Villians & Vigilantes Creators Win Lawsuit, Rights To Game 30
rcade writes "Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, the creators of the old-school super-hero roleplaying game Villains & Vigilantes, have won a copyright and trademark lawsuit over the game's publisher Scott Bizar of Fantasy Games Unlimited. Magistrate Judge Mark E. Aspey of the U.S. District Court of Arizona ruled that Jeff Dee and Jack Herman own the rights to the game based on the 1979 contract they reached with Bizar. The court also found that Bizar never had the right to sell derivative products or ebook PDF editions, which are a big deal to tabletop publishers these days. Too bad this judge didn't hear Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's case."
Mixed Feelings (Score:5, Interesting)
If it wasn't for FGU I wouldn't have bought V&V. On the other hand, the FGU http://www.fantasygamesunlimited.net/ [fantasygam...imited.net] webmaster should be shot.
Siegel & Schuster weren't the only ones (Score:2, Interesting)
How about Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Barry Smith, and many, many more? I'd like to see an accounting of what would happen if all comic creators were abruptly awarded part ownership of what they created. I'll bet a year's salary that Marvel & DC could never survive the cash outflow.
Long strange road . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
I wrote several of the old V&V adventures. I have many fond memories of dropping by FGUs offices and seeing guys like Jeff Dee & Bill Willingham toiling in the art hole . . . sometimes working on art for my RPG adventures!
For several years dealing with FGU was a good enough gig, but the publisher just sort of disappeared after the late 90s.
I had given up hearing from him ever again when Jeff pointed out that the company was still in business, sort of, and selling my stuff.
I eventually got back royalties, and even had a trunk manuscript (for another game system) published, but it is an uncomfortable situation. V&V aside, what other rights are up in the air?
I hope the appeal gets processed quickly so Monkey House can start work on V&V e3 and I can work on new editions of my old stuff for them!