White Wolf sues Sony over the movie "Underworld"

[FraserRonald]

On the other hand people familiar with Harlan Ellison may recall his suit over the show Future Cop, in which case the plagarism was deliberate, and substantiated in court...

I hadn't heard of that one, but Harlan also had to go to court twice to get recognition for "Soldier" (his story not the movie) as the inspiration for Terminator, even though James Cameron admitted as much on the set to a reporter from Starlog. Mr. Ellison had to return to court because at one point, his credit at the end (way, way at the end) had been removed. Nice.

 

[Klaatu B. Nikto]

Wandering offtopic now

The Hulkster reminded me of another. WWE also had a 'blood drinking' vampire themed wrestler named Gangrel, which was licensed from White Wolf.

Since the World Wildlife Fund now has the rights to WWF, I think any wrestling game that had WWF now has to change or get sued (or something equally idiotic).

IIRC, Stephen King sued those who made Lawnmower Man to have his name removed from the credits.

Back to the topic, I bet that anyone with animosity towards White Wolf and the pretentiousness associated with them will have 'em going rabid. The White Wolf boards would probably be the opposite.

 

[Villano]

QUOTE=Klaatu B. Nikto]The Hulkster reminded me of another. WWE also had a 'blood drinking' vampire themed wrestler named Gangrel, which was licensed from White Wolf.QUOTE]

I first heard of the wrestler before the White Wolf clan, but I honestly can't recall anyone at the WWF ever refer to White Wolf. It seems bizarre that that they would use the name as a cross-promotion without mentioning the source.

Since the World Wildlife Fund now has the rights to WWF, I think any wrestling game that had WWF now has to change or get sued (or something equally idiotic).

They way I understood it, World Wildlife had the rights to WWF overseas (in Europe, I think). They made a deal with MacMahon that they wouldn't sue him as long as he didn't promote the World Wrestling Federation with the initials "WWF" there. MacMahon agreed and then turned around and did it anyway. I have no sympathy for him since he brought the lawsuit on himself.

The suit screwed up all the rebroadcasts that had the little "WWF" in the corner of the screen. If you see any old clips, they have to blur them out.

As a funny aside, I heard that someone was refused entrance to a WWE show because he had a World Wildlife shirt with "WWF" emblazened in huge letters on it. And they say Vince doesn't hold grudges. LOL

Anyway, he was eventually allowed in. I think they made him turn the shirt inside out or something.

IIRC, Stephen King sued those who made Lawnmower Man to have his name removed from the credits.

I think he got his name off Sleepwalkers, too.

And the woman who wrote the original Beastmast book sued to get her name removed. I read the novel and it is totally different. In fact, it's sci-fi with aliens and such.

If she was upset by the changes in the first movie, I wonder how she felt about the horrible sequels?

I'm not sure if she did manage to get her name off, but her name was on the recent tv series. I guess she can't complain too much since she's getting royalties.

 

[Villano]

Um...What the heck happened to my above post? Seriously, I did not type in a bunch of smiley faces.

I'm not going to edit it, though. It just looks so weird, I love it! LOL.

The only strange thing that happened is it took me 3 tries to post it. I kept getting a "page cannot be found" message after I sent it. I have no idea how that results in a million smiley faces...

 

[reapersaurus]

That blurb is just Romeo & Juliet with vampires & werewolves.

Respectfully... No, it isn't.

I'll post everything again, except the last sentence:
"Underworld" reimagines vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city’s underbelly."

If you don't see how that infringes on WW's territory (not to mention the incredibly insulting "reimagines" aspect), than I'm afraid you haven't been seeing what WW's been doing for over 10 years.

BTW: Did any other writer before WW envision vampires as a "secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates"? along with clans that had certain characteristics, etc? Clans being the major aspect I'm wondering about, not the secretive part.

 

[Corinth]

Here is your smoking gun. White Wolf has Sony dead to rights.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Over on RPG.net a member, Funksaw, went through and wrote up the main points of the PDF. I have attached the list as a text file. I have not read through them all, but there are a lot of things. However some are... odd. I would say it does look like White Wolf has a good chance of getting a settlement of some kind with all of this evidence.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Here is your smoking gun. White Wolf has Sony dead to rights.

Interesting and while some of the points are just funny some are very notible.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Here is your smoking gun. White Wolf has Sony dead to rights.

Yep. A lot of the claims are silly, since they come from mythology--vampires as superfast, silver against werewolves, etc. I'm guessing those were included to prop up the more viable claims.

And boy, some of those claims are pretty substantial. I saw several uses of exact terminology. "Abomination" and "embrace" are English words, sure, and so cannot be copyrighted in and of themselves. But their specific use, as (in order) a vampire-werewolf hybrid and the act of turning someone into a vampire, that particular use can legally be declared IP.

I wouldn't begin to lay money on how this is going to turn out. WW has a case, but I couldn't begin to guess if it's a strong enough case to win. I will say, however, that the case is easily strong enough to put the lie to any further claims of "frivolous lawsuits."

 

[Klaatu B. Nikto]

BTW: Did any other writer before WW envision vampires as a "secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates"? along with clans that had certain characteristics, etc? Clans being the major aspect I'm wondering about, not the secretive part.

Possibly Blade from Marvel Comics. They did it in the movies, which may have been influenced by V:tM.

Vampire clans with certain characteristics were also used in the Soul Reaver series as the 'offspring' of Kain specialized in certain powers like one clan was no longer harmed by water and became aquatic, etc. Again, that may have been influenced by V:tM.