Judge Rules Fox Has Copyright Claim To Watchmen

fermion writes "According to the NYT, a judge has decided that Fox owns the copyright to Watchmen, not Warner. Is this an example of copyright law becoming so complex that companies can abuse the court system to prevent competition, or just extreme incompetence by Warner? In the current business environment, either explanation is believable. Yet it is unbelievable that seasoned producers would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to create a movie that they can't even release. It seems the judge didn't want to bring this to a jury, and maybe daring Warner to appeal, or Fox to settle." The article says that Fox acquired movie rights to the Watchmen story in the late 1980s, but budget disputes and personnel changes have muddied the waters; Wikipedia has a bit more on the "development hell" which has plagued the film project.

Well...

[ultramk]

I guess we have the answer to the question "who watches the Watchmen?"

Nobody.

Perfect tagline from movie poster

[actionbastard]

"Justice is coming to all of us no matter what we do."

Serves them all right.

Pfft! Cut the baby in half!

[Anonymous Coward]

OR Just leak it to BitTorrent already!

everyone wins!

Re:Too Bad

[jonr]

It's meta-humor.

Re:Too Bad

[philspear]

there are no directors still living that are capable of capturing what actually makes this work a masterpiece.

How convenient: Your hypothesis cannot be tested because of copyright law.

Re:Too Bad

[timothy]

Those types will always be around; in the future, video rental stores (if they exist) will have entire wings devoted to various incarnations of "Batman," into which they can be shoved.

The Lord of the Rings movies went way past anything I expected, into the same class of story -- for me, tastes vary -- as L.A. Confidential, where the book and movie have some major disjoint but each is masterful within its realm.

timothy

"But what about Tom Bomba--" CRUNCH. SMACK. CRUNCH.

"I said, what about--" SMACKASMACKASMACKASMACKA!

"Honestly, if only--" RATTATTTAATATATATATAA!!

Fox owns the copyright to Watchmen , not Warner

[pleasechooseanother2]

Warner still can release the movie via The Pirate Bay.

Re:Too Bad

[Malevolyn]

Until you view it as NTSC, then it's 29,970 words per second. Unfortunately it's worth less in Europe, only 25,000 words per second.

Re:Too Bad

[SanityInAnarchy]

In fact, I would argue that most Phillip K. Dick books are better as movies, once Hollywood has a chance to make some kind of sense with them.

Re:Too Bad

[Alsee]

Spider Man, Superman, Iron Man, or random new made-up -Man.

Made-Up-Man, dashing valiantly from cosmetic counter to cosmetic counter, rescuing tragic make-up victims [wordpress.com] such as Drew Barrymore, [wordpress.com] Beyoncé, [wordpress.com] and Christina Aguilera. [wordpress.com]

-

Re:To which I say "FUCK OFF!"

[DaveV1.0]

You are fucking idiot.

One's opinion is irrelevant since one has not payed for something?

The OPs opinion doesn't matter because he doesn't respect the laws in question. He would deprive the copyright owner's of their legally guaranteed rights, just like your worthless ass would.

Or is the idea that one's opinion is irrelevant unless you pay the author of the work?
Well fuck... guess we should just stop talking about Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Byron, Da Vinci, Van Gogh and every single dead artist and their work cause as much as we try it ain't likely that they will ever see a dime from us.

No, because you are to fucking stupid to understand that one's opinion about copyright issues is only as valid as one's respect and understanding of said copyrights. And, as the works of every one of those "authors" you listed is in the public domain because their copyrights expired, maybe you should shut the fuck up until you learn what you are talking about.

And since I too have read Watchmen first in scanned form, only later getting my own printed copy, I guess that makes our opinions about on the same level.

No, you opinion doesn't matter.

Re:Too Bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know that "elitist" is necessarily the right word to use when describing people unhappy with a cinematic remake that in no way resembles the original material

Especially when the original material is, in fact, a comic book.

Re:Too Bad

[SlowMovingTarget]

They're already planning "300-2" ...

It will be called "301 Spartans" where the lovable gaggle of Spartans must win out against the evil Persian Queen Cruella Divan.