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The only thing that anyone should care about in regards to this Fox lawsuit over the property rights to Warner Brothers Watchmen adaptation is whether or not the film is going to be released in March.  Unless, of course you’re the studio heads at either Fox or WB and a shit ton of money is at stake.

We’re not, so the devilled details matter nothing, except of course, whether we’ll be seeing the movie in March. Not to worry, former comic editor and copyright law professor Andrew Steven Harris says the movie will come out. The fiduciary interests of both studios will always win out in the end.

In that respect, fans should be encouraged that nothing about this litigation will realistically keep the movie out of theaters next year. At the end of the day, Fox wants money; it doesn’t want an unreleased and unreleasable film canister.

And, yes–while it’s true that Fox has also filed for an injunction to shut down the film’s release, that too should give the fans no alarm. It is, like Fox’s other maneuvers, just a negotiating tactic; a successful injunction simply represents the fastest way since God invented light of getting a settlement offer on the table.

I do know that Fox’s attorney’s say they’re not looking for cash; that copyright infringement is a serious matter and they’re litigating the entire thing to enforce their rights and their principles. But I think we have to call shenanigans on this one; if that were the case, then they’d have filed their lawsuit sometime well before this past February.

As always, it’s about the money.  After the trailer hit to a feeding frenzy, Fox saw a cash grab green light and took their chance.  Bravo to them.  For the movie goer, all that’s important is that the movie will come out.

Just came across this over on Bloomberg. The jist of it is that as a group, concert ticket buyers can sue Clear Channel over claims the company used its dominant market position to illegally inflate the price of concert tickets.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson in a ruling filed yesterday in Los Angeles granted class-action status to five lawsuits that sought to represent concertgoers in the U.S. Wilson denied a request by San Antonio-based Clear Channel to dismiss the case because no law was violated.

The concert goers claim that Clear Channel, the largest U.S. radio broadcaster, uses its control of the radio airwaves to limit competition from rival concert promoters by not playing music by artists that don’t use Clear Channel as promoter.

“We intend to show that Clear Channel bullies groups into using Clear Channel’s facilities for concerts through its market dominance of the airwaves,” Beth Fegan, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement sent today by PR Newswire. “The upshot is that if bands don’t use Clear Channel venues, they will be playing to empty houses.”

The case is: In Re. Live Concert Antitrust Litigation, 06-ML-1745, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

I’m not sure I necessarily buy that argument, though anytime someone decides to put their bigboy pants on and take on the man, well, we’re all for it. Interestingly enough, it seems the argument in the article is not about whether or not ticket prices are inflated and detrimental to consumers, but about how Clear Channel limited competitive concert promotions.

We’ll be following this one to see how it plays out.