right now, right?
So the TV show is over, and the toys won't be popular Christmas 2000. If the past proves predictive, we'll be looking forward to more Pokemon gaming excitement for the next 10 years-no matter if there's an anime attached or not.
Well, you gotta hand it to those jews, they sure have a nose for business
p.s. No fascist meaning attached
No, just centuries-old anti-semitic bullshit, you stupid bigot.
Seriously, why bring racism into this thread? One can easily find frauds and con artists in every race
of people on this Earth. The Jews simply happen to have Uri Geller as a fine example of both.
Jerk.
My last name is Mankey and there is a Pokemon named Mankey. . . I'd sue except that a member of my family teaches 3rd Grade at an elementary school, it's interesting how popular she is with the kids because of that.
My last name is Mankey and there is a Pokemon named Mankey. . . I'd sue except that a member of my family teaches 3rd Grade at an elementary school, it's shocking how popular she is with the kids because of that. They always want to discuss Pokemon with her, as if she has some deep genitally inherited Pokemon insights into Pokemon strategy.
When I first read this headline, I thought it said:
:-)
Uri Geller sues Natalie Portman
Only for a split-second, mind you.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
...I'd have my $97,000,000 without having to sue anyone.
--
It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Japanese game companies often throw parodies of famous people into their products, especially for domestic distribution. Then the names get changed for export -- UnGeller becomes Alakazam. I'd love to know why they do that.
For example, in the Street Fighter video game the disgraced former boxer was named M. Bison (parodying Mike Tyson), the über-villain was Vega, etc. Then when they brought it to the USA their legal department got a bit worried, so they rotated a bunch of names one space to the left.
If he is psychic he already knows he has 97 million in the bank. IMHO they honored him with the wrong card. If it looks like a psyduck, walks like a psyduck and is a quack like Geller it must be a Psyduck-Geller Pokemon.
Sorry, Geller. Not a chance in hell. There's a fantastic book on copyright law, released a few years ago by the experimental found-sound band Negativland, entitled "Fair Use: The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral 2", which details the struggle of said band to win back the ownership of their magnum opus, entitled U2.
Many thought provoking issues on Fair Use and copyright law in general are brought up, and it includes a pretty hefty reference section, which includes many legal precedents. One of which is from Vanna White suing.. Toshiba, I believe, for using a robot "version" of Vanna White in their commercials. It was taken to the Supreme Court, and in their analyses of the case, this entire discussion is basically encapsulated. And it's law. And Geller's side does not hold water.
So there.
I've got the perfect defense strategy. Pokeman says, "Oh, our Pokeman is totally different than Uri Geller. You see, our Un-Geller is a fraud who bends spoons through slight-of-hand and trickery. Not through any sort of psychic powers. See, they're not alike at all!" Uri then has to concede that either they have completely different spoon-bending techniques, or that he also bends spoons through slight-of-hand. What do you think?
This is not the first time this happened to Nintendo. A while ago they made a game called Donkey Kong and Universal tried to sue them for big bucks over the game's similarity to the movie King Kong (mostly based on the name). By the end of that case, not only did Nintendo not have to pay Universal any money, but Universal had been legally proven to have no legal rights to the name "King Kong" and Nintendo was awarded 1.8 million dollars from Universal for their counter suit. Sometimes it isn't smart to mess with companies like Nintendo...
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Geller? I shall poop on his head!
"ri" in katakana
"n" in katakana
chide_molesta@hotmail.com
chide_molesta@hotmail.com
we's gotsta save the chirrun!
chide_molesta@hotmail.com
chide_molesta@hotmail.com
Hip Parents are always cool :-) I swear my mom is the only mom I know that liked watching Kids in the Hall with her kids :-)
He's an old time magician using modern psi-buzzswords for his show. So what if he won't admit its just 'magic.' Its part of the illusion.
Does he so challenge you average slashdotters wordview they agree that he's an ass (which he probably is) but an ass that doesn't deserve his own day in court?
Its an obvious rip-off and the 'bad guy' here are the practices of corporation who have mastered marketing to CHILDREN. Now thats pathetic, at least Uri can make adults look slack-jawed and goofy when he takes their watch and changes it to GMT. But commercializing crap aimed towards the under 10 market is evil incarnate.
Now Pokemon's masters not satisfied with world domination start fucking around with some guy (regardless of who he is) trademark act AND name.
Boo hoo slashdotters cry, Uri is psychic he has no rights lets make fun of him cause we're all so smart and hip to the materistic worldview he challenges through a freaking stageshow.
Its infringement plain and simple. Even if he's litigation crazy he might actually be right one time. Scary I know, its called justice. Can you guys stop being prejudice for 1 minute to read about the issue?
If he was suing MS, I'm sure we'd have a gaggle of pro-MS geeks crawling out of the woodwork.
... but Nintendo said that a certain group of programmers named Game Freak came up with the names at random. Either it's a joke, or it's just a coincidence . I'm really annoyed with posts about how "Nintendo deserves it". Yup! Sure they did! Haha! Booger!
Notice which site this is? Hmm it's not the PSYCIC Feinds, or some other such nonsence.... If you want to BOO-HOO do it some where else... BTW when did EVERYTHING get PC!? Give me a BREAK this is bloddy PSYCICS for crying out loud! Everybody knows they are a scam!
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
1. People have the right not to be depicted as a little orange monster by a multibillion dollar multinational organisation.
People have no such right. Especially public figures. There's a little thing known as parody. Geller is an ideal target for it.
2. $97 Million has more to do with greed than about redressing one's violated rights.
Gotta agree with that.
If Mr Geller really wants to make a point, I suggest that he declares that if he wins, he will donate the money to charity.
Geller is his own favorite charity.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
The characters in The Matrix know the real secret to bending spoons:
There Is No Spoon
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
Well, Uri Geller is a fake, but claiming that he is a fake because of his "body language" is absurd. "Body language" like handwriting analysis or phrenology is nearly as unscientific as paranormal claims.
Haha, now I wish I had kids of my own so I could play funny tricks on them like that too!
pika, pika?
pikachu?
pi, pi, pikachu!
or for those who want the orignal Japanese version, (switch your encoding to Shift JIS)
Ò©A@Ò©H
Ò©ãH
ÒA@ÒA@Ò©ãI
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
Nintendo licensed a game called Pocket Monsters from some company named Game Freak. When they made a Japanese version, the changed the name to fit the usual japanese language consonent-vowel-consonent-vowel construction. And that is where POKEMON came from.
IIRC "Pizza the Hut" was character in "Spaceballs", and looked like an 800lb mound of melted mozzarela cheese! To the best of my knowlege, Mel Brooks was not sued for the theft of the trademark for this "fine dining establishment"
-MattT *** Not speaking for my employer, or any other sentient beings ***
Does anyone remember seeing a guy using 'tele-kinetic powers' to bend spanners on that classic game: Sam 'n' Max Hit the Road? He reminds me of Uri.
> a corrupt company who's business practices makes Microsoft look saintly.
You know, Nintendo (or the programmers who developed the game) never had the intention that Pokemon would get this "big". Initially, if I recall correctly, Nintendo thought about bringing the Gameboy carts here but after the fiasco involving the show (you know, the infamous flashing ep.), 4Kids (the US company) became interested in bringing the show here (to get into the anime craze) and from there, the fad/trend/etc. really went off. Nintendo isn't as corrupt (only as much as every other videogaming company) as you assume.
I thought The Japanese ate with chopsticks.
*I* posted flamebait? That is a completely moronic moderation. Go read the post I replied to. It was racist and entirely ignorant. I was replying in an entirely appropriate fashion, and I will continue to post such replies. Somebody has to have the cojones to stand up to racists. Obviously it's not whoever incorrectly ended up with moderator points.