Originally posted by apollo@Feb 10 2006, 08:11 AM
Wow. This thread has been here since last night and Thomas and Mike have not replied?
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:lol
Well there was no reason too because people were pretty much just talking unemotionally and honestly about possibilities, but then the "speculators" jumped in with their all knowing knowledge of what AA's legal team is doing and why. :lol
First let me again thank Flynn for getting and providing the information, as well as giving us some idea how this might be enforced.
Second as Jez said, did anyone really believe he was going to go all out in the USA? His argument from the start was that the US court had no jurisdiction and LFL had no direct claim. I never saw him fighting this in the US courts for long (though I did think it would go further than this) and I would *assume* that is how his legal team saw it as well. Fighting something in another nation is prohibitively expensive, I don't care who you are (which might be part of why LFL didn't want to "draw blood" in the UK...they still do look at their bottom line). Hell, just the paperwork fees alone could kill ya. More than likely his legal team (not AA...I doubt he knows any more about law than most of the posters here.) told him after the pieces fell into place on the US side to let it go and force it to end up in the UK.
Now, again all assumption, if this does default and does end up being shifted to the UK courts to see about upholding the default, from what I'm reading he still can fully argue his case against such judgement in the UK when it hits there. They would be on their "home turf", they could petition for their side of the argument, show that under UK law he is within his rights (in some fashion...that creative rights law?), etc.
I know the anti-AA people are doing their little happy dances, but that just shows how silly they are. If anyone thinks such legal actions, especially across national borders, are this cut and dried, their delusional.
Now, whether he's got a case in any way to stop Goliath from stomping the bejeezus out of him after this is anyone's guess, but I see this as way smarter financially than trying to fight what essentially was a long-distance war.
However I will say that should this not go further, or that somehow the default is argued quietly and resolved as such, I too would be disappointed to not know the truth about it all.
As for prices? Who knows. They could go up as they are rare, still could hold the "from the original maker" (since now we might never know so it's still all opinion) and shoot way up. Or they might fall down to rock bottom. I think they will shoot way up just because of the controversy behind them and they still were made (original or not) by a guy from the movie. It'll probably end up like ICONs actually...remember what ICONs sabers were getting after their shut down? Exhorbitant prices. But then MR came out and they dropped and kept dropping. The only big difference is the provenance as well that nobody is mass producing (theoretically
) as seen on screen helmets where as the MR will be idealized. So...as usual time will tell.