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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.
If this pokemon character can really bend spoons, then there is little similarity to Mr. Geller
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^]
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.
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.
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
1. material scientists have repeatedly analysed his bent spoons and found deformations caused by fracture (i.e., he bends the spoon with his hands), not by melting (as he claims).
2. he has never been able to repeat his claims under proper scientific conditions. apparently one time, he stormed out and never came back again.
3. various entertainers have demonstrated how they too can bend spoons. once you have got it slightly bent, you just raise the angle of the spoon keeping the end as the pivot in the same place (or something) and voila: optical illusion!
4. to get the initial bend, you grab the spoon quickly in two hands and bend it. on footage (including the impromptu noels house party), geller has repeatedly been shown a quick slight of his other hand before he starts to "bend" the spoon, i.e., perform the optical illusion #3.
5. i read how he has set up his own "consultancy" business where he will bring your business good luck. i heard how some business was unfortunate enough to employ him, and he didn't find any oil spots for them on the island they were looking at (which is what they employed him to do), yet he lists it as one of his successes on his website (which I haven't visited).
6. he is blatantly out to make money. i always deliberately avoid reading his column "uri geller's wierd web" (although i cannot avoid reading the title!) in the times' computer magazine.
7. most obviously to me ... in his FIRST TV performance, they were asking him something like, if he could really, truly, bend spoons. WATCH HIS BODY LANGUAGE. he raises his hand just above his mouth in response to this question. in ANY BASIC BOOK ON BODY LANGUAGE, THIS INDICATES THE PERSON IS LYING! so uri geller may be deceptive in other ways, he may have even mastered the body language by now, but then he utterly and irretrievably gave himself away as a fraud.
thank you for listening. i still think that he has a right to his own name and image though and that Pokemon should get done for the lack of asking permission.
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."
people have the right to make parodies of celebrities. like it or not.
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)
- 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:
Previous results of Geller lawsuits.
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.