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Stan Lee to be Paid Millions for Spidey
Soldrinero writes "After a tough legal battle that began in 2002 (mentioned in a previous Slashdot story), Stan Lee will finally get his due. A recent court decision says that Marvel owes Lee 10% of their profits for works based on his creations. Since three recent Marvel-based movies are in the all-time top 100 for box-office gross, this will be a sizable chunk of change."
The contract stated that Lee would get 'him to 10 percent of TV, movie and merchandising deals'. **AA can't use only the laws it likes; I just wish more actors would (could) go freelance and rid us of this type of cancer. If more people had similar clauses then it would be more cost effective to cut out the middleman and figure out someway to produce entertainment material on their own - visionary may be seeing some kind of internet distribution system for just a mere fraction of the cost of big name distributors. This won't happen anytime soon because Stephen King tried it already and it didn't work but he was a visionary and one day it will work.
I'm happy to see that he's being compensated, albeit after a bit too much time.
Maybe now he can stop hanging out at The Android's Dungeon.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
I thought there was no such thing as intellectual property according to 90% of the people here. So this is a bad thing right? Or is it only OK when you download Mp3s and movies?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Wasn't Jack Kirby in a similar situation with Stan many years ago?
"I am very gratified by the judge's decision, although, since I am deeply fond of Marvel and the people there, I sincerely regret that this situation had to come to this," Lee told the Hollywood Reporter.
He then shouted, "Excelsior!" and flew away.
Good call from the court.
He filed the lawsuit in November 2002, pointing out a clause in his contract that entitled him to 10 percent of TV, movie and merchandising deals, an amount he thought was significantly higher than the $1 million-per-year salary he currently receives. Marvel tried to find a loophole in the wording.
Seems like a no-brainer. It was in the contract, Marvel tried to finangle their way out of it, and they failed. Good show, I must say. Good for him for staking out the claim, and calling Marvel on their unethical business practices.
So, bottom line, everything aside: it was in his contract, so I don't see how Marvel can appeal. They keep their merchandising revenue anyways.
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
What about the co-creator, Steve Ditko? Where's his payday?
Speak truth to power.
Stan Lee: "You don't want a Batman toy. You want something more dignified. Like this big wad of money."
Boy: "Ahh, but only Batman can fit in my Batmobile."
Stan Lee: "This big wad of money can fit too."
(breaks the car by forcing in big wad of money.)
Stan Lee: "See? It's fitting already."
Boy: "Ahh, you broke my Batmobile."
Stan Lee: "Broke? Or made it better?"
He'd better invest in some auditing. You know the studios will cook the books with all sorts of extra "fees" for stuff that has no value, reducing the bottom line.
Just like record production companies hire all sorts of expensive behind the scenes "help", reducing the amount of profit that is applied against the artist's advance.
So when does Kirby's widow get her cut?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
So I hope that Stan Lee gets his cut from the gross take, and nothing else.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Lawyer Man, Lawyer Man
Get's the biggest settlement that he can
Sues a company, any size
Get's cash and a a new ride
Look out, here comes the Lawyer Man
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Never ask for points on the profits. No movie has ever made a profit.
Of course movies make profits. But where those profits are buried in the accountancy, nobody will fess up lightly. I hope Stan Lee has an ironclad judgement that can't be wiggled out with some fancy bookwork.
[
With a great Power... come$ a great re$pon$ibility.
But Marvel will appeal.
The whole point here is to try and run-out-the-clock on Stan Lee. The guys in his 80s. They're hoping he'll just go ahead and die before they have to pay. If he did die, does Marvel then owe Lee's children (does he have any?)
Insurance companies view this as a legit business practice. They'll often sit on someone's benefits, and make them jump through as many legal hoops as possible, if they know they have a terminal disease, or are otherwise close to death.
At any rate, we can all agree that Spiderman sucks.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
You're making me Ang Lee. You wouldn't like me when I'm Ang Lee.
This flies in the face of science.
That's not the problem. The problem is story submissions take forever to make it through.
Slashdot needs a new system, quick. Stories should be moderated too, that way you don't need one of the editors to pass the submission. The slashdot subscribers can see the unmoderated submissions, and after a story gets good enough moderation than it could be read by unsubscribed users. Fark does something similar.
I'm no expert, but I think the character Spider-Man is protected by a trademark, and a movie like "Spider-Man" is protected by copyright, whereas something like a desktop metaphor for a computer interface would be covered by a patent.
COPYRIGHT vs. TRADEMARK vs. PATENT
I think the issue here is that Stan Lee had a contract with Marvel which entitled him to 10% of profits from TV, movie and merchandising deals (at least involving characters he created - not sure about others). Marvel tried to say that the contract didn't really say that, Stan disagreed and sued, and he won.
fnord.
An observant reader writes in suggesting that perhaps Marvel is correct about not paying Stan Lee his 10% citing Issue 299 of the Fantastic Four where Dr. Doom destroyed the time continuum of the year during which Stan Lee retired, thereby nullifying his contract. While he get a No-Prize for his efforts another valiant reader mentions that perhaps Stan Lee will be triumphant because he is in fact Captain Marvel, to which we reply: Captain Marvel is dead.
Nuff said.
It all depends on what exactly he signed for- net poitns or gross points. If he signed for a percentage of the net, he is absolutely screwed. Films don't often make net profits. You're right- Hollywood accounting is remarkable. Remeber the story of Art Buchwald- he got 2 net points on "Coming to America," won his case, and saw nothing.
If you ever, ever, sign for anything, sign for gross points. 10% of a $250,000,000 then is $25,000,000. Much better numbers.
befuddled (noun) 1. Unable to create a pithy sig
Then you are a fool. Anybody with a brain makes sure thier name is on the patent application. There have been a number of lawsuits over this and invariably the employees win.
Don't be a sucker. Corps have zero loyalty to you, so don't bother to have loyalty to them.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
"Their Land Sharks, Our Rights Protector?"
aka
"Their Terrorists, Our Freedom Fighters..."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
I guess this means that Marvel will have to declare bankruptcy... again.
-m
Ya know what they say, debt is an asset.
Final judgement.. -1 zillion bucks!
Thing is, he sued Marvel, he's entitled to 10% of whatever Marvel charged the movie folks for the rights to make spiderman, not 10% of what the movie made.
Paramount (or whoever) aren't even defendants in this suit, IIRC.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Seems odd he wouldn't get paid his due, considering the cameos he's made in Marvel movies.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
So many of the rest of the real innovators in comics never got a true slice of the wild cash their creations produced. Siegel and Shuster got a pittance for Superman, and their story is far more the normal than Stan Lee's. It is the creative spark that should really reap the lion's share of the rewards in an endeavor, and not the marketing machine that grinds it away after the truly unique work is done.
If you haven't read it, I highly recommend The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a fictional biographic account of two cousins riding the wave of comics. It won a Pulitzer, and is a fascinating, engaging tour through the history of comics and their role in society. It was reviewed on Slashdot about a year and a half ago, but since the story seems so relevant to Stan Lee's victory here I thought it was worth a mention.
Spider-Man in a giant robot, folks. I kid you not.
And what about Daredevil and Elektra?
No way. If I were Stan Lee, I'd sue to make sure my name stayed off the credits!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
It seems like Marvel is the SCO of the comic book industry. Let's hope their lawsuit against NCSoft and Cryptic Studios, makers of City of Heroes, goes just as poorly.
I just love some of the quotes by Marvel.
Considering that defendants own no comic characters themselves, it stands to reason that the comic books to which they refer are those that depict the characters of Marvel and others," wrote Marvel's attorneys in the complaint.
I'm sorry, but they do, in fact, publish their own comic. In fact, due to the bundling with the game, I believe I read it had the 3rd highest circulation of any comic in print.
The complaint says that the "defendants have created, marketed, distributed and provided a host environment for a game that 'brings the world of comic books alive,' not by the creation of new or original characters but, instead, by directly, contributorily and vicariously infringing upon Marvel copyrights and trademarks."
There are typically around 1500-2500 players on Virtue every night, it seems. I almost never see a copycat.
A great quote from Cory Doctorow:
"Asking City of Heroes to police their users to ensure that they don't replicate Marvel characters is like asking a school to police its students to make sure none of them show up for Halloween in a homemade Spider-Man costume," said Cory Doctorow, a renowned writer and advocate for free speech and fair use. "It's unreasonable bullying, and it is bad corporate citizenship."
And of course, it's a click away to report a copycat character, and NCSoft removes them rapidly.
Stephen King tried it and it was an utter success would be more like it. What he did was simply ask people to pay rather than require them to, and ended up raking in 70% of all the downloads as *payed*. This fell to 46% when he jacked the price to 2$.. a *chapter*.
I don't know about you, but if I put a PDF file online and say, "hey, I can't force you to, but I'm going to require you to put a buck in my hat for a download" and 70% of the people pay I consider it a roaring success.
And that was at a buck a chapter. The book (would've) went for like 10 bucks total.. for a PDF! And then he's got the gaul to say that it's a failure and that any smaller time writer wouldn't be able to make money. Gimmee a break!
You're reading Slashdot. Of course you like Linux and pc hardware
Yeah, Lee is a creative genius - not. Stan Lee was merely the relative of the publisher. It's good to have friends in high places.
The most obvious proof of this is a superficial glance at his career. When he's working with people like Ditko and Kirby, he's nothing short of a genius. On the other hand, when he "creates" on his own, he comes up with... "She-Hulk" (or Stripperella). Few people ever bother to make that correlation.
I worked on a project a few years ago that was nominated for an Eisner. We were a complete longshot, since the publishing run was smaller than the voting body, but someone asked if what we'd say if we won. My suggestion that "it's an honor to accept an award from one of the few people to have emerged from the Golden Age of Comics without Stan Lee's cock in their ass" struck them as being a tad excessive. But it would have been a nice sentiment.
Now Will's left the building. Kirby's gone. Ditko's gone off the deepend. And we're left left with Stan.
Sigh...
It is funny that they seem to have a better strangle hold over the governments that even Microsoft. I mean let us be honest. If NBC or Viacom went out of business what harm would it do? The US might loose it's edge in really bland entertainment?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Dude, I saw him at the mall. He was over by that place where that local-access TV station was doing a dating game ripoff show.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Well, he signed on the profits Marvel raked in, not the movie studios... They studios had to 'buy' the rights to make the movie, and if they didn't make a profit at the box office they were hosed. but with $2,700,000,000. in gross raked in by the movie studios for daredevil, spiderman 1 and 2, xmen 1 and 2, and the incredible hulk... well, that's an incredible hulk of cash... supposedly marvel got 50 mil for spiderman 1... who's worldwide sales were $800,000,000 so likely he'll get 15 million on the estimated 150 million marvel collected in royalties... ;) and selling rights to movies has always been a guarenteed profit business.
Remember marvel diesn't actually make the movies, they just sell the rights
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
I don't know why parent is modded as Funny. It's actually insightful. The MPAA and RIAA have single-handedly destroyed copyright law in this country, impinged on fair-use, and hampered technological progress. I would venture to say the only lobbying group that has a bigger hold on the U.S. government is the military-industrial complex.
I blame them for all the spelling mistakes we see on the web Without TV, we'd resort to reading, so we'd probably have a higher standard of literacy here.
I also blame punctuation mistakes on the television.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
The MPAA and RIAA serve the vital purpose of distracting citizens from what the government is doing. That gives them an extremely high priority in DC.