How did WCW get away with copyright infringement of The Crow

[Glitch]

If Sting simply changed his face paint, I could see it as no big deal. But he took the whole look. All black clothing, similar hair, the trenchcoat. Even the motive of revenge.
I'm guessing Dimension Films didn't see it as worth the effort to sue.

[CMWaters]

Well 1)I'm sure Dimension Films had problems with Brandon Lee's death that they were worried about.

2)While 90 percent similar, there is some difference. The Crow seems to have a more outspoken personality, whereas Crow Sting at the start was silent.

3)Turner protection.

[Mozenrath]

It probably didn't hurt that while Sting did sometimes use a bird as a prop, he was still more associated with scorpions and never dropped them from his iconography.

[Joe Neglia]

Apr 23, 2020 22:17:35 GMT -5 Glitch said:

If Sting simply changed his face paint, I could see it as no big deal. But he took the whole look. All black clothing, similar hair, the trenchcoat. Even the motive of revenge.
I'm guessing Dimension Films didn't see it as worth the effort to sue.

Dimension doesn't and didn't own the Crow, James O'Barr does.

Couldn't really go after him for the clothing or hair - Sting started the "crow" gimmick with shorter hair, and it just got longer as the angle went on. His make-up being a direct rip of the Crow was mostly during those early days and by the time he had the long hair, his make-up had evolved to be more stylized. The vulture deal was super-short lived. Basically, all of the elements that would make him an exact Crow knock-off were never all there at the exact same time.

Can't really sue over trenchcoats, it was the late 90s, everyone was wearing them.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

I may be wrong but I think they asked the creator permission to use the likeness and he agreed.

[JCBaggee]

Apr 23, 2020 22:33:45 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

I may be wrong but I think they asked the creator permission to use the likeness and he agreed.

O'Barr was not aware, but he also didn't really care. According to O'Barr though, Dimension Films did make him change the make-up once the gimmick took off.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDKSOegKQnU

[Joe Neglia]

Apr 23, 2020 23:44:55 GMT -5 JCBaggee said:

Apr 23, 2020 22:33:45 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

I may be wrong but I think they asked the creator permission to use the likeness and he agreed.

O'Barr was not aware, but he also didn't really care. According to O'Barr though, Dimension Films did make him change the make-up once the gimmick took off.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDKSOegKQnU

Thanks for posting that, hadn't seen it before.

[thegame415]

The bigger question....how did ECW get away with using all that copyrighted music for their themes?

Back OT...That video is interesting.

[romanstylesiii]

Apr 23, 2020 23:44:55 GMT -5 JCBaggee said:

Apr 23, 2020 22:33:45 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

I may be wrong but I think they asked the creator permission to use the likeness and he agreed.

O'Barr was not aware, but he also didn't really care. According to O'Barr though, Dimension Films did make him change the make-up once the gimmick took off.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDKSOegKQnU

Honestly, mad credit to him. A lot of people would have probably sued Turner for a quick pay day.

At one point, the characters looked nearly identical. Sting's character did grow to be more distinct later on

[Hit Girl]

They did sue.

They took Sting to court, but he handed the judge a baseball bat, turned his back, and then left.

[James Fabiano]

Fact: when they changed Sting's paint to be what it was mostly for this character, they lifted it off of a Marilyn Manson cover of I think Rolling Stone.

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

Apr 23, 2020 23:44:55 GMT -5 JCBaggee said:

Apr 23, 2020 22:33:45 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

I may be wrong but I think they asked the creator permission to use the likeness and he agreed.

O'Barr was not aware, but he also didn't really care. According to O'Barr though, Dimension Films did make him change the make-up once the gimmick took off.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDKSOegKQnU

I like the short bit O'Barr says when kids would come up to him at conventions and asks if the comics was Sting. He'd think they meant Sting from the Police and say no, Sting's blonde. I hope some kid told him that's Surfer Sting.

[Lupin the Third]

When a man's heart is full of deceit,

It burns up...

Dies...

And a dark shadow falls over his soul.

From the ashes of a once great man has risen a curse.

A wrong that must be righted.

We look to the skies for a vindicator.

Someone to strike fear into the black hearts

Of the same men who created him.

The battle between good and evil has begun.

Against an army of shadows

Comes a dark warrior.

The purveyor of good.

With a voice of silence.

And a mission of justice...

THIS. IS. STING.

[chazraps]

Apr 24, 2020 12:38:33 GMT -5 thegame415 said:

The bigger question....how did ECW get away with using all that copyrighted music for their themes?

The truth is, contrary to Heyman's blatant lies that he had deals worked out with the labels, ECW flew so deep under the radar that the labels didn't know.

When he talked about these "Deals" on the 2014 blu-ray release, I thought it sounded fishy. I was writing for the Village Voice at the time, so I had direct access to all the labels based in NYC. I contacted a some, and they had no record whatsoever of any publishing broadcast deals worked out with Heyman, ECW, or any affiliated companies.

There's no loopholes or anything, ECW was just too small for anyone in the music business to notice.

[Terry McConkey]

Apr 24, 2020 14:55:19 GMT -5 @adnonlkc said:

Apr 24, 2020 13:45:36 GMT -5 chazraps said:

The truth is, contrary to Heyman's blatant lies that he had deals worked out with the labels, ECW flew so deep under the radar that the labels didn't know.

When he talked about these "Deals" on the 2014 blu-ray release, I thought it sounded fishy. I was writing for the Village Voice at the time, so I had direct access to all the labels based in NYC. I contacted a some, and they had no record whatsoever of any publishing broadcast deals worked out with Heyman, ECW, or any affiliated companies.

There's no loopholes or anything, ECW was just too small for anyone in the music business to notice.

Basically this. It wasn't just ECW. Smoky Mountain also used music they didn't have rights to. 

Smoky Mountain is an exception because it was backed by Rick Rubin at the time. I think that probably helped them avoid legal issues?

[adamclark52]

I think outside of straight up calling him “the Crow” there wasn’t much that could be done.

Why didn’t they get sued for the Juicer? For Renegade?

Why didn’t WWE get sued for Beaver Clevage?

Why aren’t the WWE suing those “Riot Control” guys?

All of those were pretty obvious too.

[cjh]

Apr 24, 2020 12:38:33 GMT -5 thegame415 said:

The bigger question....how did ECW get away with using all that copyrighted music for their themes?

Back OT...That video is interesting.

Right before One Night Stand in 2005, Heyman was on Byte This and specifically mentioned having no right to use "November Rain" every year for the November to Remember hype video.

They would, though, sometimes put up a screen saying something like "ECW wishes to thank these record labels...."

[Deleted]

Apr 24, 2020 13:20:07 GMT -5 Lupin the Third said:

When a man's heart is full of deceit,

It burns up...

Dies...

And a dark shadow falls over his soul.

From the ashes of a once great man has risen a curse.

A wrong that must be righted.

We look to the skies for a vindicator.

Someone to strike fear into the black hearts

Of the same men who created him.

The battle between good and evil has begun.

Against an army of shadows

Comes a dark warrior.

The purveyor of good.

With a voice of silence.

And a mission of justice...

THIS. IS. STING.

“People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.”
― James O'Barr, The Crow

[Natural Born Farmer]

Apr 24, 2020 14:55:19 GMT -5 @adnonlkc said:

Apr 24, 2020 13:45:36 GMT -5 chazraps said:

The truth is, contrary to Heyman's blatant lies that he had deals worked out with the labels, ECW flew so deep under the radar that the labels didn't know.

When he talked about these "Deals" on the 2014 blu-ray release, I thought it sounded fishy. I was writing for the Village Voice at the time, so I had direct access to all the labels based in NYC. I contacted a some, and they had no record whatsoever of any publishing broadcast deals worked out with Heyman, ECW, or any affiliated companies.

There's no loopholes or anything, ECW was just too small for anyone in the music business to notice.

Basically this. It wasn't just ECW. Smoky Mountain also used music they didn't have rights to. Same with USWA. Though I haven't gone back to look, GWF probably did too (and if they did, it was on ESPN, which isn't exactly under the radar). It was a different time. 

The indies still do it today. I mean, even ones that are on FITE TV, which isn't exactly a small platform at this stage, there's music all over those shows. 

Watching a 2019 MLW show right now on YouTube, and Ace Austin just came out to NIN and Teddy Hart to Eminem. Sure it’s monetised as well, this is weird.

[Joe Neglia]

Apr 24, 2020 18:02:29 GMT -5 adamclark52 said:

Why didn’t they get sued for the Juicer?

Because there was nothing to sue? Even though he'd gone by Beetlejuice elsewhere, when he signed to WCW, they immediately changed his name and stripped him of all recognizable elements. Had he shown up out of the blue as the Juicer without ever having the previous gimmick, most people wouldn't have even made a connection to the film.

And even then, Warner Bros owned both WCW and Beetlejuice.

Now they DID get a C&D from Marvel regarding Arachniman.

Of course, I wasn't aware of the O'Barr thing prior and had always gone with how it'd been explained to me prior regarding Sting/Crow, so what the f*** do I know?