Recent Comments

1. about 11 hours 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.)

2. 1 day 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?

3. 1 day ago on Dick Tracy

   Yeah, that threw me as well.

4. 4 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

5. 6 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.

6. 6 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Maybe the road was put through later.

7. 9 days ago on Dick Tracy

   The lack of a licence plate, and probably no rear brake lights or indicators, I think the street-legal answer must be a resounding NO. Seatbelts? The rocket exhaust would probably require some explanation too, assuming it isn’t just a dummy.

8. 12 days ago on Wizard of Id

   You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.

9. 16 days ago on Garfield

   Why does he care? He doesn’t do any more work on Monday than Sunday. Or is it because Jon is out at work?

10. 21 days ago on Herman

    The upside of checking some luggage is that, if you get stuck in security of whatever, the plane cannot leave until they’ve found and unloaded your bags, so you get a somewhat better chance of making the flight. Waiting five minutes for you to arrive is better than the cost and time of unloading the hold which might cost them their take-off slot entirely.