Earlier quoted context omitted.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
Crazy. I wonder what the follow up for Stan Lee's lawsuit was
In Stan Lee's case, it could be argued it was cosmic justice.
My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
121–130 of 130 posts
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's completely rational to assume that mergers and acquisitions would assign all assets, liabilities, and obligations to the purchasing entity. Given the history of Hollywood Accounting, I think it's also rational to assume that WB is trying to use legal loopholes to weasel their way out of obligations. That being said, I thought the bulk of WBs case wasn't that they weren't beholden to her contract, but tha…
> I think it's completely rational to assume that mergers and acquisitions would assign all assets, liabilities, and obligations to the purchasing entity. Given the history of Hollywood Accounting, I think it's also rational to assume that WB is trying to use legal loopholes to weasel their way out of obligations. Absolutely. To argue otherwise would be anarchy. Can you imagine if some company bought Microsoft and de…
Bad example; Microsoft supports its software because it wouldn't be able to maintain market share if it didn't, not because of contractual obligations.
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, some of the issues seem to be: 1. The movie "Gravity" is primarily an action/special-effects pageant about an astronaut trying to get safely back to Earth after an accident destroys the space station she was on. The book "Gravity" is a medical techno-thriller about a doctor in space fighting a disease outbreak on a space station. Reasonable people can probably disagree about whether the movie, given its signifi…
> The court found that even if all allegations in her complaint were taken to be true, they still would not establish that Warner Brothers was bound by that contract. So it is possible that: 1) X sells rights to Y, having Y commit to obligations in exchange. 2) Z acquires Y. 3) Z now has the rights but not the obligations. WTF?
Yes, but that is not really the point here.
Her attorney didn't describe with enough detail why WB was on the hook. The court dismissed it, but they are allowed to fix it and go on.
This is a really standard litigation issue. It isn't a big deal.
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Marcus Pincus is a piece of shit by his own admission. We should make a six degrees of separation where anyone who does any partnership or collaboration with that piece of shit immediately deserves a boycott as well. Yes, HN this includes even your god and lord Paul Graham... Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: "I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues" http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pink…
Just because he admits to common practices instead of hiding behind the usual bullshit doesn't make him any worse than other CEOs. And just to make it clear which way to read that: That's not a defense of Pincus. That's a shot at the other CEOs. Business and moral don't go together, you can read that on HN all the time.
oh god yes and the entire state of Texas which makes the agreements that marcus pincus makes you sign when you join zynga sound lax.
there should be some federal minimum standard so that incompetent and malicious state actors in one state don't try to undercut fundamental economic policies of other states to lure away the companies from states like California... You should not be able to say "Come and incorporate in Texas and you'll own whatever your employees and ex-employees think for their entire lives". Or come to Texas and you won't have to pay a minimum wage to your employees.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.dcom.telecom/op...
http://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&...
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think it's completely rational to assume that mergers and acquisitions would assign all assets, liabilities, and obligations to the purchasing entity. Given the history of Hollywood Accounting, I think it's also rational to assume that WB is trying to use legal loopholes to weasel their way out of obligations. Absolutely. To argue otherwise would be anarchy. Can you imagine if some company bought Microsoft and de…
Bad example; Microsoft supports its software because it wouldn't be able to maintain market share if it didn't, not because of contractual obligations.
Does that mean that the end of life on [1] mean that date or an earlier date as Microsoft chooses?
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#126Hollywood is much easier to understand if you look at it as a collection of interrelated financial instruments, that also occasionally makes movies.
This seems like an interesting perspective, would you care to elaborate?
You could watch Mel Brooks in The Producers.
The short version is that the system has become so complex that the outputs are becoming less correlated to the inputs. The money coming out is losing its relationship to the motion pictures going in.
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#127Small question. How does one become a Hollywood writer?
"Hemingway famously said that the best way for a writer to deal with the
movie business was to arrange a quick meeting at the California state line:
'You throw them your book, they throw you the money. Then you jump
into your car and drive like hell back the way you came.'
(quoted in: Hemingway Lives! by Clancy Sigal)
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you miss the part where this was a contract issue? Where the author of the book said, literally, "Yeah, Gravity is a great film, but it's not based on my book"? She's trying to argue that a contract she made with one company would somehow jump across multiple acquisitions, mergers and organizational changes and begin binding a different company that made a movie she admits wasn't based on her book. And that's why…
"I, Robot" was a great movie, but not based on the book. "Starship Troopers" was, as I like to repeat a quip, "based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Heinlein". "Frozen", while not involving a contract to the long-deceased author, is allegedly based on "The Snow Queen" though I fail to see the connection. There are numerous other examples of a movie being almost entirely unlike the book for which rights were pu…
I'd like to add "The Running Man" to your list.
Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#129Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think it's completely rational to assume that mergers and acquisitions would assign all assets, liabilities, and obligations to the purchasing entity. Given the history of Hollywood Accounting, I think it's also rational to assume that WB is trying to use legal loopholes to weasel their way out of obligations. Absolutely. To argue otherwise would be anarchy. Can you imagine if some company bought Microsoft and de…
Bad example; Microsoft supports its software because it wouldn't be able to maintain market share if it didn't, not because of contractual obligations.
Not necessarily.
Pretty sure we still have a (outrageously expensive) support contract for NT4 on alpha for some godawful legacy system.