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Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:54 pm
by Omphalos
Fucking stupid. Whoever wrote this declaration is a tool. All that stuff at the beginning is part of expert witness qualification, but it does sound a bit self serving, no? And I hire experts all the time. Looks to me as if this expert is going a bit overboard and has made some conclusions of law. That is NEVER an expert's job, unless its a legal expert, and even then its really not the way its supposed to be done.

Anderson seems to be serving as some sort of expert here.

Seems Anderson's clients lost this case. The ruling was that the publishing could not be enjoined, but the publisher had to pay a pretty penny because there was so much use of copyrighted material. The declaration contains the basics of the dispute. This case is all over the internet, if you are curious.

Ill keep my eye open for more stuff like this.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:35 pm
by GamePlayer
Gone With The Wind? WTF?

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:58 am
by Freakzilla
GamePlayer wrote:Gone With The Wind? WTF?
Watched it last weekend.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:42 am
by The Phantom
wtf... so he takes the stand and spouts off the same self-affirming bullshit as usual

notice though, he doesn't mention the notes as the source material for the sequels while in a legal setting.... hmm

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:37 pm
by Omphalos
He was hired as an expert by the party that owend Gone With the Wind. They had filed for an injunction to stop the defendant from publishing a story based on original story. He qualified himself as an expert before the court by hlding himself out as someone who did the same thing, only the "right" way.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:41 am
by Freakzilla
Omphalos wrote:He was hired as an expert by the party that owend Gone With the Wind. They had filed for an injunction to stop the defendant from publishing a story based on original story. He qualified himself as an expert before the court by hlding himself out as someone who did the same thing, only the "right" way.
Yeah, you've got to get the family's permision before you rape a corpse. :roll:

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:04 am
by GamePlayer
Omphalos wrote:He was hired as an expert by the party that owend Gone With the Wind. They had filed for an injunction to stop the defendant from publishing a story based on original story. He qualified himself as an expert before the court by hlding himself out as someone who did the same thing, only the "right" way.
What a world.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:11 am
by Seraphan
:doh: Why did i have to read that?! :angry-cussingwhite: He's one of the rare cases that when you refer to him as douche bag hack or pretensious idiot, its not name calling, it's stating a pure fact.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:51 am
by Hunchback Jack
I'm not even sure what I just read. KJA spends half the document saying how awesome he is, and then gives his opinion on the legality of someone else's work using little more than analogy?

Not worth the paper it's written on.

HBJ

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:05 pm
by Serkanner
It is as badly written as his "novels". BTW he mentions that awards were won with the Dune novels? Which awards were that?

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:38 pm
by Omphalos
I think we can make some assumptions about Anderson's true focus from this document, as well as the complicity of the HLP. What it does is establish a rule that Anderson has adhered to, which is that you cannot change the "intent of the underlying work" without the permission of the "legitimate copyright holders." Its evidence that the HLP was not just hoodwinked as we have sometimes theorized, because they are the "leigitmate copyright holders" and they collectively own the literary estate of FH (paragraph 5). It also suggests that there is a formal arrangement between Anderson and the HLP, and not just a handshake deal between him and Brian Herbert (paragraph 3). Those two things are not earthshattering, but they are things that we have wondered about in the past.

If you read this thing as a whole it also appears that Anderson believes that the only interest that is of any import is the interest of the "legitimate copyright holders;" that as long as they are happy, any damage whatsoever may be done to the intent of the original author (see the whole document generally, but also paragraph 6). IOW, his analysis is focused on the economic side of things, which in and of itself ignores the important traditional side. His main conclusion is essentially that property owners can do whatever they want. Legally he is correct, but to analyze the true import of that conclusion we need to compare it to other things that he has said publically about his intent with Dune. Consider what comes out of his mouth constantly in other forums: How he wishes FH could have been a part of all of this; how he and Brian strove to accomplish Frank's will because Frank was an important man and that is what the fans want; that writing in shared universes requires close attention to details set down by people other than you; that you owe fans and creators a duty. All of this is 180 degrees away from what he is saying here. Certainly he can claim that he's heged his bets by deferring to the current copyright holder, but I think we can all tell that he's talking out of both sides of his mouth. This is decent evidence that everything we have been saying about his motives is true. He specifically states that moral considerations be damned, the only thing that matters, and this coming from someone who has written in a bunch of worlds created by others, is economic concerns.

Plus its signed under PofP.

It's not what FH would have wanted, despite the fact that they publiclly deify him. Its what his shithead descendents want, and now that he has ingratiated himself into that tribe of lunatics, it's what he wants.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:54 pm
by A Thing of Eternity
Now that you point that out it is indeed very interesting...

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:04 pm
by GamePlayer
A brilliant cross-analysis. I couldn't agree more. Well written.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:53 pm
by Serkanner
Thanks for the analyses. It all starts to makes more sense to me now.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:21 pm
by Liege-Killer
Omphalos wrote:(see the whole document generally, but also paragraph 6)
Here we are.....
KJA wrote:6. In my opinion, this misappropriation of the Mitchell characters and character relationships would seriously taint the original property for further legitimate development by the rightful copyright holders.
Taint the original property...... oh, the irony!

Let's translate this into what he really means in terms of Dune:
KJA's real true inner self wrote:In my opinion, careful adherence to and respect for Frank Herbert's Dune universe would seriously taint the original property for artistically illegitimate development and rapacious profit-seeking by the rightful copyright holders (and me, me, me, their hack writer for hire).

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:12 am
by Ampoliros
I love the fact that KJA is so well known for writing in other people's universes that he qualifies as expert testimony on the subject.

Also, Omph, what are the legal repercussions for his 'misstatements' (mostly about his own work) in that statement?

The only reason he's written more Star Wars books than anyone else is because the Young Jedi Knights series is 14 books.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:13 am
by Omphalos
The purpose of those statements was to qualify himself as an expert. Different jurisdictions apply different tests for the qualification of experts, though since he is essentially a "lay expert," meaning that he is not applying the scientific method or a specific technology or test, the standards are kind of loose. As long as the statements are factually truthful his credentials as an expert are not subject to attack. That means that the court could accept his opinion if it so chooses. If the were untruthful then the only repercussions could be that he is disqualified as and expert, and in extreme circumstances he could be penalized for perjury, though I have only rarely seen something that drastic happen. Usually the damage is to one's reputation before the court only.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:46 pm
by Ampoliros
thanks!

It's nice having people from such different areas of expertise here and at Jacurutu. Law has always been an interest of mine though I doubt I'd enjoy it much as a profession.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:40 am
by Mr. Teg
Nice catch thanks for posting.

Reminds me of discussion back on keen but can't remember the thread.
How they treat words and passages out of context because they take the copyright literally.
The dictionary definition over the author's intent in order to justify their reboot.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:03 pm
by chanilover
:lol=: So now Combover is an expert on copyright law. What a twat, wonder if the stenographer had to take his deposition whilst out hiking with him.

Re: Kevin J. Anderson and Litigation

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:20 pm
by Freakzilla
Nah, he phoned it in. Just like his books.