Well, I’m siding with DC/WB for once. The Batmobiles of the old TV show and the movies are copyrighted designs and it’s just plagiarism. There’s a reason miniature versions of the old-school Batmobile are sold by DC as a company – it’s *their* design. Especially when it comes to ones like the TV show versions, which had a lot of work done on them to make them look like that. People will make DC/WB out to be the bad guy, but if this was a smaller company or an artist who had been plagiarised, people would be all over the people copying stuff.

But the point is that this is NOT a small company or an artist. It’s a big, soulless corporation with a mountain of legal money to help them throw their weight around. No one at DC or Warner Brothers was being hurt in any way by what this man was doing. Making him stop is nothing more than DC/Warners showing what jackass suits they are. Nothing new there.

Is this any different than Hot Wheels needing to get permission to make little toy Batmobiles? I think they even need permission from major auto companies to do likenesses of their cars too. What about plastic model kit companies and such also?

Matt – so what? It’s still plagiarism. This isn’t like the Siegel/Shuster Heirs thing where DC is denying a family money, this is something that they presumably poured money into back in the 60′s to get that particular Batmobile made, and this guy is plagiarising their concept. It might not be hurting them, but they guy’s making money off of something that ISN’T HIS. He should know better – as Chris points out, if someone makes a model kit for sale – say of a Gundam or a Godzilla? Usually they’re contracted by the people who own the visuals and the concepts. Here, this guy’s making money off of things that HE DOESN’T OWN. DC might be the huge company, but they’re still the victims here.

It’s also worth noting that currently, Fiberglass Freaks makes licensed versions of the same Batmobile, at over $150,000 each, and they’ve been doing it for quite some time.
Here is a link to their site:
http://www.buybatparts.com/joomla/index.php/home

Matt one other thing of note, is DC doesn’t protect their copywrite, then what’s to staop a LARGE company from mass producing Batmobiles. That is what DC/Warner’s is protiectingthemselves from by stoppping the little guy.

Matt, to add to Ninersphan’s point, legally, if DC doesn’t actively fight to protect their trademarks and copyrights, it is one hundred percent ok for another company to undercut them and steal it. The only way to protect ANY copyright or trademark is to do exactly what DC did in this situation.

Exactly. If the guy went to DC, showed his work and enthusiasm and wanted a license to make Batmobiles, they’d probably let him.

All logical points, folks. But I’m not talking about legalities. I’m talking about being decent.

How about approaching the company to go into partnership with them? Everyone wins. Oh, no, that won’t do. Much too logical and might actually engender some good will. Can’t have that.

Ask George Barris if he cares. If he’s fine with it, so am I.

Oh, I very much doubt that, Statham.

This isn’t about what you consider to be fair. What he’s doing is and has always been illegal.

Sorry, I love to side with the little guy, but this time DC was in the right. Sure, they could have arranged some sort of deal with Towle, but Fibreglass Freaks could then turn around and say, “Hey, we made a good faith deal with DC, got the proper licensing from the get-go, and now DC screws us over to help out the guy who plagiarized the design?” In this case being decent to him would have meant acting less than decent to people who have decent to them.

It seems that George was going ahead and making these without approaching DC. Someone else it seems already has the licence to produce the Batmobiles likeness as a full-sized operating vehicle. George is infringing on the licencees rights as well. The decent thing is not to steal.The only reason he makes Batmobiles is because they have name recognition which means he can sell them for a lot, but he never invested in making movies, TV shows, comic books, toys etc. So in effect he is riding on the back of a lot of other peoples time, money and effort.

Can I make and sell Batarangs?

[quote]Can I make and sell Batarangs?[/quote]

If you contact DC about licencing then probably.

There are lots of iffy and obnoxious copyright deals going around (DC and Marvel’s ownership of the word “superhero” is completely absurd) but DC is totally in the right here. The main thing is that Towle was selling the Batmobiles. If he just made one for himself or made vehicles that were similar but not quite the Batmobile, I’d be on his side.

All that said, he still gets props for the sweet replica. I just wish he’d put some effort into some original designs.

Hmm, apparently Robot 6 doesn’t support the same formatting stuff as Comics Should Be Good. Interesting.

DC is in the right here, they or I suppose Bob Kane and Bill Finger own the Batmobile. You can’t just make ‘em without their say so.

Maybe if he sold them as NOT-The Batmobile (like those porn parodies) he’d be able to win.

Matt, it doesn’t matter what George Barris thinks either, he created the original version as a work-for-hire project and he holds no stake in the copyright. They couldn’t have just asked formed a partnership with this guy, because they already have a partnership doing the same thing with another company. This guy did something highly illegal, most likely he was aware of that fact, and he did it anyway. That’s negligence and stealing, so “being decent” isn’t something he’s accustomed to, which means he doesn’t deserve to make Batmobiles in the first place. Period.

Bad

Mason, You are incorrect in your assertion that George Barris created the original as a work-for-hire. George created the Batmobiles and leased them to ABC. He retained all rights to the design. In fact, back in the late 60s or early 70s, some independent guy made his own Batmobile replica for his own personal use. Barris sued the guy and won. He was awarded the replica Batmobile by the court and that became another Batmobile in Barris’ stable (#5, I believe). How DC now owns the rights to the design, I do not know. But, they originally belonged to George.

Matt Halteman – Are you unable to read? It actually SAYS there are people who make licensed versions of this Batmobile. If the guy GOT a license from DC/WB or in this case, perhaps Fox, he wouldn’t be in this mess. Decency goes both ways – this guy shouldn’t have been a thief.

DC did the right thing.

Fremgen, Towle was selling his Batmobile as “The Gotham Prowler.” The name doesn’t change the fact that it’s the design is being stolen.

The porn “parodies” are in the same boat (complete rip-offs) but I think both DC and Marvel consider those to be free advertising and so they allow it.

Parodies fall under fair use

I think the ruling was fair up until the punishment. If they had told him “You can no longer make these, and you have to give DC, idk, even up to 50% of the profit from each”, that would be one thing…but $750k for EACH infringement? I get the feeling this guy can’t afford that, nor does DC need it. THAT is what I find to be messed up.

Cease and desist is fine. Destroy all vehicles. So be it. But to ask this dude to pay $750,000 for each infringement is killing this dude financially. There is no way this guy could possibly come up with that kind of money and DC knows that. Who gets that money by the way? Did DC show (in any way) what this guy did hurt them financially? How did it hurt them financially if they never sold any life size bat mobiles? DC lost nothing. I understand they need to protect their “copyright” but to bury this guy is wrong. Tell him to stop. Make him get the cars back and dismantle them, but don’t bankrupt him…just to line their own pockets. That’s despicable!!

Mark Racop Fiberglass freaks is to blame for all of this .
I cant wait till people start to learn about all the returned cars from fiberglass freaks
Greed a very sad thing

So he’s got to pay out $750,000 for each infringement, but the vehicles sold for up to $90,000? This guy’s life is ruined.

So you guys who think the cars shouldn’t be produced… you think everyone who makes a Herbie the love bug is wrong? A General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard is wrong? Do you think the guys making those cars have licensing?

Curiously enough, Towle also sells Herbie replicas …

Batfan – there’s a difference. The General Lee is just a dodge with a confederate flag and some numbers slapped on it. Herbie the Love Bug is a painted VW Beetle. They’re ACTUAL CARS. That said, if someone specifically owns the visual for that particular car? YES it’s WRONG. However, again, the Lee and Herbie are actual cars. The Batmobile – like the one in the sixties show or the Burton movies, has clearly had more work done on it. But yes. If those cars were copyrighted visuals, YES it would be WRONG to reproduce those visuals illegally.

Statham, I guarantee you the rights to things like Herbie and the General Lee are the same as the batmobile. Kevin… does he?

He does, Batfan.

However, I don’t know that, if we’re to go by Judge Lew’s decision, the General Lee or Herbie the Love Bug would qualify as “copyrightable characters.” They’re distinctive only because of their paint jobs and decals — otherwise, as Statham suggests, they’re simply regular, operational cars (of specific makes and models, of course).

So what about people who bought Batmobiles from Gotham Garage, do they now have to destroy a car they paid $90k for? How would you feel having to destroy something you paid that much for? Do they in turn get to sue Gotham Garage to recoup their loss?

As I recall it was George Barris himself who held the copyright to the 1966 Batmobile and that’s why there were not any die cast or toy versions of it made after the Corgi #267 Batmobile from the late ‘60’s early ‘70’s until Mattel made some in early 2000’s. Barris owned the car until it sold at auction a couple weeks ago. He leased it to the Batman TV series. When did it become WB or DC property?

What about other people who were making Batmobile replicas? While Fiberglass Freaks has the Offical DC License, Gotham Garage was not the only other Batmobile builder out there. Has WB/DC gone after these builders as well, or was this just a witch hunt against Towle?

Actually, the licensing was not as simple as any of you have guessed. Barris designed the car and therefore has a stake in the license. 20th century fox owned the TV show and had a stake also. Greenway productions produced the show. WB/DC owned the batman character and “batmobile” name. For a long time, getting everyone involved to approve licensing deals and agree on who got what percentage of the proceeds was impossible, and only in 2006 or 2007 did they finally figure out some angle to get licensing deals done, just for the car. The actual show is another level of complexity because the likenesses of the actors also comes into play, and that mess finally just got sorted out within the past year. I don’t know if WB just decided to buy everyone else out, or if they all simply got together and hashed everything out, and worked out acceptable terms for everyone involved. In any case, a few builders have been making replicas since it was illegal including mark racop, but somehow he was the first to land a license to make full-sized replicas. The problems is not in people building their own replicas to look at and drool over or even take for a quick spin. It’s when folks start making money off them by building and then selling them for a profit, taking them for public appearances as if they were the real tv car, which is misrepresentation, and other unlicensed public use of the replicas (parades, charity fund raisers, movie cameos, etc.). WB needs to look after it’s trademarked property and ensure it’s not being degraded by, for example, a really poorly built, terrible-looking replica, an unsafe replica endangering the driver or bystanders who get close, a racist fake batman driving it around yelling slurs at people, a batman wearing only a cowl and otherwise naked driving it in a race, a vigilante using it to run over criminals, or any other weird scenario anyone could dream up that the license owners wouldn’t approve of or want the bad publicity associated with it.

Dan, Fiberglass freaks are the only one I have ever heard of to have problems with most of their cars and even have cars returned for many defects way to go Dc Comics So if we are talking about unsafe cars I will go with Mark Racop and Fiberglass Freaks with zero auto background