Tim Hinds sues Dark Horse! This man is fulla it

[RustiSwordz]

Copied paste this from EOTW.com forums.
I hope you all have a change of underwear, your gonna need it after you read this!!!!!

Straight from Yahoo just an hour ago! biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060726/sfw063.html?.v=71

Pendragon just love threatening people with legal action don't they.

SEATTLE, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Pendragon Pictures has given formal legal notice to the principals of Dark Horse Comics alleging innumerable replications of images from Pendragon's period accurate movie version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Pendragon's movie, H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, was released in the U.S., Canada and most countries internationally June 7, 2005 and has grossed over two million dollars in sales from U.S. retail stores alone. The complaint accuses Dark Horse, the third-largest comic book publisher in the U.S. and recognized world-leading publisher of licensed comics material, of directly replicating hundreds of images from the Pendragon movie. Both productions are based on the public domain 1898 H. G. Wells novel, but Pendragon alleges that Dark Horse has played foul in replicating camera angles, designs, character likenesses and a myriad of artistic choices for their comic.

Pendragon C.E.O. and Director of H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, Timothy Hines states, "Most of Dark Horse's revenue comes from comics that are based on licensed movies, including BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SHREK, STAR WARS and ALIEN. These guys are experts at converting film frames into comic books. I was astounded at the degree of similarity between our production and their comic book which came out a year after our movie was disseminated worldwide. We believe its just theft of our artist's hard work -- plain and simple, and we won't let this stand. I invite the public to come to a website we've set up, www.martianinvaders.com , showing dozens of frames of identical or of striking similarity between Dark Horse's comic and our WAR OF THE WORLDS and decide for themselves."


Pendragon Producer Susan Goforth adds, "We've set up a way for people to vote as to whether or not they see what many who have brought this to our attention see. If Dark Horse wanted to use our images they simply could have licensed our movie. It was hard enough going up against Spielberg and Tom Cruise. It's no surprise that our movie was savaged by the friends and allies of our competitors. Our own distributor was intimidated into not releasing the director's cut of our film, which is actually the final cut, for fear of retaliation from Paramount, so we are just now releasing it ourselves online. Why a giant like Dark Horse would copy us without license is beyond me."

Dark Horse just promoted its comic book version of WAR OF THE WORLDS at Comic-Con San Diego, which ran July 20-23. Comic-Con is the largest comic book convention in the U.S., and was attended by all the major movie studios and comic book publishers. Pendragon Pictures is selling its true to the book movie version of H. G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS online through www.buywowdvd.com .

ABOUT PENDRAGON PICTURES: Pendragon Pictures is an independent motion picture and distribution company who's primary product is a movie adaptation of H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDs(http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWKEY.html ).

Unlike the updated and reset Spielberg/Cruise version of a similar title, Pendragon's WORLDS is a dead-on to the book accurate adaptation. Through retail outlets in Canada, U.S., Japan and Australia, and from internet sales, Pendragon's H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS has grossed several million dollars. Pendragon's next production is a futuristic robot action adventure film called CHROME.
Did Dark Horse Comics Rip Off Pendragon's WAR OF THE WORLDS?

Check out that Martian Invader site. Dark Horse imagery is created from H. G. Wells' desriptions and items of the period. Its merely just another adaptation of WOTW like Pendragons is.

Somebody pass me a gun so i can now shoot myself .

They have put up a poll on this site saying if they have been ripped off or not.

www.martianinvaders.com/

I voted no. This is like saying Pendragons film is a rip off of the book and various pieces of art that have appeared in the past 100 odd years.

Anthony

Rusti: Anthony when you are done with the gun pass it over here... LMAO

Ive read it all now. ;D

[Phil]

Ironically, this complaint voting site is just a front to publicising their own godawful film by jumping on the back of the Dark Horse comic. It's all a marketing ploy to raise awareness by stirring controversy and make themselves known to the comic community.

Humbug, I say. I voted 'no' too.

[David Faltskog]

LMAO!! i guess in Hines view any publicity for his film is good publicity

But he's really must be clutching at straws if he thinks there is any copying by Dark Horse of his work.

D.F.

[wastedyuthe]

I don't think the Hines version is that bad (it's certainly entertaining imo), but let's be honest- if it was anywhere near the quality of the comic he would have had cause to complain (even then, he would still be missing the point that both are based on the same book!)

[wastedyuthe]

Read the question on that site carefully-

"Do you see significant similarities between the DARK HORSE COMIC and PENDRAGON PICTURES' "H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS?"

Of course there's bloomin similarities! How else are you supposed to draw Mars? How else do you draw a green 'meteorite' shooting down to Earth? How else are you supposed to draw a crowd of people at Horsell Common? How else are you supposed to draw someone's head poking out of a window?

If people were honest with this question, the majority would have to say 'Yes'. Perhaps Pendragon need to ask the question-

"Do you think our film was ripped off?"

I think they would get a substantially different result.

[mctoddridesagain]

Have you looked at Little Timbo's sad little 'similarities' page?

The Putney Hill house is interesting in that the Pendragon production actually used a house in Seattle.

Ah ha! So Little Timbo didn't film in England, despite claiming on all his publicity that he did? Oh dear Timmy, have we been telling porkies? Have we been misrepresenting our film?


...Dark Horse, mysteriously chose a nearly identical house to depict, including the rounded arch of the front door. These amazing coincidences just go on an on.

F*** me! My house has a rounded arch over the front door (along with about one million other houses in London) - sh*t, I'd better be careful I don't get sued! Blimey, has anyone warned the ancient Romans that their profligate use of the rounded arch as a common architectural feature leaves them wide open to legal action from Little Timbo?

Prick.

Sorry, I meant to say loathesome contemptible prick.

[recumbentrider]

Just when I thought Mr. Hines couldn't go any lower, he does just that. I think this is his most pathetic stunt to date - trying to capitalize off of someone else's honest work.

I wonder if it is legal for him to use Dark Horse's images on his 'comparison' site. If it is not, I hope Dark Horse sues him for all he's got (which must be at least $200...)


recumbentrider

[EvilNerfherder]

Well, I hate to say it but there are similarites, and few of them.. but that doesn't convince me (and this is MY opinion) that this isn't much more than a publicity stunt to push his movie back into the spotlight again.... and a chance to start this paranoid nonsense once more.
I quite like the fact he calls other people paranoid..
And again, the idea he offers that most fansites are Paramount owned and only wish to discredit his work... which we here have before had levelled at us and disproved waaaay back.



'Infamy, infamy... they've all got it in for me!''

By the way, this isn't the first time he has threatened people with legal action.. and I'm sure it won't be the last. I'm not aware of him getting a bean out of anyone yet.
And, it is starting to be said that the voting system is a reliable and fair as the amazon reviews of his film...

[wastedyuthe]

"And again, the idea he offers that most fansites are Paramount owned and only wish to discredit his work... which we here have before had levelled at us and disproved waaaay back"

Do tell.

[Lensman]

OMG. Just when you think your opinion of Timbo can't get any lower... he goes and does this.

I was hoping to be able to say that Dark Horse Comics could not *possibly* have plagiarized Timbo because of the date the online comic was published, but according to Dark Horse's own forum, it was still having new material added at the time Timbo's movie came out:
www.darkhorse.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=7574&start=0

HOWEVER I note that some of the pictures on Timbo's lying website compare shots from early in the comic, *before* Timbo's film was released. So unless Dark Horse has a working Time Machine, it's impossible for anything in the opening chapters of the comic to be an imitation of any part of Timbo's movie.

Anyway, any writer or artist at Dark Horse has more talent in their little finger than Timbo does in his entire body, so I just can't believe they'd even be *tempted* to imitate anything in Timbo's laughable failure.

<SARCASM> And of *course* Dark Horse must have copied the rounded arch in the house from Timbo's movie. Because, y'know, rounded arches are such a *rare* architectural feature, it couldn't *possibly* be a coincidence. Hey! I just noticed-- both houses have a roof, windows, and a chimney! It *must* be true!! </SARCASM>

Note to Tim Hines: Oh, oh, oh... the writing on your website! I was confused at your repeated use of the word "shells"... then I finally realized you meant "shills". Well, you *ought* to know how to spell the word... you've used them often enough! And it's not "The Boar War", it's "The Boer War". But then, Timbo, allowing your text to be posted without having someone correct your tortured grammar and frequent misspellings is clearly just another example of your thorough and complete incompetence.

nerfherder said:

And again, the idea he offers that most fansites are Paramount owned and only wish to discredit his work... which we here have before had levelled at us and disproved waaaay back.

WHAT!! You mean this forum is NOT a front for Paramount!?! Oh, darn. Well that explains why Paramount keeps ignoring all those invoices I've sent in for all the posts I've written here. ;D

[FALLINGSTAR]

Well there are 1 or 2 similarities like nerf says but not enough to say Dark Horse has gone and copied Pendragon outright. Sounds like a publicity stunt and if Hines thinks we're all Paramount shells [ hermit crab shells maybe? ] on Paramount controlled sites then Hines take a look the wording under my name for one - hardly praising Paramount, Spielberg and Cruise is it. There's been plenty of people attacking Spielbergs film on the various sites so it's not all directed at your film at all.

On a side issue - I don't think much of Dark Horses tripods. Look as if they've come from the planet Cartoonia rather than the red planet. In fact - they're awful!

[RustiSwordz]

BBBBding ding ding ding...

I like the PP pods, but only in the Blackmoon version.

Ding ding ding...

[mctoddridesagain]

Little Timbo's sad similarities page (www.martianinvaders.com/) uses an awful lot of images from Dark Horse's publication. I do hope Little Timbo obtained permission from Dark Horse to use said copyrighted images on his website. I would so hate to see Little Timbo threatened with legal action for stealing copyrighted material (rather like the time a certain talentless boggle-eyed hypocrite of a so-called film director threatened certain people with legal action for using screengrabs from his infamous shysterwerk without his permission...).

[EvilNerfherder]

wastedyuthe said:

"And again, the idea he offers that most fansites are Paramount owned and only wish to discredit his work... which we here have before had levelled at us and disproved waaaay back"

Do tell.

Well, we have had this out before but you probably wouldn't have seen it... so... basically, anyone who thinks we are a Paramount front is an idiot. And deluded.
Rob (the webmaster of this site) sold the Spielberg film website domain to Paramount way back. He had bought it as foresight, no more no less. Anyway, Rob has never made any secret of this but this got into the press, so....
Then, we were accused (by people who shall remain nameless)_ of being OWNED by Paramount which is totally untrue, mainly because the members here didn't like this or that. We have always been a site run for fans, by fans.... and always will be. We have no allegiance, paid or otherwise to ANY company.
I don't get paid for this, and neither do any other Mods here, so why would we lie for Paramount?
So there you go.

[Rob]

It's true, I'm just a fan, Paramount don't have anything to do with me, I've not heard a peep out of them for years, and in any of their contact then have never mentioned Hines' version.

Can I also just say, people might want to just keep their cool a bit when it comes to language, a * in a word doesn't remove its meaning. You know I like to keep things civilized. Cheers

[Commandingtripod]

Any more news on the subject yet?

[mctoddridesagain]

Yes! Anthony at EOTW posted this, Little Timbo's latest mentally-disordered rant:

forums.eveofthewar.com/showthread.php?t=5418&page=8

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out our site. We appreciate the huge response we are having to this issue. We'd like to take a moment to address some of the chat room talk about our motives for creating this site. Some are implying that us going public with this theft of our images is for publicity.

Yes! We are making no secret that we intend to publicize the theft and illegal distribution of our images by Dark Horse and the creators of the comic that shares the same name as our movie, "H. G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS."

In Pendragon Pictures' current legal interactions with Dark Horse comics, they do not deny the plagiarism, instead they are focusing on the artist and writer of the material, saying they (Dark Horse) are not responsible. As Dark Horse is drawing financial gain from this plagiarism, it is our position that they are responsible. It up to them to sue their own artist and writer, if that be the case, but Dark Horse is not free of responsibility. It will all come out in the wash!

As there has been an avalanche of paid shelling to damage us on the net over the last few years, we felt that the best way to address this blatant plagiarism was to put the images up for people to see for themselves. No brainier.

We, of course expected to see much disguised shelling from those with financial interests at stake when we published this page. And this has proven to be the case. (Read a New York Times article about shelling on the internet.) The shells favorite trick is to draw attention to the least similar points between Pendragon Pictures' movie and the Dark Horse comic, with comments like, "So both productions have houses in them, how is this plagiarism?" This is a, "Don't look there, look over here," tactic. But we have faith in you, the individual and your ability to think for yourself, reason for yourself, decide for yourself, beyond the influence of mass corporate strategy and subliminal Internet suggestion. In spite of all of this covert counter marketing, our WEB POLL is showing what people really think, clear of the chat room influence. That's why we went public!

Another point we see being used as an argument that Dark Horse has not plagiarized us is to fuzzy the timelines. Pages of the Dark Horse comic were first published on the Internet on May 17th, 2005. Our movie hit the first retail outlets on June 4th, 2005. On the surface it appears that the Dark Horse comic predates the Pendragon production. This is not so. We had several movie trailers and dozens of stills from our film up on the web months prior to our release and the release of the Dark Horse comic. Images of our fighting machines, with their skeletal-like structure, were on the web and in magazine as early as May, 2001. The early pages of the serialized comic are not similar to the Pendragon production. It is not until after the release of our movie to video that the serialized pages of the Dark Horse comic began co-opting our work, and with a vengeance!

[Commandingtripod]

Thanks for that.
Will the maddness ever end?

Images of our fighting machines, with their skeletal-like structure, were on the web and in magazine as early as May, 2001

Unless someone can prove me wrong, I don't believe that there ever was an image of their fighting machine (Standing up or anything close to it) on the net.
I think the only thing close to it was a stomping scene in one of the trailers.
Although I do know that they did have a still of their machine lying down in some field.
But even then I couldn't tell what it was.

[Commandingtripod]

Check this out:

www.darkhorse.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=9719

That will send you to the offical Dark Horse Message Board where they to have started a thread about this.

And a quote from a member:

Check out this that someone (McTodd) posted on my forum. Its proof that Pendragon Pictures accusations are massively flawed.

[mctoddridesagain]

commandingtripod said:

Unless someone can prove me wrong, I don't believe that there ever was an image of their fighting machine (Standing up or anything close to it) on the net.

Hateful as it is to prove you wrong when you clearly (and sensibly) have no sympathy with Little Timbo's latest appalling shenanigans, but Timmy Boy did actually post some pre-prod concept art on his site in 2001 when he was planning a modern-day version set in Seattle, but the designs were very different from the ghastly Meccano Chickens he inflicted upon us in his so-called film. Boggle-eyed moron.