Tracking the (insert demeaning insult here) lawsuit against Topps

[Sulla]

Hey all, I just wanted a place I could go to vent with others of a like mind over this bozo's lawsuit against Topps.

Link to his blog: http://roycalbeck.livejournal.com/30715.html

There are many, many issues I have with Scott Alan "Roy Calbeck" Malcomson. From reading his blog, he obviously thinks he's some white knight, protecting his IP against the big bad corporations. I see him as a slug, not unlike Jabba, sans the Hutt's sense of honor (ha!).

This kind of bastardization of the legal system to mount a snatch-and-grab pushes my 'murder' button.

[Sulla]

Great Penny Arcade comic today...it's what got me all upset about this again...

http://penny-arcade.com/

[Darrian Wolffe]

Hey all, I just wanted a place I could go to vent with others of a like mind over this bozo's lawsuit against Topps.

Link to his blog: http://roycalbeck.livejournal.com/30715.html

What the fuck?  Is this the guy that got banned from CBT a few years back for pushing some "expanded" ELH handbook where the ELH has a crapton of WarShips and ClanTech in 3045?

Now, don't get me wrong - he kinda seems a jackass when I just look at him through the blog.  But is this:

But if I win, I intend to license Battletech to CGL for half of whatever they're paying now, just to support the game line.

...necessarily a bad thing?  IF, and I repeat, IF his terms of "semi-deal" are true (authorship credit, his name on the updated history,and the rights to a single redshirt character in a verbal contract with Herb), he's got some legal ground to stand upon.  As long as he's not forcing any creative control over the writers (and from the tone of his blog, he doesn't - he seems on reasonable terms with Loren and Herb), I could live with it.  It's a definite "dick move", undercutting a company he claims to like, but he does have a case for the ownership of what HE wrote if, as he says, no rights to what HE wrote officially changed hands.

All that said, of course, I'd far prefer to have CGL get the rights themselvesand allow them to renegotiate the issue with this guy from the position of owning the license.  And his inability to post the relevant legal documentation is highly suspicious.

Of course, we're only seeing one side of this, and an incomplete image at that.  I'd love more information (i'm not going to kneejerk a reaction until I know more - didn't the Unseen suit teach us to do that?).  And for him to use less deliberately inflammatory language.


EDIT: too bad he won't let people comment without a LiveJournal account.  Here's what I would have said (feel free to copy/paste if you're got an account):
Out of curiosity, and without (obviously) access to privy documentation, have you thought about letting CGL acquire the license from Topps as they're attempting to do, and then dealing with CGL themselves?  You seem to have had cordial dealings with Herb and Randall in the past, and this attempt to, essentially, cockblock CGL's attempt to own the BattleTech seems unnecessarily punitive against a company that has, by your own admission, tried to help you out as best as they were able.

Waiting for CGL to get the license means that CGL can decide for themselves, and you've lost nothing.  Even if they don't get it, you can still bring suit against Topps (who really committed the offense) at that time.  But all you're doing with this suit now is costing you any possible support you might have drummed up in the CBT community - we all want CGL to get the license back, and you're stopping that.

[GiovanniBlasini]

Hey all, I just wanted a place I could go to vent with others of a like mind over this bozo's lawsuit against Topps.

Link to his blog: http://roycalbeck.livejournal.com/30715.html

There are many, many issues I have with Scott Alan "Roy Calbeck" Malcomson. From reading his blog, he obviously thinks he's some white knight, protecting his IP against the big bad corporations. I see him as a slug, not unlike Jabba, sans the Hutt's sense of honor (ha!).

This kind of bastardization of the legal system to mount a snatch-and-grab pushes my 'murder' button.

Full disclosure:  I'm "SirThoreth".

Feel free to chime in - trying to post to LJ from a  mobile phone is essentially a peculiar form of self-torture.  I'm especially amused by his claiming Petersen's work as his own, and his misunderstanding of Federal copyright law:  he'd have to have *changed* Petersen's work by a minimum of 18% in order to lay claim to it, not simply embellish it, and that's only if there wasn't any copyrighted or trademarked material, such as, y'now, the name "Eridani Light Horse" or "BattleMech".

"Roy's" failure to understand the law, and delusions of adaquacy, let alone grandeur, astound me.

[Liam]

Now, don't get me wrong - he kinda seems a jackass when I just look at him through the blog.  But is this:

But if I win, I intend to license Battletech to CGL for half of whatever they're paying now, just to support the game line.

...necessarily a bad thing? 

Yes. It is a bad thing. Unless you're hoping for anthropomorphic unicorns. He isn't just trying to support the game line, he has an agenda of self promotion among his own comunity of friends. The game line is doing fine as it is. He's simply being an opportunistic ass.

Plus, I'm pissed off as all hell at him because I'm not going to be able to post a planned fanfic on the classic battletech board...

[Darrian Wolffe]

Yes. It is a bad thing. Unless you're hoping for anthropomorphic unicorns. He isn't just trying to support the game line, he has an agenda of self promotion among his own comunity of friends. The game line is doing fine as it is. He's simply being an opportunistic ass.

Plus, I'm pissed off as all hell at him because I'm not going to be able to post a planned fanfic on the classic battletech board...

What the hell do those have to do with anything?

Keep in mind I don't know who the heck this guy is - I heard something was going on re: this thing on CBT.com, but I've barely been on that board for the last 2 weeks...

EDIT: Likewise, why can't you post a fanfic because of this?

[Sulla]

Yes, the arrogance is what gets me. The piece in question deals with an incredibly small part of the BT universe. If he wasn't paid for the work, that's one thing. Do what you can to get your money...which in this case, based on freelance pay, would what? $500...maybe $1,000 for damages/interest? That I can understand, and support. If I got stiffed, I'd be angry too.

BUT, this joker somehow thinks he deserves the rights to the entire BT franchise in what he admits is an attempt at 'payback.' Add in the timing of the lawsuit and it just reeks of a slimy snatch-and-grab bullshit lawsuit. Hell, he even admits that the legal costs involved will play more of a factor than the actual trial and thinks he's doing CGL a favor! Aaaahhhh.   

[MadWi11y]

He does seem to be going over and beyond.  I'm curious, has Herb, Randell, or Loren commented on any of this anywhere?

[Liam]

What the hell do those have to do with anything?

Keep in mind I don't know who the heck this guy is - I heard something was going on re: this thing on CBT.com, but I've barely been on that board for the last 2 weeks...

EDIT: Likewise, why can't you post a fanfic because of this?

One of the elements he's been trying to introduce is a character named Roy Calbeck. This character... is an anthropomorphic unicorn.

http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Scott_Malcomson

In fact, he maintains the claim that the character is a canon character. Before he went the route of lawsuite, he claims he was in discussion with Loren Coleman, but that the discussion broke down because they refused to canonise Roy Calbeck.

So, yeah. This has nothing to do with what's good for the game, and everything to do with this guy's personal crusade, which is never good for the game.

As for how this relates to me and not being able to post a story on the classic battletech board... oy... I've been working on something of a black comedy set in the battletech universe. In it there was going to be a character known as Anonymous, he wore a full environmental suit at all times, and most people assumed he was just emulating the bounty hunter. He was happy for that assumption, because the truth was worse.

Ysee... when he was sixteen he didn't quite fit in with normal society, so in his efforts to find a peer group he could be a part of, and with the help of his wealthy overindulgent parents and an amoral doctor with a few bits of lost star league medical technology...

A year later he realized he was just a sad introvert who could have gotten over his problems, but by then he was stuck with the fur, tail, and cat ears...

It was going to be funny as hell, in a sort of dark, surreal, so bad I'm laughing kind of way, then this whole bitchfest happens on the classic battletech board, I make the mistake of participating in it, and now a story about a sad guy who made an unbelievably stupid choice in life that we all get to laugh at is going to come across as a personal attack, and since everything in my stories is always so goddamn interconnected, I can't just trim out the parts about Anonymous (even though he's more or less a peripheral character) and keep the story intact.

So, I sought guidance from the Great and Powerful Worktroll, who encouraged me to write the story and post it somewhere, just not on the Classic Battletech board.

I don't give a damn about this guy or people who dress up in silly animal costumes (the idea for Anonymous actually came from an episode of Ripley's believe it or not about a guy who underwent cosmetic surgery to acquire catlike features), but if I post it now, everybody will assume that I do, that I'm insulting the guy or trying to start a fight, and I'll have to put up with the consequences.

So I'll probably post it here instead.

Anyway, that's the thing.

[Darrian Wolffe]

One of the elements he's been trying to introduce is a character named Roy Calbeck. This character... is an anthropomorphic unicorn.
...
Anyway, that's the thing.

Ooooooookay...

Yeah, that's some BS right there.  I hereby join ya'll in your derision and scorn.  While I normally have xkcd's view on furries (that being, I don't like to see a random group ripped on by a bunch of other, equally "loser" groups), dropping furries into the CBT universe is very clearly not in the game's best interests.  Like I said, I don't know the guy personally, and haven't interacted with him at all, but he's very clearly not operating with CBT's interests in mind - just his own.

So boo to that.

And I'm sorry to hear about your fanfic.  Send me a PM when you get it posted - I'd like to read it.

[Darrian Wolffe]

He does seem to be going over and beyond.  I'm curious, has Herb, Randell, or Loren commented on any of this anywhere?

If he HAS filed suit, they can't (or really better not).  TPTB play things close to the vest anyway - I'm sure this isn't helping.

[GiovanniBlasini]

One of the elements he's been trying to introduce is a character named Roy Calbeck. This character... is an anthropomorphic unicorn.
...
Anyway, that's the thing.

Ooooooookay...

Yeah, that's some BS right there.  I hereby join ya'll in your derision and scorn.  While I normally have xkcd's view on furries (that being, I don't like to see a random group ripped on by a bunch of other, equally "loser" groups), dropping furries into the CBT universe is very clearly not in the game's best interests.  Like I said, I don't know the guy personally, and haven't interacted with him at all, but he's very clearly not operating with CBT's interests in mind - just his own.

So boo to that.

And I'm sorry to hear about your fanfic.  Send me a PM when you get it posted - I'd like to read it.

And magic.  Don't forget magic.  And its underlying "mana".

http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=37817.0

http://forums.furaffinity.net/showthread.php?t=23068 (was linked to in the above post by Phad)

Allow me to make it clear.  I give a rat's ass if someone is a "Furry" - it's not my cup of tea, and their artwork usually falls on the wrong side of the "uncanny valley" for my taste, but if that's what someone's into or a social group they identify with, II might think they're weird., but I've got no problem with them doing so.  Further, if someone honestly believes in magic and the like, I might point out the complete lack of any scientific evidence for it, and believe they're absolutely wrong, and perhaps even try to dissuade them of their belief with the power of Science!, but, in the end, that's their decision.

Neither "naturally-occurring" Furries nor magic, though, fit with the Battletech universe, any more than most of the really "out-there" transhumanist stuff in my own fan fiction does.  Admittedly, there's some transhumanist stuff in Classic Battletech, and the Canopian "mermaids" and surgically-altered Belters give some "furry" stuff in CBT.  You see some mystical stuff in the form of Nova Cat visions and "phantom 'Mech ability", but they're leaning more towards mundane explanations for those, and the stuff Calbeck is proposing, just like the uploads of John, Noriko and Willie I've got in my fanfic, is way, way way beyond the scope of fitting within the canon Battletech universe.

[Sulla]

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-azdce/case_no-2:2008cv02306/case_id-418129/

Here's a record of the filing. I was saving a bit of hope that it was all bluster, but part of me knew the d-bag actually did it.

[Ghost0402]

The Pope told me about this and I could hardly believe it.  The furry angle makes it all to believable.  He couldn't do it his exact way, now he is throwing a fit.  Idjit.

[GiovanniBlasini]

The Pope told me about this and I could hardly believe it.  The furry angle makes it all to believable.  He couldn't do it his exact way, now he is throwing a fit.  Idjit.

From his perspective, it makes sense, even though he doesn't have a valid case and is going to get laughed out of court.  When he does, he can play the martyr and talk about how he's being persecuted for being a Furry, and all the other Furries following the case can chime in with their outrage, sympathy, and furthered feelings of persecution.  Calbeck becomes the folk hero for Furries for trying to stand up to the system.