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A great article on Superman.
11 commentsFriday, May 16, 2008
Superman fanboy Thomas Denton, blogger and charitable eBayer, was so grateful for the help his family received from Candlelighters during his young nephew's bout with cancer, he enlisted a team of comic artists willing to donate their artwork, some of which featured depictions of Superman. We'll call them Superfriends, just to be snide toward Warner Brothers, DC's parent company.
Denton set up auctions via eBay's charitable auction channel to sell the Superfriends' artwork, all proceeds, minus eBay's fees**, to be forwarded to Candlelighters. But all was not well. A team of WB lawyers crashed through the skylight and forced eBay to pull the auctions, citing copyright and trademark violations.
DC owns Superman, they said, and Superman's not allowed to help unapproved cancer patients, not even kids. (Cue dramatic villain music, and raucous, menacing laughter.)
Denton acknowledged his mistake despite being "heartbroken," and refused to play the victim. He asked that concerned Metropolis citizens still donate to Candlelighters. DC wasn't completely devoid of sympathy and "made a exemption" [sic] for one of the listed items—you know, just to show they're not complete ungrammatical jerks. Denton will still have to foot the fees for the auctions not reinstated.
This story has an even sadder end than that. Denton blogs he will be shutting down his Superman fan site. "I've sort of lost my enthusiasm for promoting WB's products," he said. All because WB (and other corporations these days) can't keep its lawyers on a tighter leash.
Can anything save Thomas's love of Superman? Is it too late for the Candlelighters? Will Metropolis ever be out of the iron grip of the overly litigious?
Some in Metropolis will use eBay for evil—like selling one's wife*—but in the heart of the heart of the city, a charitable and well-intentioned soul battles two great forces at once: cancer and DC Comics.
Superman fanboy Thomas Denton, blogger and charitable eBayer, was so grateful for the help his family received from Candlelighters during his young nephew's bout with cancer, he enlisted a team of comic artists willing to donate their artwork, some of which featured depictions of Superman. We'll call them Superfriends, just to be snide toward Warner Brothers, DC's parent company.
Denton set up auctions via eBay's charitable auction channel to sell the Superfriends' artwork, all proceeds, minus eBay's fees**, to be forwarded to Candlelighters. But all was not well. A team of WB lawyers crashed through the skylight and forced eBay to pull the auctions, citing copyright and trademark violations.
DC owns Superman, they said, and Superman's not allowed to help unapproved cancer patients, not even kids. (Cue dramatic villain music, and raucous, menacing laughter.)
Denton acknowledged his mistake despite being "heartbroken," and refused to play the victim. He asked that concerned Metropolis citizens still donate to Candlelighters. DC wasn't completely devoid of sympathy and "made a exemption" [sic] for one of the listed items—you know, just to show they're not complete ungrammatical jerks. Denton will still have to foot the fees for the auctions not reinstated.
This story has an even sadder end than that. Denton blogs he will be shutting down his Superman fan site. "I've sort of lost my enthusiasm for promoting WB's products," he said. All because WB (and other corporations these days) can't keep its lawyers on a tighter leash.
Can anything save Thomas's love of Superman? Is it too late for the Candlelighters? Will Metropolis ever be out of the iron grip of the overly litigious?
Citizens of Metropolis, without Superman it's up to you, and Denton has nine other auctions running at eBay, with a day left to bid.
*If in fact she is, as her jilted hubby claims, a "cheating, lying, adulterous slag of a wife," selling a person is pretty much illegal (and wrong) everywhere, especially on eBay, million dollar bids aside.
**No good deed goes unpunished, eh?
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Denton vs. DC
I looked into the WB shutdown of the childhood cancer fund raiser. Mr. Denton's eBay username of "mistermxy" has ZERO feedback! That means that Mr. Denton has never bought or sold anything on eBay and gotten feedback for it. Not with the username, "mistermxy". It marks the man as a TOTAL eBay newbie. This is a red flag for many eBay buyers and sellers, in that it can spell possible trouble. You might be dealing with a fly-by-night scammer. The person has no history, no resume. You might also be dealing with a jerk or novice who will make your transaction difficult. I'm not saying that Mr. Denton is a jerk, a novice or a scammer. But he has no eBay history to show that he's not. There are many eBayers who won't deal with anyone with less than 10 positive feedbacks.
The other problem may have been that Mr. Denton's auctions might not have gone through "Mission Fish." Mission Fish is eBay's charitable auctions wing. Buyers can see what percentage of the final sale is being given to the charity. It's a way of identifying which "charitable auctions" are actually for a recognized charity. http://www.missionfish.org/index.html
Candlelighter's, the non-profit that Mr. Denton is trying to raise money for is on Mission Fish's list of recognized charities. Currently, Candlelighter's doesn't seem to have any active auctions benefiting them on eBay.
http://www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/nphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=5490
Look, Mr. Denton has a great idea. It just doesn't look like he laid the groundwork before plunging into this project. First, he needs to establish a feedback history on eBay. Second, obviously he needs to get clearance for selling licensed images. Third, he should set up his auction through Mission Fish, to help reassure the public that the money raised is actually going to a recognized charity.
DC is not the bad guy here. DC has a perfect right to control their licensed properties. I think DC might also be looking to protect the public from possible scams. It doesn't look good for DC if somebody gets scammed out of a bunch of money buying Superman's image, even if the sale isn't officially authorized by DC. Again, I'm not saying that Denton is a scam artist. I'm just saying that he probably would have had less trouble all around if he had done his homework and established his credentials with eBay, Mission Fish and DC, BEFORE he tried to organized a large fund raiser.