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Villians & Vigilantes Creators Win Lawsuit, Rights To Game

Posted by timothy on from the remember-my-brother-playing-this dept.

rcade writes "Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, the creators of the old-school super-hero roleplaying game Villains & Vigilantes, have won a copyright and trademark lawsuit over the game's publisher Scott Bizar of Fantasy Games Unlimited. Magistrate Judge Mark E. Aspey of the U.S. District Court of Arizona ruled that Jeff Dee and Jack Herman own the rights to the game based on the 1979 contract they reached with Bizar. The court also found that Bizar never had the right to sell derivative products or ebook PDF editions, which are a big deal to tabletop publishers these days. Too bad this judge didn't hear Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's case."

9 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Villians? by sunwukong · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously the error was the work of that nefarious criminal, Transpose Dr, and his evil minion, The DistractoPedant!

  2. Mixed Feelings by poena.dare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If it wasn't for FGU I wouldn't have bought V&V. On the other hand, the FGU http://www.fantasygamesunlimited.net/ webmaster should be shot.

    1. Re:Mixed Feelings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      When I first saw the ad for the V&V expansion "Final Fight with the Furies" I was fairly certain it said "Anal Fight with the Furries." I fully expect this to be downvoted to oblivion but go to the website and check it out for yourself before you judge. It's the second item down in the purple box.

    2. Re:Mixed Feelings by webmistressrachel · · Score: 2

      I had to look after I saw this comment... AND NOW MY EYES ARE BLEEDING! Do not, under any circumstances, visit that site. Or if you must, use Links or Lynx. Don't say you weren't warned...

      --
      This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
  3. Siegel & Schuster weren't the only ones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Barry Smith, and many, many more? I'd like to see an accounting of what would happen if all comic creators were abruptly awarded part ownership of what they created. I'll bet a year's salary that Marvel & DC could never survive the cash outflow.

    1. Re:Siegel & Schuster weren't the only ones by AaronLS · · Score: 2

      If the article summary is accurate, the ruling was based on the judge's interpretation of the contract between the creators and publishers. So whether or not this is applicable in other scenarios, probably hinges on the text of the contracts in each scenario. Kind of like a question I see often about if a programmer writes some code for someone, who owns the product, and who owns the code? Each depends on the terms of the work agreement in that particular case.

  4. Re:fishy reporting by rcade · · Score: 3, Informative

    The first line of the ruling: "All of the parties have acquiesced to the exercise of magistrate judge jurisdiction, including the entry of final
    judgment."

    --
    Rogers Cadenhead (Web: http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench)
  5. Long strange road . . . by StefanJ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wrote several of the old V&V adventures. I have many fond memories of dropping by FGUs offices and seeing guys like Jeff Dee & Bill Willingham toiling in the art hole . . . sometimes working on art for my RPG adventures!

    For several years dealing with FGU was a good enough gig, but the publisher just sort of disappeared after the late 90s.

    I had given up hearing from him ever again when Jeff pointed out that the company was still in business, sort of, and selling my stuff.

    I eventually got back royalties, and even had a trunk manuscript (for another game system) published, but it is an uncomfortable situation. V&V aside, what other rights are up in the air?

    I hope the appeal gets processed quickly so Monkey House can start work on V&V e3 and I can work on new editions of my old stuff for them!

    1. Re:Long strange road . . . by IronChef · · Score: 2

      The good ole pen & paper business!

      I used to work for a three-letter RPG publisher that went belly-up. As a line editor I developed books with an army of freelancers. These poor people were unpaid for their last months of efforts (as was I) and I have their manuscripts to this day... cool RPG books from ancient history that no one will ever see. It's too bad.

      I tried to get the authors to let me release the books for free, just so fans of the line could have them, but most people were understandably not feeling generous after getting stiffed by the company.