Ken Pen(ders): Ultimate Douchebag

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Chaos Knux

Chaos Knux

Daww, a mother and her foal
Hey you. Yes, you. You read Archie Sonic? Yes, no? Don't care, please send this to someone. This is about principles and professionalism.

Ken Penders just copyrighted all of his stories and Characters from Archie Sonic, and proceeded to forbid anyone, ANYONE, particularly Archie and SEGA, from using them or face cease and desist.

Basically, 80% of the comic's mythology.

This, my friends, is called BEING A DOUCHE.

Please spread this. This is unacceptable- imagine Stan Lee forbidding Marvel from using any character he created?

I mean, even if Penders manages to make his stories alone, who will publish him? and who will buy from such a douche?

[link] here, read it.

Some quotes:

"Every story since issue #160 that features my characters and concepts is essentially unauthorized, as I did not grant Archie Comics the right to use my creations for their benefit without compensation to me."

"For now, they cannot reprint any of my stories in any media whatsoever, nor can they use any of my characters. Julie-Su, Geoffrey St. John, Hershey, Rob O' the Hedge, Lien-Da, the Dark Legion along with the rest of the characters and concepts I created - including the alternative universes and future timeline - cannot appear in the series"

So yeah. Spread the word- Penders is a douche, and we have evidence to support it. Let's boycott him even before he does anything more.

What he is doing is cancel a comic he is no longer affiliated with, five years after he left, because he's throwing a tantrum.
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...Oh come on, I just subscribed to it after issue 205! He's canceling a comic he's been dismissed of for 5 years... WITHOUT BEING BROUGHT BACK IN FIRST?!

I'm thinking my echidnaplasti wasn't a large enough separation from humanity now...
 
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I think the lawyers would disagree. If he created these things like working for Archie, the law is pretty clear that ownership belongs to Archie.
 
Ian Flynn tries calming people down with a more in depth look of the situation.

Ian Flynn said:
I had wanted to let this ride out by itself and not mire BKC in paranoia and speculation, but given the amount of email, PMs and general broo-ha-ha around the net, I guess a little pat on the head and “everything will be fine” doesn’t quite cut it.

I still do not want this to blow itself out or proportion, so this is the go-to thread for info and news. There will be no discussion because there’s nothing to discuss, and all it will do is get everyone in a tizzy.

The Short Version

The Archie legal department is handling things. I’ve been told to keep writing as usual and to continue with our plans for the end of 2010/start of 2011. As I said before: no worries.

The Longer Version

Bear in mind that I don’t have all the information. All I’m going off of is my limited understanding of the ownership of things within the book and franchise. So unless Mr. Penders pulls a rabbit out of his hat, I feel fairly confident in my understanding of things.

1) Work-for-Hire – While I’m bound by my contract to not talk about my contract, I can say I’m work-for-hire. I’ve been on the book for five years (!!!) and I’m still freelance, part-time, on-the-side. All of my contributions to the book are for the book, and I’m paid for that.

All the stuff I came up with for “Young Salem” – Foreman Armstrong, Mortimer Destiny, the Lizarmyn, Horde Lord, concept, etc. – is Archie’s. I can’t do my own book under BKC about Mortimer and Felicia’s younger days.

 Sonic-wise, I have a harder parallel to draw since I’ve spent more time using the content within the book and taking it in new directions. I suppose Thrash is the best example, lean as he is character-wise. He’s Archie’s. Plain and simple.

Everyone on staff (and I include us freelaners when I say this) has to sign that contract. So unless Mr. Penders’s contract was wildly different, he signed away those characters before he even created them.

2) SEGA – It is my understanding, as explained by Mr. Penders himself years ago on his forum – that ultimately SEGA owns everything in the book. If it’s associated with Sonic in the book, it is by extension SEGA’s. From my understanding, that is why BioWare could so freely emulate the Dark Legion for the Marauders.

I know there was some confusion elsewhere concerning rights to SatAM. As it was explained, SEGA owns the intellectual property – the characters and such – but DiC retains the rights to the animation. So you wouldn’t see SEGA reselling SatAM boxsets willy-nilly. Conversely, DiC wouldn’t be able to just up and make a new Sonic cartoon.

3) Reboot – Oh if I had a nickle for every time this word got tossed around. I’ve already begun material for 2011 and, as I said before, have been told there’s no need to change. Not that we’re blindly forging ahead, but that we have no reason to stop.

What would need a reboot, in the scenario that Mr. Penders somehow did win out in all this, is his plans. SEGA would not grant him the license to use Knuckles, I can flat-out tell you that with certainty. So right there the core component of the Echidna Lore – the main character – is gone.

He would not be able to use Angel Island, Mobius, or the Chaos Emeralds. Easy enough fix, though, right? It’s Skyhigh Island on Terra using the Magi-Gems for flight. (copyright, by the way. Double-tappsies, no take-backs).

But the entire Echidna cast is comprised of Knuckles knock-offs. Mr. Penders would be required to redesign the entire cast, unless he’s planning on trying to pass it off as parody (which I doubt).

By the time the property would be safe to touch, it would be unrecognizable. It’s not about Knuckles’s society or family. It’s not about echidnas (the kind we think of, at least). It would now be a sci-fi-lite story about some dudes on a flying island. That could be interesting in its own right, but it’s not the story I think Mr. Penders wants to tell, and it’s not the one the echidna fans want to read. So I’m not entirely sure what his greater thinking is here.

Again, take my words with a grain of salt. I’m not privy to absolutely everything going on. But from what I do know I am confident I – and you all – have nothing to worry about.

So relax, curl up with the latest SONIC book, and enjoy it while ignoring the storm outside. This too shall pass.​
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http://www.bumbleking.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2830

So in short Penders doesn't have a leg to stand on legally therefore he will more likely not get his characters unless he has a trick up his sleeve which he more than likely doesn't. Thus the plot thickens.

Jackson_popcorn.gif


Call me angry, but Penders has no reason to outright try and royally screw over a successful comic book series over a matter that should've taken place 5 years ago, and could've avoided completely by creating completely new characters and would more than likely of gotten better results.

Ken literally threw himself into a lose-lose situation, even if the outcome goes in his favor he still lost the respect of many people for what he did and previous fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics wouldn't even want to touch whatever the heck he's going to create with a 50ft pole thus a majority of the profits he is more than likely trying to get would be lost.
 
about correcting me...please don't be

So in a nutshell: Whiny Sonic-Comic Writer wants his so called "Property" of the echidnas, Dark legion, floating island, and chaos emeralds?

I want to see how this goes down really...Regardless of what Ken has, Sega made 3 out of 4 of the above before he even written about those things so he has no grounds...even then "Dark Legion" are the Echidnas to an extent...and Sega owns everything Sonic Related regardless of creation date I believe...
( Correct me if that last bit was wrong, it just sounds plausible to me)

but basically, I just want to hear more as it happens...it seems he really is annoyed about this for little to no reason and has no chance...

EDIT: Just read ALL of it, I'm surprised he thinks the Sonic Archives belong to him...I hope Comic stores don't drop those because someone is whiny enough about it
 
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Already read this story from Sonic Retro and he actually lost the copyright battle for the characters he made because the fact it is not copyrighted to him but Sega and Archie.
 
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From what I heard about the Archie Sonic comics, it doesn't sound like having these characters be removed from the comic would be much of a big deal. Weren't most of Ken's characters pretty much just Knuckles with different decorations on their dreadlocks? Either that, or they were Sally with a different look.

To be fair, I haven't read the Sonic comics since they were basically AoStH with the SatAM characters, so maybe I'm completely wrong.
 
I stopped reading Archie Sonic when it jumped the shark back around issue #30, when they stopped allowing Mike Gallagher from having Robotnik's robots address him by various comments about his obesity. (Yes, oh round one! Sonic has broken the outer defenses, my lord of lard!)

Also banning other things like, I remember one time Robotnik had some kind of device he invented and on the outside it said, "Made in Robotropolis, Assembled in Mexico".
 
Archie. Is. Pissed.

Archie Comic Publications, Inc. v. Penders

Plaintiff: Archie Comic Publications, Inc.
Defendant: Kenneth W. Penders, II

Case Number: 1:2010cv08858
Filed: November 23, 2010

Court: New York Southern District Court
Office: Foley Square Office [ Court Info ]
County: Westchester
Presiding Judge: Richard M. Berman

Nature of Suit: Other Statutes - Other Statutory Actions
Cause: 28:2201
Jurisdiction: Federal Question
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff
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Either way, I expect Ol' Kenny Boy to be unemployable from here on out.
 
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