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Post by geneweigel on Jun 30, 2020 8:37:57 GMT -5
I saw this on Facebook yesterday: www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10223326865543604&set=a.10211777000364193Last night, because I made a superficial supportive remark on it and Facebook sent me continuing comments from Gary's wife on there now I can't find it but it seemed off known roads. The less said the better at least publicly. Without the various parties input just what the hell is going on here? I feel like I'm missing something. |
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 30, 2020 11:37:58 GMT -5
Sorry, I don't know anything about that. It looks like Luke is angry that a will hasn't been filed by Gail, and that will may or may not affect her legal right to sell off some items from EGG's collection in Paul Stormberg's auctions. A lot of the posts appear to be anti-Paul, ignorantly so, which I don't think is appropriate. He's not a bad guy, he's a fan of EGG and Greyhawk, and he's not trying to screw anyone over. If, as far as he knows, Gail owns the IP and he is working for her, then he's not doing anything wrong and objections must be handled by the lawyers and the courts. Personally, I want someone like Paul close to Gail to catalogue what is there and who has knowledge and interest about the creative material. Paul can try to influence Gail, but at the end of the day she's going to do what she wants.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 30, 2020 15:00:48 GMT -5
This has been so long and it feels like nothing has moved forward at all in 12 years. I have no clue what her rambling was about but it made it absolutely clear that I am completely out of touch with all of it. Especially what her motivation is.
That said, Luke and Ernie are okay if not a little naive to their dad's aesthetics and Stormberg has been the "Caddyshack Ted Knight" character to my "Caddyshack Rodney Dangerfield" character as far back as I can remember so that is unlikely to change no matter what he does or says...
It seems like there has been little motivation to get this all ironed out to move forward not that I would be any help considering my Gygax-Kuntz bridge blew up in my face.
The case is a lot of deals were burned and there was movie money to be made. Okay so how does this get fixed from here?
What was the first Gygax brood's relationship with Gail while Gary was alive? Gary sent me a backyard photo of them all smiling together once so all this seems weird. When I get to Garycon, I want to hear all sides of this.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 30, 2020 21:30:54 GMT -5
Here is some more strange goings on: It still seems like something isn't being said. |
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Post by GRWelsh on Jul 1, 2020 6:51:17 GMT -5
I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of trying to make sense of Gail's posts, or who did what to whom, and all the legal ins and outs. What is undeniable is that she has owned EGG's IP for 12 years and hasn't done anything with it. It seems she thinks it can be turned into millions or a new entertainment empire with Alex Gygax as the president, but doesn't know how to do it (video games? movies? how?). And she feels threatened by the other Gygaxes infringing upon the IP. I don't know the legal ramifications of GARYCON, but I'm grateful to Luke for organizing it as that is about keeping EGG's memory alive and sharing experiences with other gamers. Luke certainly isn't getting rich from GARYCON, and waiting for Gail to do something would be waiting forever. A more inclusive, gamer-friendly, non-greedy approach to using the IP would change everything.
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foster1941
Warlock
Duke of California, Earl of Los Angeles, Knight Bachelor
Posts: 476
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Post by foster1941 on Jul 1, 2020 17:23:24 GMT -5
My understanding is that a "second will" has recently come to light that was signed/witnessed by both Gail and Alex Gygax but never officially filed that changes the status of Gary's IP so that Gail only has control of it during her lifetime and after her death the rights will pass to the Gygax children rather than, presumably, Gail being able to decide what happens to it. If that will is upheld in court then Gail's discretion over how to manage the IP is significantly diminished because she'd only be the temporary custodian, not the owner (i.e. she could only license it, not sell it outright).
In addition to the validity of the will itself, there also seems to be a dispute between her and Luke over what counts as "IP" and whether that includes physical artifacts (like manuscripts and animation cells) - similar to the case where Rob Kuntz has auctioned off a ton of physical documents (old maps, character sheets, notebook pages, etc.) but always includes in the terms of sale that it only covers the physical object and doesn't include any rights to the underlying IP included within them. Since Paul S handles those auctions for Rob, he's presumably given Gail the same guidance - that as long as she's just selling physical artifacts she's in the clear whichever way the courts ultimately decide about the IP rights - but Luke seems to believe otherwise.
And that's on top of a ton of ill will that already existed - Gail still feels slighted over being excluded from GaryCon, Luke is still mad about being sued over Gygax Magazine, there are ongoing disputes about the Gygax memorial, plus other dark family stuff that likely goes back decades and definitely shouldn't have been shared on public Facebook posts by either side.
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Post by geneweigel on Jul 1, 2020 22:45:48 GMT -5
This needs to get ironed out but with my track record it would probably make it worse if I got involved. I think maybe indirectly staying the course and making tributes to Gary is the best way right now for me. Then maybe in the future trying to build a separate brand of austere Gary appreciation that they can reach out and be part of.
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