For the last five years, the creators of the 1970s Villains & Vigilantes roleplaying game have been embroiled in a legal battle over the rights to publish it. Jeff Dee and Jack Herman created the RPG in their teens, and signed a contract with Scott Bizar (publisher of Fantasy Games Unlimited) in 1979. However, in 1987, Bizarre ceased publishing, and in 2010 Fantasy Games Unlimited was dissolved. This, according to the contract, apparently meant that the rights reverted to the creators, who promptly attempted to publish the game under their new company, Monkey House Games. Bizar disputed this, and the legal battle began.
In a conversation with Aint It Cool News back in early 2011, the creators expressed their dissatisfaction.
We started to become unhappy in the late 1980s when FGU stopped advertising V&V, taking it to conventions, or even soliciting distributors. When it became clear that this situation wasn't going to change, we started looking for ways to get our game back. But for years, it looked hopeless. The contract seemed to give Scott Bizar enough loopholes so that he could keep it in force perpetually with little effort, and attempts to purchase the publishing rights from him were met by outrageously high price tags. Our contract was with Fantasy Games Unlimited, Inc. -- which, we recently discovered, was "dissolved by proclamation" by the state of NY in 1991 ... It no longer exists. And the contract clearly stated that if FGU, Inc., ever ceased to exist, then the publication rights reverted back to us.
In 2011, Dee and Herman filed a copyright infringement suit in Florida. A judge in Arizona ruled in 2013 that by not publishing the game for a period of time in the 1990s, Bizar's rights to it expired. Not only that, the judge ruled that Bizar never had the right to publish electronic editions, which he has been doing more recently. That went to appeal, and in 2015 the initial judgement was affirmed.
"[T]he contract expressly provided that the agreement would terminate by operation of law if FGU, Inc., ceased to do business for any reason. The agreement also prohibited the assignment of any rights under the contract without the written consent of the other parties. By the terms of the agreement, when FGU, Inc., was dissolved in 1991, allrights to the 1979 and 1982 Rulebooks reverted to Dee and Herman. Accordingly, all sales after the 1991 dissolution of FGU, Inc., of the 1979 or 1982 Rulebookswere infringing acts."
It still isn't over, though. That resolved the publishing rights, but it didn't decide whether Bizar still owned the trademark. So back to court it went. Last year, the creators launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise a legal war chest. They raised $26,755.
"Our claim that the publishing rights reverted to us has been upheld in court, but our opponent still claims to own the trademark to our game's name and he's suing us for using it. If he wins on that count, he'll be able to seize our creation and financially ruin us. We've been fighting for our rights for several years, and frankly we need money in order to carry this battle to a final victory. We just want to get back to making our games!"
It appears now that both parties have reached a settlement. Up on DTRPG now sits a copy of the game which bears the following legal text:
The Monkey House Games logo is a trademark owned by Monkey House Games. All characters, character names, and the distinctive likenessesthereof are trademarks owned by Monkey House Games. Villains and Vigilantes is a trademark of Scott Bizar, used with permission.
So Bizar owned the trademark, while Dee and Herman own the publishing rights. At least, that's how it looks. Bizar is a high school teacher in Arizona, and also ran a gem store which closed in 2007. In 2007 he told an interviewer that "My principal trade is now teaching not publishing. When you're over 50 and married with a child you cannot allow yourself the same delirious adventures as when you're 20 or 30. ... I no longer promise to fight as hard as I did in 1987, when the distributors refused to sell FGU products because they were not presented in boxes like TSR products."
You can read more about this lawsuit in three posts on the Workbench blog, or listen to the Shane Plays radio show/podcast where he talks to Dee and Herman.
In a conversation with Aint It Cool News back in early 2011, the creators expressed their dissatisfaction.
We started to become unhappy in the late 1980s when FGU stopped advertising V&V, taking it to conventions, or even soliciting distributors. When it became clear that this situation wasn't going to change, we started looking for ways to get our game back. But for years, it looked hopeless. The contract seemed to give Scott Bizar enough loopholes so that he could keep it in force perpetually with little effort, and attempts to purchase the publishing rights from him were met by outrageously high price tags. Our contract was with Fantasy Games Unlimited, Inc. -- which, we recently discovered, was "dissolved by proclamation" by the state of NY in 1991 ... It no longer exists. And the contract clearly stated that if FGU, Inc., ever ceased to exist, then the publication rights reverted back to us.
"[T]he contract expressly provided that the agreement would terminate by operation of law if FGU, Inc., ceased to do business for any reason. The agreement also prohibited the assignment of any rights under the contract without the written consent of the other parties. By the terms of the agreement, when FGU, Inc., was dissolved in 1991, allrights to the 1979 and 1982 Rulebooks reverted to Dee and Herman. Accordingly, all sales after the 1991 dissolution of FGU, Inc., of the 1979 or 1982 Rulebookswere infringing acts."
It still isn't over, though. That resolved the publishing rights, but it didn't decide whether Bizar still owned the trademark. So back to court it went. Last year, the creators launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise a legal war chest. They raised $26,755.
"Our claim that the publishing rights reverted to us has been upheld in court, but our opponent still claims to own the trademark to our game's name and he's suing us for using it. If he wins on that count, he'll be able to seize our creation and financially ruin us. We've been fighting for our rights for several years, and frankly we need money in order to carry this battle to a final victory. We just want to get back to making our games!"
It appears now that both parties have reached a settlement. Up on DTRPG now sits a copy of the game which bears the following legal text:
The Monkey House Games logo is a trademark owned by Monkey House Games. All characters, character names, and the distinctive likenessesthereof are trademarks owned by Monkey House Games. Villains and Vigilantes is a trademark of Scott Bizar, used with permission.
So Bizar owned the trademark, while Dee and Herman own the publishing rights. At least, that's how it looks. Bizar is a high school teacher in Arizona, and also ran a gem store which closed in 2007. In 2007 he told an interviewer that "My principal trade is now teaching not publishing. When you're over 50 and married with a child you cannot allow yourself the same delirious adventures as when you're 20 or 30. ... I no longer promise to fight as hard as I did in 1987, when the distributors refused to sell FGU products because they were not presented in boxes like TSR products."
You can read more about this lawsuit in three posts on the Workbench blog, or listen to the Shane Plays radio show/podcast where he talks to Dee and Herman.
