The other day, ebay was served notice by DC/ WB and in turn passed notice on to a gentleman who was running some Superman related auctions that were set up to benefit the cancer charity, Cadlelighters. Seems that the auction featured original pieces of art featuring the character (some by pretty big name artists, to boot), and someone in the DC/WB hierarchy got their knickers in a twist over it.

I messed up. I just got notice that two of the Superman related auctions have been removed from the site and the rest are probably next. I don’t know what to do now. I have to start canceling auctions and issuing refunds. That means all the fees and such I’m now responsible for which is money i just don’t have, and I have no idea if I’m still obligated to the middleman ebay uses for their charity auctions.

I’ve gone ahead and canceled the auctions still running that featured Warner Bros properties. I’m not sure what to do about the ones (like the ones that were canceled by DC) that are already completed. I’ll be talking to ebay, paypal, missionfish (the people that handle ebay’s charity donations) the artists and auction winners.

Up until this occurrence, DC - and the rest of the comic book publishers out there - have chosen to turn a blind eye to the majority of ebay auctions featuring drawings of their characters. Hell, Tom Derenick, one of DC’s current go-to guys actually got his name and work on the radar by becoming one of ebay’s first celebrity comic book illustrators. The only auctions that get shut down with any true regularity, and even then still manage to get from start to finish with no problems most of the time, are the porno superhero illos.

I’m pretty much expecting this bad publicity to cause DC/WB to either reconsider or throw some of their own money at the charity in order to try to make this bad press go away, but the damage is done. DC/WB have managed to come off as the overbearing, uncaring bullies. I understand completely the concept of protecting your characters, trademarks, etc., but I can’t imagine it would do any damage to your company if you were to provide some sort of out or provision allowing people to create and sell fan art, especially in the case of a charity benefit! Or am I delusional?

I’ve already pulled the auctions from round two of the fund raiser that featured Warner Bros properties. I am going to refund and return the art from the first round that featured DC characters so they cannot point at me and say “Look at the money you’ve made from our properties.”

Should things get straightened out with the WB and I get their permission, I can always relist the items later.

So yeah. Here’s hopin’ I don’t have to swallow the costs of the completed auctions with ebay’s charity middleman.*

*Edit, turns out I do. Yay.

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The skyrocketing price of gas got you down, huh? Better start praying.

“Someone’s making a lot of money and it’s really, really wrong,” added Twyman, who founded the Prayer at the Pump movement last week to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven’t.

The half-dozen activists — Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen — joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

“Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices,” Twyman said to a chorus of “amens”.

Hey, maybe this is a sign from the good Lord Jesus Buddha Mohammed Siva that he/she wants everyone who’s able to start riding the sh*t out of bicycles.

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If this guy manages to get an old style pull tab installed on this thing, he’s officially the Hardest Man in the World.

Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he’s got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it. “I actually fit, because I got in here,” said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights.

He threw a party Saturday for friends and filled his silver coffin — designed in Pabst’s colors of red, white and blue — with ice and his favorite brew.

Thanks Mike!

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For all the kerfluffle over Miley “Hanna Montana” Cyrus’ Vanity Fair spread, it’s downright wholesome compared to a campaign that’s popped up on Beijing billboards for Disney underwear. To be fair, the ads aren’t quite at that Victoria’s Secret level of titillating, but it’s still quite disconcerting and disturbing to see girls that look to be 12-13 posing in their skivvies. The billboard on the Slate site is probably the most mild, actually - TMZ has an entire photo shoot that has a grimy, over-airbrushed, near kiddie porn feel to it. Apparently Disney’s China licensing company simply runs their own game without clearing things with Disney corporate, and this is the end result. I have a feeling that freedom is about to go away pretty damn quick, especially with the Olympics coming up.

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A judge in LA has ruled that the heirs of Jerry Siegel are entitled to a share of the U.S. copyright to Superman, the iconic superhero Siegel created with Joe Shuster 70 years ago and then promptly sold to DC for $130.

Nobody seems to know what this means quite yet beyond more litigation.

If the ruling survives a Time Warner legal challenge, it may also open the door to a similar reversion of rights to the estate of Mr. Shuster in 2013. That would give heirs of the two creators control over use of their lucrative character until at least 2033 — and perhaps longer, if Congress once again extends copyright terms — according to Marc Toberoff, a lawyer who represents the Siegels and the Shuster estate.

“It would be very powerful,” said Mr. Toberoff, speaking by telephone on Friday. “After 2013, Time Warner couldn’t exploit any new Superman-derived works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters.”

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USA Today declared Amazon the number two source for digital music downloads (legal, of course) the other day, behind Apple’s iTunes store, after being around for half a year. Of course, former #2 eMusic isn’t happy with this, so they’ve quietly started a protest campaign with a little blog posting from the CEO of eMusic.

I’d like to address both of these points. First, allow me to point out that no sales or market share figures were cited in the USA Today piece. In fact, the article states that Amazon “won’t say how many songs Amazon has sold but will say that consumers love the experience.” Is that enough for USA Today to make such a bold pronouncement, particularly when there is plenty of widely available evidence to the contrary?

While Amazon isn’t willing to make sales data available, we are more than happy to: eMusic sells more than 7,000,000 songs a month. Seven million tracks of independent music covering everything from Cat Power to Miles Davis. Since Amazon opened its MP3 store on September 25, 2007, eMusic has sold 40,000,000 tracks. Since November of 2003, we have sold almost 200,000,000 songs. These are huge numbers, and firmly back our claims to be the #1 site for independent music and the #2 digital music service after iTunes. Those declarations have not previously been disputed.

Number two, three or twenty three, it doesn’t matter to me. Amazon’s become my de facto choice for buying mp3s for myself, The Wife™ of the little one, it’s just so easy and pleasant to use.

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The Holy S#@t Andy Warhol Was Totally F*&king Right Awards, a.k.a. the YouTube Video Awards, were doled out recently to random members of the American populace who became randomly famous for a random day or two in 2007. Still, they are more meaningful than the Grammys.

The top winner was, deservedly, Tay Zonday’s addictively weird “Chocolate Rain.” Other winners included the Trials of Life-esque “Battle at Kruger” and the inexplicable “How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube (Part One).” Seriously, can someone explain to me what the hell is with the Rubik’s Cube? It defies all laws of pop culture why people care about that thing again.

“It’s the new Emmys,” Zonday, 25, said of the video-sharing site’s awards in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “It’s the next Oscars. The next People’s Choice Awards. It’ll be interesting to see what happens five years, 10 years (from now).”

No offense buddy but, how about 10-15 minutes from now.

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Dawn Wells, alias eternal 60s hotness Mary Ann Summers, gets the Shit-Eating Grin Award of the Week for getting caught rocking a spliff in her car. Make sure to click through the link to witness one of the greatest mug shots ever taken.

When Gutierrez asked about a marijuana smell, Wells said she’d just given a ride to three hitchhikers and had dropped them off when they began smoking something. Gutierrez found half-smoked joints and two small cases used to store marijuana.

The 69-year-old Wells, founder of the Idaho Film and Television Institute and organizer of the region’s annual family movie festival called the Spud Fest, then failed a sobriety test.

Raw!

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