Ex-NHLer awarded $15 Million for use of his name in Spawn

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In the latest round of court decisions former NHL hockey enforcer (i.e. his job on the ice was generally to fight players from the other team) Tony Twist has been awarded $15 Million U.S. for the use/abuse of his name in the Spawn comics. The comics included a Mafia boss named Antonio "Tony Twist" Twistelli.

Todd McFarlane claims that (1) the characters in his comics "are purely fictional fantasies, and no reasonable person could confuse the plaintiff with the fictional fantasies and characters portrayed therein" and (2) use of the name was protected by free speach rights under the First Amendment.

McFarlane's lawyers will be appealing the decision.

You can read more about it here.


Quite frankly this seems absurd to me. Beyond the name, I don't see any similarities between the comic character and the hockey player and quite frankly I strongly doubt that anyone would think that they are somehow connected. Also, I really don't see how Mr. Twist has suffered damages out of this. I strongly doubt that anyone's opinion of Mr. Twist has been negatively influenced by the comic book character.

I am sure that most of you have seen the standard tv/movie disclaimers about characters being purely fictional and any similarities to actual people being co-incidence. They always seemed rather silly to me but I guess that this sort of thing is exactly what they were intended for. Of course, I rather imagine that it wouldn't have helped as Mr. Twist would just have argued that the use of "his" name was not co-incidence.

So what do you think, does Mr. Twist's case have merit or is he just being greedy?

 

he is just being greedy. seriously how can someone judge in his favor, what will be the next, some guy named Peter Parker suing spider-man? the next thing we know, is that all fiction have to use fictive names, because otherwise people might sue them.

 

Well, it's a US courtroom, nuff said.

 

Absolutely. Some of the awards, findings and sentences I've read are just ludicrous. Makes Caligula seem less crazy after all for putting his mother to death (for having given birth to him without his consent) and making a horse his personal advisor. I know it's often said that the law is an ass, but sometimes I just shake my head and wonder what the judge was on when they made that ruling. And $15 million? I should get my father to sue the makers of Looking For Alibrandi for using a character with his name in it.

Now going ...

I still think the most appalling miscarriage of justice I've seen was a recent case in Australia. A woman was in the process of divorcing her husband and was literally packing her bags to leave when the husband returned home and raped her. According to a precedent set some 200+ years ago in England (since Australia inherited their common law as a colony), a man could not be found guilty of raping his wife, since marriage presumed consent, and despite the facts of the case showing the violent and brutal, calculated nature of the event, the judge was bound to follow that finding. The law was changed two weeks later, but that ******* went free.

 

My entire family should sue the makers of Tomb Raider for using Croft as her last name. Do they have any idea how much I have suffered at the hands of my peers? All saying how hot my mum is... I can't take it! I'll sue damnnit! I'll sue!!!

:edit: Holy cow. I just read NonSequitur's post. That is a problem that sadly can't be avoided with criminal law. However with people being sued the judge makes the call.

[ July 13, 2004, 10:03: Message edited by: Abomination ]

 

Hmmmm... there's a guy who works here whose first name is Garfield... I bet he could make some good money if he just moved to the US and sued...