Wheel of Time TV Pilot Producers Sue Robert Jordan's Widow For Defamation

An anonymous reader writes The tale of the late-night Wheel of Time pilot that aired in a paid infomercial slot on FXX has taken another odd turn. Producers Red Eagle Entertainment LLC and Manetheren LLC have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for central California against Harriet McDougal (widow of James Rigney, who wrote the Wheel of Time novels under the pen name Robert Jordan), her company, Bandersnatch Group Inc., and twenty unnamed other persons ('Does 1-20'). The suit alleges that McDougal's statements about her lack of involvement in the pilot's production constitute breach of contract, slander, and interference with contractual relations and prospective economic relations; the suit demands declaratory relief and a jury trial.

Comments

Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

You looked at me funny, see you in court.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

Getting sued for being honest about not doing something is a bit much though, even for USA.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Penguinisto]

It isn't when you consider that the plaintiff's goals may well have nothing to do with 'recovering damages', insomuch as they're probably doing it to shut her up and at the same time please/placate their investors.

Fuck them and their SCO-spirited kin in either case.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[ShanghaiBill]

Getting sued for being honest about not doing something is a bit much though, even for USA.

According to the plaintiffs, she was not being honest. There is also the matter that, according to the plaintiffs, she was paid (indirectly through her husband's estate) and contractually bound to keep her mouth shut. I have no idea what "the truth" is, but I don't think it is black and white. If she doesn't want to abide by the terms of the contract, she should at least be compelled to disgorge the money she was paid.

 

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[halltk1983]

They're doing it to prevent her from reclaiming the film and television rights, and selling them to someone else. It's always been about the money for them, for the last 7 years. It's a damn shame that people ever believed that they were fans that intended on doing something worthwhile with the rights.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

" If she doesn't want to abide by the terms of the contract, she should at least be compelled to disgorge the money she was paid."

Certainly doable, but then that would generally void the contract on both sides and the movie itself is lost. So no, the company doing the suing doesn't want that.

I'd like to know if she herself signed the contract. From the sounds of it, she's being bound by it the actions of the Estate itself. So... did she promise to keep her mouth shut, or did someone else promise she'd keep her mouth shut?

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Frobnicator]

There is also the matter that, according to the plaintiffs, she was paid (indirectly through her husband's estate) and contractually bound to keep her mouth shut.

Contracts don't work indirectly like that. Either you agree to the terms directly or you don't. As all legal organizations including the SCOTUS recognized, a valid contract requires free consent.

Either she was a party to the contract with it's nondisparagement clause, and agreed to keep her mouth shut about all production details, or she was not part of the contract and the company is in the wrong. Her statement was that the show made during her husband's life and with her husband's contract was done "without my knowledge or cooperation," which is quite likely since her then-living husband likely took care of his own business deals.

Some portions of a contract may survive a death and transfer to estates. Others automatically dissolve completely (such as partnership agreements between two people) or require affirmation that the new parties accept the new terms of a new, successor agreement. Binding nondisparagement terms do not transfer to other people.

On its face it looks like the company made an agreement with a now deceased individual. The question is one of contract law. If she signed the contract then she was bound and shouldn't have said anything. But if she didn't sign the agreements, she should be adding a counter-claim.

Can they produce such a contract? Do they have a nondisparagement agreement that SHE signed? That's the key to the entire dispute.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[fahrbot-bot]

I have no idea what "the truth" is, but I don't think it is black and white.

It's increasingly apparent that the color of "the truth" is green - $$$.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

The only way she could sue for breach of contract is if she was standing in the shoes of a contracting party (not actually, the only way, but the most likely). If she is doing that then she SHOULD not have any more contractual rights or fewer contractual obligations than the party who actually sighed. Do you have any authority for the proposition that a nondisparagement clause would not apply to the widow?

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

...but surely she would still have to sign something to that effect it cannot just be automatic. At least under UK law they would have to establish that there was a clear "meeting of the minds" with her i.e. that she was aware of such terms and had agreed to them. You can't just inherit restraining terms otherwise if one of your relatives agrees to never disparage $COMPANY for cash and you inherit their estate you will suddenly find yourself unable to disparage $COMPANY. I'm not a lawyer but I really can't see the law working like that since there would be some human rights issues involved.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Pseudonym]

It sounds like the truth is fouled by the touch of the Dark One, like water with a thin slick of rancid oil floating on top. The water is still pure, but it could not be touched without touching the foulness.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the CEO of Red Eagle Entertainment:

1. Their rights were about to expire.
2. They did it without FXX's knowledge which was achieved by purchasing a late-night infomercial time slot.
3. He claims it was high budget but the results, if you've watched the pilot, says otherwise...In other words is was terrible beyond measure.

He also goes on to claim that they plan to do a blockbuster quality movie adaptation and boldly says that he plans to directly challenge the Game of Thrown series on HBO.

To me it seems like Red Eagle Entertainment has some serious grandiose delusions most especially if their contract is about to expire, if not already, and have gone to battle with the wife of the author which will likely end with them losing any chance of further working with Robert Jordans' literature ever again...

Re:Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[UnknownSoldier]

/oblg. <voice="Yakov Smirnoff">

"America: Where you can sue anyone, anytime, for anything!"

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[wisnoskij]

Still, if she inherited the copyright ownership, she inherited her way into the lease agreement. She has become the official head of the franchise. Just because a CEO changes does not mean that the company is no longer under any obligation to fulfill its contracts. And since she in the official in charge of this entity, it is far more like a ceo role than an individual. I am not certain, but if she was found to have officially stated this in her role as the head of the WoT universe, instead of just as an individual, I could see that holding some weight in court.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[BWS]

IANAL in the USA, but my theory is this.

The contact was probably between Universal Studios and Bandersnatch Group and it included a non-disparagement agreement. From the article here (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/02/wheel-of-time-pilot-harriet-statement) it looks like she was speaking in her capacity as the CEO of Bandersnatch Group.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[rossz]

So it depends upon whether the contract was signed under the author's business or as an individual, right? I'm guessing either is plausible, so it's simply a matter of looking at the original wording of the contract to see who signed it. Was it signed by James Rigney or by Robert Jordan, Inc. I'm not a lawyer, just asking questions.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[radarskiy]

If the contract with the non-disparagement clause was with Universal then a) it doesn't apply since this wasn't a Universal production, and b) Red Eagle would have no standing to invoke it.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[BWS]

Sorry, I made a mistake. What if the contract was between Red Eagle and Bandersnatch Group?

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[BWS]

Interesting... if the contract was signed to by Robert Jordan Inc. And then Robert Jordan, Inc. became Bandersnatch Group. Since she's the CEO of the Bandersnatch Group and she spoke in that capacity, she's kind out of luck.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Maxwell'sSilverLART]

" If she doesn't want to abide by the terms of the contract, she should at least be compelled to disgorge the money she was paid."

Certainly doable, but then that would generally void the contract on both sides and the movie itself is lost. So no, the company doing the suing doesn't want that.

I'd like to know if she herself signed the contract. From the sounds of it, she's being bound by it the actions of the Estate itself. So... did she promise to keep her mouth shut, or did someone else promise she'd keep her mouth shut?

If she wants to enjoy the profits of the estate she should also abide by its constraints. Nothing it preventing her from completely disclaiming her rights in same.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Maxwell'sSilverLART]

The estate is a separate legal entity from any person. Contracts that flow into the estate remain binding upon the estate. Ergo, she doesn't need to have signed it; it's still binding upon the estate.

The distinction that people seem to be missing is that nobody is squelching her freedom of speech as an individual, but rather as a beneficiary of the estate. Again, remember that the estate is its own legal entity. She's not being sued as J. Random Person, but rather as somebody who profits from that estate. As a beneficiary, she's also subject to its contracts. If she breaches those contracts, she's subject to suit in her capacity as beneficiary, and can be forced to disgorge her profits from the estate.

(Note: I practice in probate law.)

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe she is and they are full of shit? Why the presumption against her?

When you sue 20 unknown people, generally you are the one that is behaving in bad faith.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

This seems to me extremely unlikely.

My uncle dies. He wrote a book and has a significant estate. In his will he leaves me the revenue from that estate.
I don't see how I could possibly be bound by any contracts involving that estate at all.
Unless there is some agreement that the estate has signed that says the revenue will be cut off to me if I say negative things against the estate. In which case suing me is completely pointless. I still have nothing to do with it. You would need to sue the estate to get it to stop paying me the revenue. I've not agreed to anything at any point whatsoever.

So I don't see how I could be sued as a beneficiary of the estate. The estate being sued yes, but me, no. I still have nothing to do with it.
Yes, likely the widow is more heavily involved in a more complex arrangement but I don't see how its possible to subject a non-involved party to a contract simply because they receive a windfall.

It seems like over-reach to me. I don't see the legal basis for claiming the individual as a participant in the contract.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[meerling]

Sadly, not any more.
Besides, they're are a greedy bunch of trolls that see a possible jackpot just barely out of reach and are doing everything they can to get their grubby claws on it.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[meerling]

"3. He claims it was high budget but the results, if you've watched the pilot, says otherwise...In other words is was terrible beyond measure."

Master of understatement there.
I've seen better stuff done by highschoolers in the early 1980s with a budget of less than $50 in only a week.
(No lie, it was some friends of mine.)

This was obviously a simple attempt at securing a cash grab and was done in bad faith and what I suspect is very questionable validity in the first place.

(ianal)

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

That was an assertion not an argument. You piece of shit.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[meerling]

Of course, here's a biggie, they haven't provided any "proof" of their claims yet.
They may be pulling a SCO, and merely making unsubstantiated claims to fuel an ultimately futile and unfounded lawsuit in an attempt to make money.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that meant to tie the US (or capitalism in general) to the Klan in some way? The US isn't the only country in the world full of racist d*ckheads, believe me! And capitalist companies world wide follow pretty much the same rule book.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

It made me long for the glory days of Ed Wood :-)

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gods, you people are dense. The people aren't unknown; they're unnamed. That's probably pursuant to the "shut up" clause of the very contact they're trying to enforce.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[MichaelMacDonald]

They hobbled together a piece of crap in 4 days, then sue everyone and their brother for silly nonsense. This isn't unusual behavior. I've seen this kind of thing happen in the video game industry. They are either A. milking this for publicity. Or B. trying to recoup as much of their investment as possible while doing as little work as possible. Probably both. Basically, they are not responding to something she did. They will sue anyone they think they can sue and possibly get a penny out of not matter what. Your perspective is off. Their lawyers are purposefully farming money.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[MichaelMacDonald]

You're the dense one. This isn't a new tactic. They, most likely, planned to sue before they ever aired the pilot.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[MichaelMacDonald]

In the end, she has to choose between a settlement and attorney fees, right? I mean, unless she gets lucky and the judge forces them to pay them, she's kinda screwed. I can imagine they might be doing this for publicity. More people watched that trailer with their shitty ads in it than would have otherwise. So they are making a lot of money right now off a 4 day shit production, with the possibility of getting more in this case.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[MichaelMacDonald]

These are not the actions of a company that is going to be able to produce anything resembling a good show that does these books justice. These are the actions of low life scam artists, and they are not going to give up the rights to the book. This means that us, the fans, have been screwed over as well. By a shit legal system and shit laws. Look what happened to Anne Rice... Not as bad, at all, but bad enough. The whole selling movie rights thing is a gimmick, with scum buying up the rights to great works, having no intention of ever doing anything but milk them for whatever they can and never actually producing anything worthwhile from them. It's disgusting.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't challenge Game of Thrones with Wheel of Time.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

Countersuit - malicious prosecution.
Damages - triple combined legal fees plus rights.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Minwee]

You can't challenge Game of Thrones with Wheel of Time.

The heck you can't.

Even if I used every volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, all of the Calendars, Atlases and Graphic Novels, I still couldn't prop up this desk nearly high enough to reach the window. Wheel of Time can do all that and still leave me with two extra books to straighten out the chair.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Minwee]

My uncle dies. He wrote a book and has a significant estate. In his will he leaves me the revenue from that estate.

I don't see how I could possibly be bound by any contracts involving that estate at all.

Try this. Your uncle writes a book that has significant value. He forms a corporation which owns the rights to that book, has the corporation enter into a number of contracts and then names you as CEO. At that point it doesn't matter if he lives, dies, or is abducted by aliens and carried off to Betelgeuse VI. The corporation, not the individual, is responsible.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Rakarra]

The heck you can't.

Even if I used every volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, all of the Calendars, Atlases and Graphic Novels, I still couldn't prop up this desk nearly high enough to reach the window. Wheel of Time can do all that and still leave me with two extra books to straighten out the chair.

If sheer word count is the only qualifier, then yes, Wheel of Time would come out on top!

When a serious adaptation of Wheel of Time gets made, I hope they hire quality writers, as well as the strong, forceful editor that Jordan needed and never had.

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Rakarra]

Did he say anything incorrect?

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[cbdougla]

Sadly, not any more.
Besides, they're are a greedy bunch of TROLLOCS that see a possible jackpot just barely out of reach and are doing everything they can to get their grubby claws on it.

FTFY

Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A.

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt it. More likely they were planning on suing if they got good ratings. No use spending money in court if they don't expect to profit by it.

Pen name?

[Anonymous Coward]

Robert Jordan wasn't his name?? All those years... And I didn't know.

Re:Pen name?

[peragrin]

Wow that is right up there with birthers, and 911 conspiracy theorists.

If you said sometime around book 9 I might have believed you too. especially since sanderson only took over with book 9 and 10. You can tell by the sudden change in writing style and language use. Heck I could see it half way through book 9.

Re:Pen name?

[Zcar]

Of course, Sanderson only did books 12, 13 and 14.

Re:Pen name?

[LordWabbit2]

And a damn good job he did, as much as I love the series, the middle of it was a grind to get through. Seemed like a lot of dress twitching and braid pulling to me. Especially book 10, although the end was awesome getting there was painful (and I took a day off work to read it). But Sanderson brought the series back to vivid spectacular life again.

Re:Pen name?

[Rakarra]

I'm not sure, book 10 (Crossroads of Twilight) showed the same total lack of plot development that characterized books 6-8. However, book 11 was fairly unusual as the plot moves along at a good pace (instead of just at the beginning and end of the book, a problem most of the series entries had). Book 11 was when I noticed a change, and I assumed at the time that Jordan realized he was in book 11 of a 12-book series and needed to start wrapping things up.

Re:Pen name?

[Anonymous Coward]

Robert Jordan is the name of the main character from Ernest Hemingway's, For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Re:Pen name?

[anyGould]

And a damn good job he did, as much as I love the series, the middle of it was a grind to get through. Seemed like a lot of dress twitching and braid pulling to me. Especially book 10, although the end was awesome getting there was painful (and I took a day off work to read it). But Sanderson brought the series back to vivid spectacular life again.

The middle books grind down because Jordan kept wandering into side plots that would have been better served as standalone books (say, similar to how the Dragonlance books were handled). He knew where the finish line was, just wasn't in a hurry to get there.

Sanderson, on the other hand, was brought in to do the "last" book. (Yes, Jordan had claimed there was only *one* book left). It's pretty easy to see Sanderson picking out the leftover plots, punting them to the curb, and goosing the accelerator to get the plot train home ASAP. Which also made the books way better, since we finally get to the finale.

I think it could make a good mini-series, though - you can consolidate a bunch of points, ditch some of the sideplots that aren't necessary, and keep the plot train moving.

Law takes its course

[invictusvoyd]

Engineer : There was chaos and the god created the universe in 8 days or so . So I was needed first , to build design etc.

Doctor : But then he created eve from adams rib so I had to be there for the surgery and the etc.

Lawer : Haha .. who do you think created the chaos ?

Re:Law takes its course

[Anonymous Coward]

"Lawer"... Y no y!?!?

Re:Law takes its course

[fahrbot-bot]

Lawyer: Ha ha ... who do you think created the chaos ?

There's actually an Emacs command for that.

Re:Law takes its course

[Pseudonym]

Callentort: Lawyer Which Is Not a Lawyer

Re:Law takes its course

[meerling]

stupid (L)users.

Re:Law takes its course

[Anonymous Coward]

That Lennart must have used a bunch of times, and now we have systemd.

What a reason to sue

[TheCastro1689]

"She said she had nothing to do with it, your honor!" And who would want to from the reviews. It seems she'll win cause she was explicitly talking about pilot and not the overall contract talk that she was involved in.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Austerity Empowers]

This is a clear case of not caring. On one hand the 'pilot' was a blatant attempt at working around their contract, and while I don't think it was as terrible as some think (as basic cable goes), was clearly an afterthought. On the other hand, it's hard to care at all about his wife's position. She was the one who delayed the ebook release for reasons that only cavemen can relate to, and she continues to generally pop up in annoying and unhelpful ways. Generally its' greedy people fighting over the monies, don't give a crap who wins or loses, the rest of us already have lost.

Re:What a reason to sue

[halltk1983]

Having met her, spoken with her, and knowing people that know her well, that's not a fair assessment. She genuinely cares about the material. She was the editor for it all, and she knows it better than anyone other than perhaps Jim's assistant Maria. Saying she's just his wife / widow is very unfair, and saying that she's unhelpful is just untrue. That said, the ebook delay was inconvenient to many of my friends, but there's just something about holding hard bound epic fantasy that enthralls me, and makes me not care for the ebooks.

Re:What a reason to sue

[guises]

Care to elaborate a little more on her ebook and other shenanigans? All I had heard of her is that she approved of Sanderson, who finished the series, and apparently he did a bang-up job.

Regardless of who gets the money, the fact that this group has been squatting on the rights for so long and seems do be interested in doing nothing with them other than suing people means that they need to pass into the hands of someone else. I would support her case for that reason alone.

Re:What a reason to sue

[irrational_design]

Honestly, I enjoyed the first book immensely and found the rest to be tolerable, at least until Sanderson picked up the reigns. Wow, he did an amazing job. I would love to read the entire WoT series re-written by Sanderson.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

The ebook was delayed due to the fact that ebooks were (are?) apparently not handled very well by many bestseller lists. See http://brandonsanderson.com/its-finally-out/ for more information.

(E.g., saying that only cavemen would worry about that reason is quite unfair as being on a bestseller list is quite important in the publishing world...)

Re:What a reason to sue

[LordLucless]

She deliberately delayed the release of the electronic version, because she was trying to rig the Times Best Seller List (apparently, the Times only counted dead-tree book sales at the time, so she didn't release the e-book version to try and force fans to buy dead-tree, so the purchases would help propel it up the list)

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

From Good eReader

In an incredibly stupid decision, the late Robert Jordan’s wife has caused the last Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light, to be delayed until April after the print book is released this week. Originally it was scheduled to be delayed for a full year. According to Galleycat, this has, so far, resulted in 119 one star reviews (now up to 122) on Amazon. I suspect that this one star reviewer’s comment is typical: “I instead will search internet when I get home and will be paying the first industrious individual that has scanned the book and offered for sale.” I think that a lot of people will be looking around certain sites for scanned copies.

The actual author, Brian Sanderson, says that this decision was neither his nor Tor’s. On his blog he states:

This is not my decision or Tor’s decision, but Harriet’s. She is uncomfortable with ebooks. Specifically, she worries about ebooks cutting into the hardcover sales. It isn’t about money for her, as the monetary difference between the two is negligible here. It is about a worry that her husband’s legacy will be undermined if sales are split between ebooks and hardcovers, preventing the last book of the Wheel of Time from hitting number one on either list. (Many of the bestseller lists are still handling ebooks in somewhat awkward ways.)

As the last books have all hit number one, she doesn’t want to risk one of these not hitting number one, and therefore ending the series on a down note. (Even though each Wheel of Time book has sold more than its predecessor, including the ones I have worked on.) I personally feel her worries are unfounded, and have explained that to her, but it is not my choice and I respect her reasoning for the decision. She is just trying to safeguard Robert Jordan’s legacy, and feels this is a very important way she needs to do so. After talking about the issue, we were able to move the ebook up from the originally planned one-year delay to instead come out this spring.

After they came out in ebook form I threw out my collection of the hardcovers (the library didn’t want them) and bought them all in ebook format. As to the last book, given her attitude, I either won’t buy it at all or will find a free copy somewhere. When will people learn that defying the consumer is never a good business tactic. She has probably done more to hurt her husband’s legacy by this ill-conceived action than she can imagine. From now on Robert Jordan’s Memory of Light will be remembered by the reading community as the source of an ebook that the author’s wife didn’t want the public to have. I think I’ll go over to Amazon and, for the first time, leave a 1 star review.

Re:What a reason to sue

[ganjadude]

is that any different than when movie studios dont release DVD or streaming when in the theaters to prop up box office sales???

I think you are making a big deal out of nothing. does it suck to wait a little longer? yeah, but you have options, get the hardcover (which is still better than ebooks by a large margin IMO) or wait until the "first run" is over

Re:What a reason to sue

[ganjadude]

After they came out in ebook form I threw out my collection of the hardcovers (the library didn’t want them) and bought them all in ebook format.

why not give them to schools??? or keep them. seems like a waste to throw them away. they will still be readable in 100 years, will the ebook? who knows

Re:What a reason to sue

[LordLucless]

Or, you know, pirate it. Which is generally the same response to the movie studies pulling their dick move. Artificially limiting supply creates a black market. I don't know if her move helped the book's position on the Times, but I guarantee it drastically increased the motivation to pirate.

Re:What a reason to sue

[ganjadude]

there is that route as well. I used to be the same way, i remember i think it was Jurassic park didnt come out on VHS for like 2 years after i saw it in theaters and i just hated waiting for it

now im older, there are 1000000 different things to do, i guess i dont mind waiting as much as i did when i was younger

Re:What a reason to sue

[LordLucless]

It's not really about what you or I would think or do - it's what people in aggregate do. If there's an artificial limitation in the legitimate supply of goods, people will find illegitimate ways to acquire them.

Think alcohol during prohibition. Marijuana (in most places) now. Western goods in communist Russia. And yeah, media where rights holder's are playing silly buggers. To appropriate a quote from your reference's prequel, "life finds a way".

If you're trying to manipulate people's behaviour by controlling what they are or are not allowed to buy, be prepared to fail.

Re:What a reason to sue

[wisnoskij]

I don't really think it is fair to say that editor of TWoT did the series any favors. It is not that he was a terrible writer, but the books obviously suffered form a severe lack of decent editing. Perhaps if they had used a less personally involved person, they would of convinced him to cut out all the shit.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

She genuinely cares about the material.

Have you read anything she shit on, err, I mean edited? That proved she hated the material. She was very jealous of the attention her husband got for the books, so she did her best to destroy them. How hundreds of times did she add the phrase "smoothed her skirts?" She did that over and over again. She'd yell that at any females that tried to talk to her husband. She hated the books.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

Or sell them on the Amazon marketplace. Or put them up on Craigslist. Or start a neighbourhood bookshare. Or offer them up for free at your place of work and see if anyone wants them. Or...

Re:What a reason to sue

[pnutjam]

The ebook will still be safely backup up on my calibre (or it's successor) server. I wont be tempted to throw it away because the space it takes up is negligible. When my children want to read it or loan it to their kids they won't have to deal with losing it or waiting until we visit grandpa. It won't get worn out when the kids read it in the bathroom or while their slurping up cereal.
I could continue, but I think you get the point.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me, or does the author of that article sound like a self-entitled cunt?

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

By the time your kids want to read it you will be dead and not one of them will have the password to your server and all of your myriad stuff on it will be unreachable to them. Unlike the physical books which will be sitting on a shelf in a room.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just you. He is a self-entitled cunt.

Re:What a reason to sue

[meerling]

If there's shit in literature, it was created by the writer.
The editor is just there to try and clean some of that shit up.
A good editor can make it clean, a great one can make it shine, but there's only so much you can do if it's already a pile of shit.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

People lap up the shit as you put it. Ever read a King novel? It's a 3 page short padded to 1000 pages of pointless narrative from the days when authors were paid by the word. You may see through the garbage added to pad, as can others, but the majority of people enjoy the fluff. Same problem with GRRM. Desperately needs a real editor to remove the shit, but when something sells *a lot*, quality doesn't matter.

Re:What a reason to sue

[pnutjam]

That's unlikely because I had children young. I intend to be around for my great grandchildren.

Re:What a reason to sue

[Anonymous Coward]

I, an anonymous coward(i'm at work, dont feel like creating an account), say to you, You're rude as hell. Her concern FAR outweighs yours, so can it please. Thanks! :D

*sniff*

[Anonymous Coward]

What a bunch of wool-headed fools! *crosses arms beneath breasts*

Re:*sniff*

[Dins]

...while pulling on braid and muttering something under breath about sheepherders...

Re:*sniff*

[SeaFox]

Responses from other women involved much smoothing of skirts.

Re:*sniff*

[Anonymous Coward]

Blood and ashes!

Re:*sniff*

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot the blood(y)

Re:*sniff*

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all. Cadsudane never smoothed nothing, I think there was one time, and it was a pretense...i'm probably wrong though. WHO CARES how he describes them...its his viewpoint, just enjoy the rest of the content....bloody hell you'd think he would have to be perfect or something.

Re:*sniff*

[Rakarra]

If you really want to swear, you say blood twice, not once. That's much worse.

Damn it, you Betrayer of Hope!

[Anonymous Coward]

I had so much invested in this!

Like 50 bucks at least.

Re:How in the...

[zannox]

Hmmmm......did you know a synonym for nerd is bookwork. Nerd just isn't ALL about computers. For those of us who did enjoyed the series. I guess this just means getting to see a series, or movies based upon it, will now be many MANY years before it actually happpens, if ever.

WTF is this doing on slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? What is this shit? Does anyone care?

Re:WTF is this doing on slashdot?

[meerling]

Easy, this is Slashdot. If the guys in charge think it's interesting, it's here.
You knew that when you hit the site the first day so stop bitching.
Thanks. :)

Tragic series

[DoofusOfDeath]

I really loved that series for the first N books. Then at some point I concluded the story was being unnaturally dragged out. I eventually stopped reading the series before it was done. Which sucked, because at first it was the best series I'd ever read.

Re:Tragic series

[halltk1983]

It ends extremely well. I highly recommend finishing it. 14 books all told, grab them from the library if you don't want to invest the finance into it, it's definitely worth the time.

Re:Tragic series

[Lodlaiden]

I made it through the first 4-5 books, then had to wait for the next. A few years later I made it from #1 - #5 or #6, but now that the series is "done", perhaps I'll pick it up again.

Re:Tragic series

[irrational_design]

As I commented above, I loved the first book and the books written by Sanderson, but not the middle books so much. I would highly recommend reading the books written by Sanderson. I would love to read the entire series re-written by Sanderson. It would be amazing.

Re:Tragic series

[irrational_design]

You might want to read the first book or two by Jordan, then find the summarized versions of the middle books somewhere online, then read the last few books written by Sanderson.

Re:Tragic series

[Anonymous Coward]

Volume 1:- one of the best stories I've ever read. Volume 2:- very very good. Volume 3:- good. Volumes 4-6: meh. Volume 7:- good. Volmes 8-9: meh. Volume 10: barf. That was all that was written when I read them.

Re:Tragic series

[pnutjam]

I disagree. The ending went from dragged out too rushed, a difficult feat. It didn't tie into the rest of the story and basically igd iored all anything that was inconvenient and would need any sort of explanation.

----SPOILER----
Rand gets burned out and is somehow delighted to spend the rest of his life without channeling (unlike any other character). Somehow his "marriage" bonds survive this ordeal (unlike warder bonds or any other type of one power bond). He rides off into the sunset with his harem of wealthy women happy to see that he is safe and content that he will visit them and their beds occasionally.
Everyone else thinks Rand is dead because he somehow switched bodies with Moridan who everyone is content not to worry about (odd).

Re: Tragic series

[brianerst]

Except he isn't really burned out. He doesn't access the One Power any more but simply weaves the Pattern directly (he wanted the pipe lit, and lo, it was). He's basically God at that point. Or maybe Tom Bombadil...

Re:Tragic series

[complete loony]

Read the last 3, but if you don't want to read the ones in the middle, read Leigh Butler's re-read. Though it may contain some spoilers for things you haven't gotten up to yet.

Re:Tragic series

[david_thornley]

FWIW, Sanderson can't write a complete story in one novel either (although some of his shorter fiction is complete in itself). All of his novels are part of a series or have major unresolved issues that call for a sequel.

Re:Tragic series

[irrational_design]

I don't have a problem with the length of the books, or the need for sequels. My problem is with Jordan's writing. For some reason the first book was fine, but the subsequent books? Not so much. I find Sanderson to be a far superior author to Jordan. I'd be find if the series still spanned 14 volumes, just as long as all 14 were written by Sanderson.

Re:How in the...

[Anonymous Coward]

batshit hell does this constitute as being worthy of being posted to slashdot? What in the ever living fuck is this shit?! Definitely not news for nerds. More like news for crappy lawyers and armchair evangelicals.

For what its worth GET OFF MY LAWN while you're at it.

Um, it's a major news story about one of the 3 or 4 biggest fantasy series of all time. This story has been covered by everybody from Hollywood Reporter to ESPN (through their Grantland site). So, an ESPN site covers a story on a fantasy series, yet you can't figure out why it might make it onto Slashdot a few times?

What has this site become anyway? You do realize that it does more than serve up ads for Dice products?

I know the answer

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd! systemd created the chaos.

Re:I know the answer

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd! systemd created the chaos.

Close...

Systemd is the chaos. It was created by Lennart Poettering and Kay Sievers.

Re:I know the answer

[amiga3D]

Bravo!

Jordans widow

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be glad that some of us aren't suing the estate for refunds - one book written 14 times...

Re:Jordans widow

[Anonymous Coward]

so you're saying you did the same thing *14* times before you decided it wasn't worth your time?

Now here's the plan.

[Black Parrot]

1) Buy movie rights.
2) Make movie.
3) Air in paid informercial time slot.
4) (TBD)
5) Profit!

Makes you wonder it the whole thing was just a scam to get at her estate all along.

In other news, the production companies are merging under the name "Streisand Corp, LLC".

Streisand Moment

[ADRA]

Ok, I never watched the ill conceived TV program which by all accounts was simply a ploy by the production company to retain their rights to the show. Whatever, that's all legal BS that has absolutely nothing to do with the books or potential TV airing itself.

The only reason its being piped up now is because she was publically unsatisfied with the end product. Well guess what? How many people even heard of this poor excuse for a program if it wasn't mentioned in this article? In all accounts, a hell of a lot fewer people than those reading the new backlash. So now we know there was a show, it was horrible, and both the brand and the future for a visual adaptation (if and when they ever get off their asses to actually produce one) are worse off for it... Wooo

Re:Streisand Moment

[radarskiy]

Harriet McDougal's position is not that she was unhappy with the quality. She claims that the rights were held by Universal and not Red Eagle so their production is a rip-off independent of the quality.

Re:Streisand Moment

[thaylin]

Actually it is that she was not involved with the show, thereby distancing herself from it. You are assuming something. It could very well be both.

Re:Streisand Moment

[radarskiy]

I am not assuming anything. I am relating her stated position, and refuting claims about her unstated position on the basis that no one can know because they are unstated. I do not and cannot say that she does not hold any other position but no one else can say that she does.

Why now?

[Anonymous Coward]

So I'm confused, nothing new actually, but were they obligated to produce something within a time frame or lose the rights?
So they had to pump out something before time ran out?

Screw those guys

[Keith111]

All we need is another Sword of Truth debacle where the tv show is disgustingly horrid and offensive to any fans of the series. Sell the rights to HBO or Netflix, they seem to be the only two companies that are currently producing TV shows while actually caring about the quality and content.

Re:Screw those guys

[lgw]

Sword of Truth started well - I can't fathom why they veered off-story into a bunch of episodic drivel with no overarching plot. Did they only have the rights to the first book?

Re:Screw those guys

[thaylin]

It was all in the name of character development, well and to lengthen the show.

Re:Screw those guys

[lgw]

Ah, so screenwriters who thought they were better than the successful author. Figures.

Re:Screw those guys

[david_thornley]

Screenwriting and fiction writing are two different things, and what works well in one medium may not work well in another. Moreover, screenwriters may be under pressure to lengthen or shorten a series. Writing a novel is a low-budget activity that requires very few people (author, editor, and whoever is responsible for getting the thing sold), while movies and TV shows are much higher-budget activities that require a lot of people, hence business decisions are more likely to override artistic ones.

Re:Screw those guys

[lgw]

Well, they didn't need to "lengthen" it unless they only had the rights to the first book. There were, what, 6 books in the series? Though I guess I can see it if the first book wasn't enough for even 1 season.

Bandersnatch

[Noah Haders]

> her company, Bandersnatch Group

Loooooooooool!

Re: Bandersnatch

[Anonymous Coward]

"Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumurious Bandersnatch" from Jabberwocky by Lews Carroll

Perhaps an inauspicious choice of names...

Re:Bandersnatch

[billstewart]

Frumious as it sounds, it's better than naming your movie production companies "Manetheran" and "Red Eagle" (i.e. straight out of the books), producing an allegedly crappy version of the books, and then suing.

Re: Bandersnatch

[Anonymous Coward]

If they lost the rights -- would they have to stop using their names? Possibly not Red Eagle, but Manetheran?

The best part

[ITRambo]

The best part of the pilot was the opening credits. The actual storytelling was annoying. It was truly terrible.

On the contrary...

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever they aired on FXX is defamation to the author and his wife.

Robert Jordan is probably vigorously rolling back and forth in his grave right now...

SCO anybody??

[Anonymous Coward]

Or did the U*X crowd already leave dice/slashdot behind? Isn't this just another wash and rinse repeat reiteration of SCO though on a less grand scale? If you don't have anything worthwhile to sell you just go and see if you can make money in court?

I am pretty sure Red Eagle/Manathera's product sucks so bad it a) absolutely had to be aired in an infomercial slot and b) Netflix and Amazon won't touch it either. It then all boils down to that weird sense of entitlement out of touch with reality persons regularly develop, paired with wishful thinking they might just be able to pull it off with a jury.

Googling for the two companies yields almost nothing so these are most likely just limited liability corporations most likely entirely devoid of assets so they lose nothing if the lawsuit is lost and win everything if it isnt. Perhaps a dirty scam from the outset.

Re:SCO anybody??

[billstewart]

The dice are just rolling around in your head...

Re:SCO anybody??

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're in the right and can prove it, get a judge. If you just want to lie your ass off to get what you want, get a jury.

BALEFIRE!

[Ann Coulter]

That TV pilot lacked the requisite balefire from the sky in the prologue of The Eye Of The World. That balefire can be put to good use on Red Eagle Entertainment LLC and Manetheren LLC and erasing them, the pilot, and this lawsuit from the Pattern.

Re:BALEFIRE!

[cbhacking]

That wasn't balefire. Leaving aside the fact that we've never seen balefire in any form except originating *from* the channeler (or ter'angreal), balefire would have burned the Dragon out of the pattern, never to be reborn.

I could believe he *wanted* to use balefire - depending on how long it had been since the madness took him, it might even have worked to bring back his family - but despite the superficial resemblance (bar of searingly right light burns a hole into the earth where it hits) it just doesn't make sense for it to have been that particular weave.

Re:BALEFIRE!

[jnaujok]

Jordan was asked that question at a reading and confirmed it was just Lews Therin drawing too much of the One Power to hold. So much power, in fact that he vaporized himself and a large portion of the ground (down to the mantle?) resulting in DragonMount.

He specifically stated it was not balefire.

Re: Irrelevant, WoT sucked

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously people do-- as the on-going commentary proves. As for the quality of the epic series of novels... it's realative as a matter of taste. However, I would argue that it likely isn't a good fit for people who use such narrow minded reason, and make use of such highbrowed terms like "sucky"...

Re:How in the...

[Anonymous Coward]

Worthy of being posted on slashdot? WTF? Seriously? Worthy? Have you ever actually read slashdot? Worth has nothing to do with it.

Settlement?

[Etherwalk]

Getting sued for being honest about not doing something is a bit much though, even for USA.

According to the plaintiffs, she was not being honest. There is also the matter that, according to the plaintiffs, she was paid (indirectly through her husband's estate) and contractually bound to keep her mouth shut. I have no idea what "the truth" is, but I don't think it is black and white. If she doesn't want to abide by the terms of the contract, she should at least be compelled to disgorge the money she was paid.

They may just be trying to sue her as a negotiating tactic, in the hope of forcing a settlement over the rights, or something.

If she has tucked away the money the series made over the years, she should have at least a couple of million available and be able to cover the 50-200K in lawyer fees.

Contract survived estate

[aepervius]

Contract did survived estate otherwise the right would have reversed at the death. If the contract is still valid, then the estate person are bound to it too when they inherited it. Yes you can be bound to contract you did not sign, once you *accept* them as estate.

Re:Contract survived estate

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

That's the purpose of copyright extending X years past death -- so the holder can negotiate deals with others, who can feel safe in investing in publication or other use, without fear a careening bus can take it all away tomorrow.

It would be meaningless if just the ownership right survived and not the contracts based on it.

Re:How in the...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nerd for books, geek for tech.

Give it to HBO

[Gumbercules!!]

Wow. I just watched the show. That was really bad. I get that they rushed out some crap for legal reasons but I think surely this just puts another nail in the coffin of any chance of this making it to a great show, one day? Why can't WoT get the GoT treatment from HBO?

WHAT?

[BenLutgens]

A WoT pilot aired an I haven't heard anything about it? Given that I frequent many websites that would have trumpeted such a creature from rooftops, I find it odd I haven't heard about it. It must have been a steaming pile of rancid monkey chunks.

Nice try

[jgoemat]

I haven't seen the actual agreement, but it sounds like the company is going against the spirit of the agreement. They were supposed to get a television series produced, probably which would have made a portion of the generated funds go back to the estate. They had seven years to do it, then the rights would revert back to the estate so they could find someone that could get it done. In trying to keep the rights despite that clause in the contract, they paid for a "pilot" episode to be created themselves, then paid the network to broadcast the episode in a infomercial time-slot. It seems to be to be a weak attempt to hold onto the rights and deprive the estate of the opportunity to actually produce a TV series, something the plaintiffs seem incapable of.

Re: Nice try

[Anonymous Coward]

It depends on what the specifics in terms of the contract were. As for the defamation clause, I'm not sure Harriet was signed, or if it it was RJ, and how that could play into liability. I think the trial is today or started today, anyways. They could be trying to force a settlement from the estate to regain what theyes had paid or more... I've been refreshing my searches for news tirelessly-- but it's in CA, and I'm on the East Coast... so it could even be in process now. Hopefully the right people have the best lawyers!