Pokemon demands $4,000 from broke superfan

[xirtamehtsitahw]

Yeah, I'd better delete the Mewtwo CAW I've been making on wrestling games for about 15 years. Don't want the Pokemon company to sue me over making a CAW based off of one of its characters, even though the parts are all there to do so. Oh, and Pokemon better sue TEH INTERNETZ for hosting all those pictures of their prized possessions without their permission. That's right, folks--fanart of Pokemon has just become ILLEGAL. One more thing: somebody help me find the scuba gear I don't have so I don't drown in all this sarcasm.

[bungholio]

It's kind of worse because unless they were warned not to do it, how are they supposed to know? A formal warning on this stuff should be the law before letting it go for years and then just raining hell down upon people. If he's not lying, he's not making mega bucks off of people. It's not like the 90's where you could find "Tremors" and "Aftershock" for Quake 1 scattered everywhere (found both at Wal-Mart) where somebody took hundreds of mods and levels from online with even the authors' text files that said "My content is for free use and not allowed to be sold and if you paid for it you've been robbed because it's online for free at www.whateverfewwebsitesexistforquake1mapsandmodsat thispointintime.com", nor is it like tazmo taking translated scans of Naruto manga and selling it even after the manga's already been officially released in the US along with many other scams where people 100% unquestionably know they are stealing other peoples' stuff and selling it.


Do they have some credit history on this guy of the many mansions and limousines this guy has purchased with this massive amount of $2 he robbed from countless victims to prove he's a genuinely deserving scammer, or is he just a guy who was a big fan and threw a party once a year where everybody had fun and won prizes?


I'm not an investigator, too lazy to ever do such a thing, but from the complete lack of anything I have to go by, Pokemon sounds like they are going overkill on the guy. If people don't know, give them a warning.

[Helder]

Shit is getting out of hand with all this copyright shit over stupid things and it's the little guys getting screwed. I hope they don't sue me because my kid was Pikachu for Halloween. (Sarcasm)

[bungholio]

Wow, Pokemon must be feeling inadequate and like they aren't the center of attention, better lash out at somebody for attention. No kindly asking, just rudely demanding. They've had until 2011 to do this, they sure took their time, bunch of douche bags.

[dlevere]

By Cory Doctorow



Larkin Jones is a hardcore Pokemon fan who loses money every year on his annual Pokemon PAX party; he makes up the shortfall from his wages managing a cafe. This year, Pokémon Company International sued him and told him that even though he'd cancelled this year's party, they'd take everything he had unless he paid them $5,400 in a lump sum (they wouldn't let him pay it in installments).

Jones charges $2 a head to come to his party, and spends the $500 he grosses from tickets on a DJ, gift cards, decorations, cash prizes, and a Kindle Fire door-prize. He's lost money on the party every year since he started throwing them in 2011.

He's seeking donations to help pay Pokemon off. He's vowed to never throw another fandom party.

The day before the PAX party, Pokemon sued me. Without even a cease and desist. Totally didn’t expect that. I cancelled the party, refunded everyone the 2 dollars I charged to help cover all the prizes I bought for the cosplay contest and smash bros tournament. Pokemon wants $4,000 that I just don’t have. I told them I would pay it over a year and they denied that. They want it now within the next 45 days.

I work in a cafe and I literally don’t have $4,000. I wish they would have just sent a cease and desist because I had no problem dropping the party but I just don’t have $4,000 to pay in the next 45 days.

So I’m reaching out to the PAX video game community. Anything you can donate would be greatly appreciated. I just want it to be over with and not have it escalate further because I couldn’t pay 4k in 45 days. Trust me I will never throw another fandom party again.

Thank you guys so much in advance.

Pokémon copyright lawyers demand $4,000 from party planner (Joe Mullin/Ars Technica)