gastrophobia:

potatofarmgirl:

brain-food:

Recently, Marvel triumphed in court against Gary Friedrich, the creator of Ghost Rider, as to whether any money or rights were owed to him from the use of the characters in movies, with the second movie starring Nicolas Cage on its way.

And while the court decided that Marvel owe Gary nothing, they also decided on a counter claim from Marvel, that Gary Friedrich owes $17,000 for selling prints of the Ghost Rider character at conventions and the like.

This represents Gary’s earnings from selling such prints over several years – but now Gary is penniless. And Marvel is demanding payment now. Oh, and that he is not allowed to say he is the creator of Ghost Rider for financial gain, say by doing an interview, in the future.

Marvel was recently bought by Disney for $4 billon. Nicolas Cage recently sold his copy of Action Comics #1 for over 2 million, and will have received similar for starring in Ghost Rider 2.

Gary Friedrich, the creator of Ghost Rider is, however, penniless.

This is outrageous.  

>:[

Go figure. You don’t even own your own work when corporations like Disney are involved. I feel sorry for everyone at Marvel now.

…And what about the judge involved in this? WTF was he even thinking for agreeing to this?  This is a horrible legal precedent for the inevitable future cases.