Call of Duty: Legal Warfare

[Dan]

Interesting legal battle about Call of Duty:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/03/fired-call-of-duty-developers-sue-activision-for-more-than-36-million.html

[Fitz1980]

Media corporations using underhanded means to avoid paying out royalties is nothing new.

The author of "Forrest Gump" had a percentage of the film's net profit coming to him per his contract.  The studio used such shady accounting practices that one of the most successful films of 1994 still hasn't turned a profit and is still in the red on the "official" books.

When that bad looking movie remake of "Get Smart" came out recently the studio tried to say that Mel Brooks, who created the origional "Get Smart" wasn't entitled to any royalties for a major motion picture adaptation of his creation.

The creator of "Babylon 5" also had a profit sharing deal with Warner Bros, who produced the series, told him that unless the series produced a profit for the studio each year it wasn't getting renewed.  No giving it time to build an audience or anything like that.  At the end of each season they'd hold a meeting and tell him that the series was renewed than they would quickly point out that even though the series was making them money and they would continue to produce it on the "official" books it was still in the red and he better not expect any money beyond his regular salary and royalties for the episodes that he wrote.

[Dan]

Well... I feel Activision can fire them if they wish because maybe they don't get along as they say or whatever. They bought the company, they own it, they can do whatever they want with it. However if they signed with those guys that they would get a check in march, they should get it no matter if they still work there or not.