Recent Comments

1. about 19 hours ago on Dick Tracy

   If it’s stolen money, it’s not made “legal” by being buried and recovered. In fact, it could come under “receiving stolen property” or whatever the local legal phrase is.

2. 2 days ago on Dick Tracy

   She ain’t no lady!

3. 3 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Isn’t Dick getting a little too old for fisticuffs in the street?

4. 3 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Sidebar: This is one reason why most countries redesign their paper currency on a fairly regular basis (for the UK, every ten years of so, or when the monarch changes, or when new anti-forgery techniques are adopted). After a few years, any large amounts that were stolen or squirreled away become either worthless, or it can only be paid into a bank (which the taxman and law enforcement can monitor). It’s also an opportunity for a country to honour people or things for a time before moving to the next thing.

5. 7 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Oh man, this is why I keep all my data in the cloud. Hard-drive fails happen and are not always recoverable, but so do Ransomware attacks which can be even worse. Seriously folks, use OneDrive, Google Drive, Mega, or any other of the services available, especially for valuable stuff you can’t easily replace. Programs can be reinstalled, your data not so much.

6. 8 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Also, this seemingly establishes that the Hatmobile is NOT the character owned by DC, merely an imitation. That would seem to skirt the legal tests applied in the lawsuit very helpfully linked by Tradewinds309 yesterday.

   “On appeal, the Ninth Circuit said the Batmobile itself was a character and analyzed its ability to receive protection using a three-part test: (1) whether the character has physical as well as conceptual qualities; (2) whether it is sufficiently delineated to be recognizable as the same character whenever it appears; and (3) whether the character is “especially distinctive and contains ‘some unique elements of expression.’” The court answered all three questions in the affirmative, noting for instance that the car has received physical manifestation in movies and comics and that it has a highly recognizable name.”

   The Hatmobile has no physical qualities, it’s just a drawing in a comic strip. Nobody will recognise it as the Hatmobile. And it has nothing distinctive about it as an individual; it just looks like the OTHER car.

   (I’m not a lawyer, though I do have an LL.M. This is not legal advice to anyone.)

7. 9 days ago on Dick Tracy

   I’m guessing the name “Batmobile” has tighter copyright/trademark control than the physical look of the old TV show car?

8. 9 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Yeah, that threw me as well.

9. 12 days ago on Dick Tracy

   He’s driving a right-hand-drive car on the left side of the road?

   Did the picture get reversed or has the action shifted to the UK, Japan, or Australia??? LOL

10. 13 days ago on Dick Tracy

    On April 27th the Hatmobile was missing a licence plate, but obviously someone noticed because it’s had one each time the rear has been shown since then.