Gail Gygax Sued By Movie Producer

In June it transpired that Gail Gygax, the widow of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax was being sued. This isn't the first time she has been embroiled in legal disputes, there having been major family disputes between her and Gygax's children over recent years, but this is the first time with a Hollywood movie producer!

According to Variety, the Gygax estate partnered with De Santo to oversee the catalogue of published and unpublished works. In June of this year, according to the Courthouse News Service, "Tom DeSanto — producer of “Xmen” and “Transformers” — sued Gail Gygax — the widow of Gary Gygax, creator of “Dungeons & Dragons,” claiming they formed a partnership to exploit the brand, but she tried to negotiate a video game deal without him, in L.A. Superior Court."

That this is ongoing has been confirmed yesterday by a public Facebook post from Gail Gygax, which reiterates that she is being sued in California by Tom DeSanto (X-Men, Transformers) and New Myth Entertainment for $30M over plans to publish Gary's original dungeon. The post is below, verbatim, although it has been edited a few times, as can be seen in the post's edit history, and it's a little incoherent.

"What is on my mind?@

The 30 million lawsuit Tom DeSanto filed against me in CA, the prestigious producer, lol,DELAYS MY HOPE TO PUBLISH Gary's original dungeon. An historical work.
I guess i will be losing our home and Garys dungeon.

I am 62 years old. Can any one say Elder Abuse? Hunter. The thought of losing our home in the next two weeks has me devastated.

No one, except my agent has stepped up to defend me. She was fired from APA. TOM deSanto said to me an agent from APA was up on child molestation and basically said they were a third rate agency. Also that he knows the owner. Wow. Then my fantastic agent gets fired from the agency he, Tom, said was third rate.

My agent is fantastic and I can only say after many years in LA, she is the best.

I almost died in 2014 when Luke and Ernie sued me, and Margaret Weis. Shocking Margaret as Gary was so kind to you.

Weis as a board member. Not sure why She was so negative against me other than to gain financial control over the Gygax trademark..

I believe Tom DeSanto, accordinding to his email wants to strip me of our home and all properties Gary and i were working. On.

I refuse to attend GarybCon as Luke Gygax is so very negative to me. I love our much beloved Gen Con, however due to what i believe are Luke Gygaxes rants with his friends against me i am afraid to attend Gen Con. I would not to put Peter in a bad position. .Peter and Gen Con has only been respectful and loving to me and Alexander.

My home has been invaded, there was a trip wire by my back step to kill me and I know what is missing from our home.

My stepchildren places a headstone without a body. It reads. E Gary Gygax. Beloved Father and Grandfather. So my step childrens hatred of me is front and center. I was his beloved wife. No respect from them. I was shocked and dismayed when Harold Jog son informed me of this act at Gen Con. I was indeed devastated and bed ridden for two months.

With NO CONCERN FROM MY STEP CHILDREN.

I was Told by Chris Hoffner if i didnt licence GaryCon to him they would run over me.

Nice. I created GaryCon in my husbands memory. Guess my stepchildren cant share with me and Alex.

i can only believe TOM DESANTO AND NEW MYTH entertainment with David Ranes has victomized me. Not sure calling the FBI TOMORROW

Tom is suing me for $30mil. I asked my stepchildren to help me. Only to get the answer from Luke if i didnt make him branding manager there would be no agreement with his sibblings. What doess that even mean?. He wants control over my 30+ year company.

So i start a new jouney to make sure my husbands works are brought forward. I am disappointed Hasbro WOTC will not return my emails.

I WANT garys original dungeon i. With HIS original rules. Dungeons and Dragons.

I hope i have support for this historical moment.

Mrs. E. Gary Gygax
I will love him until the day i die. He was a truly special man. I was so honored to be married to him."

 

[Morrus]

Your still carrying the analogy of physical things too far. Novels and songs aren't "things"; you can't own them. You can only have copyright over them—the right to be the exclusive distributor of them. Why should you be able to keep selling the same song over and over but I can't do that with my chair? Why do you value a carpenter's hard work less than that of an artist?

I don’t. A value them the same. Which is why I can leave both to my wife.

Whether they’re a thing you can touch isn’t really relevant to me. They’re both things I made and which took hard work. Fortunately, society agrees that I can leave both to my wife should something happen to me.

 

[Queer Venger]

This poor woman sounds paranoid, delusional... the fact that her own children have estranged from her says a lot. And Weis, very well regarded in the industry? Business is business, which is why Im happy for the brand to belong to a company like Wizards.

Hope we now get our long awaited D&D cartoon and movie.

 

[Morrus]

This poor woman sounds paranoid, delusional... the fact that her own children have estranged from her says a lot.

They’re not her children. I don’t know them (I know some folks here do; I’ve met Gail and Gary a few times, but not Luke or Ernie) and I’m sure plenty of people here could elaborate, but I suspect therein lies the problem.

 

[Queer Venger]

They’re not her children. I don’t know them (I know some folks here do; I’ve met Gail and Gary a few times, but not Luke or Ernie) and I’m sure plenty of people here could elaborate, but I suspect therein lies the problem.

Thanks for correcting MOrrus, I have never met Gail, but her social media post is heavily structured with paranoia; "a trip wire" that speaks for itself.

 

[Umbran]

Lifetime is ridiculous. The generation that helped shape the creation should be able to take ownership of it while it is still relevant to that society.

If we are gong to say you don't "own" IP you create, you only own the rights to distribute it, the same goes for everyone else.

The generation cannot take ownership, because they can't own it either!

The creator does not *owe* the generation their work, any more than a creator owes everyone a chair. You are not *entitled* to get what they created with their minds.

Oh, and if you make a chair, and you sell the chair, the person has the right to use the chair - they can sit in it. They *cannot* take the design of your chair and reproduce it at will.

Yes, The Hobbit would have been public domain. So...? How would that at all have affected the publication of LotR?

For example, by having someone else write later books using the same characters and setting before Tolkien could, leading to confusion among the reading public. Someone else working on an IP can color public perception of the property. If they were bad, they'd not have looked at Tolkien's work ("That world sucks! Why would I read it?") - this would have deprived Tolkien of the income, and also deprived the genre of his overall impact.

 

[Eltab]

Larry Niven (sci-fi author) accidentally demonstrated why IP protections (such as copyright and patent) are necessary:

He opened his 'Known Space' universe to guest authors, expecting to get short stories from other sci-fi authors.
Almost immediately, an individual who was known for being a porn author wrote one of his standard porn stories with some Known Space window-dressing. He released it without letting Niven know what was happening.
The sci-fi authors hadn't yet had time to think up a good Known Space story, write it, and submit it.

When shown the story, Niven sent a cease-and-desist order to the author.
Niven had to shut down the whole project, because this one guy had 'poisoned the well'.

 

[Shasarak]

Larry Niven (sci-fi author) accidentally demonstrated why IP protections (such as copyright and patent) are necessary:

He opened his 'Known Space' universe to guest authors, expecting to get short stories from other sci-fi authors.
Almost immediately, an individual who was known for being a porn author wrote one of his standard porn stories with some Known Space window-dressing. He released it without letting Niven know what was happening.
The sci-fi authors hadn't yet had time to think up a good Known Space story, write it, and submit it.

When shown the story, Niven sent a cease-and-desist order to the author.
Niven had to shut down the whole project, because this one guy had 'poisoned the well'.

I dont get it. Larry wanted people to write in his "universe" and then got upset when people wrote in his "universe"?

 

[billd91]

I dont get it. Larry wanted people to write in his "universe" and then got upset when people wrote in his "universe"?

What’s not to get? He was expecting for something other than porn. I’m sure he was hoping for an exchange of creative ideas, maybe a vibrant community of writers in a shared world. And humanity disappointed him right out of the gate. I’d have shut it down too.

 

[Sadras]

Seven years is far too short for most IP. Had the rule been 7 years, the Hobbit would have been in the public domain before Tolkien would have been able to finish and publish Lord of the Rings. Life of author + some modest amount should be fine. The current state of affairs is ridiculous, but 7 years would also be ridiculous.

Indeed. You can’t even make a film trilogy in that time.

A trilogy is nothing compared to the writing of the Winds of Winter.
If that 7 year rule had been in effect, a fan-made copy would have hit the shelves by 12 July 2018.
#Truestory.

 

[Shasarak]

What’s not to get? He was expecting for something other than porn. I’m sure he was hoping for an exchange of creative ideas, maybe a vibrant community of writers in a shared world. And humanity disappointed him right out of the gate. I’d have shut it down too.

I see that he is an 80 year old American so that probably explains it.