I'm confused. Isn't your costume based on the movie Tron? Couldn't CompUSA claim that they were also basing their costume on the same movie?

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My costume is indeed based on TRON, but there's more there: in particular, the guy they have in the costume is indeed shaped like me. (He's no Bruce Boxleitner either.)

Even more, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have done the commercial in the first place had I not come along and popularized (for whatever value of "popular" you choose to assign) the idea.

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But "Guy shaped like me in a TRON suit" isn't exactly something that can be copyrighted, given that it is itself a derivative work of Disney's copyrighted IP, and it would be pretty hard to trademark without Disney's lawyers coming down on your like a ton of bricks, as Disney is legally obligated to vigorously defend its own trademarks or risk losing them.

So even if CompUSA said "Yeah, we got the idea from you, and decided to rip it off without giving you any credit whatsoever," what sort of action could you take?

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Safe as houses.

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tron man...would you like to make a cameo in one of my online movies? I can't pay you. But might get ya some more publicity. How about you and my main character Mitzy The Green Mini-Poodle go on some adventure? My site is at www.crackedreel.com You wouldn't even have to show up here, due to my low tech methods of movie making, I'd just need a picture.

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sorry about that............this should work..

http://www.crackedreel.comSorry about that...this one should work.

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fight it tooth and nail, man

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Jay's argument regarding ABC is very well taken. Disney/ABC could hardly go after Jay when a good-sized hunk of his major public appearances have been for the company. If CompUSA tried that argument, it could very well backfire, badly. Disney could take the argument that "Jay's use of the TRON costume has our blessing...but *yours* doesn't."

A key piece of evidence here would be the internal memoranda and emails at the ad agency, while they were creating this spot. If "TRONGuy" shows up in there, the ad agency is going to look somewhat foolish. Also a bit cheap. Why not just hire Jay in the first place? I mean, how much is Jay going to cost, even if he is union?

I don't know how much in damages Jay can get (esp. if the campaign is over), but I'll just bet the lads at Disney Legal can find a few nasty things to smack CompUSA over the head with.

I wouldn't mind seeing stills from the DVD (if possible), just to give a musteline lawyer's eye view of the matter.

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I don't know how much in damages Jay can get

Jay, personally?

Probably approximately zero, because he'd first have to show damages, and I don't see how he could do that. The point that Jay seems to have Disney's tacit blessings regarding his use of the Tron likeness is a valid one, but that doesn't equate to him being able to prevail over CompUSA in civil court, because he himself has no *rights* to Disney's IP. If CompUSA is infringing upon Disney's IP, it's up to Disney's legal staff to pursue that issue; Jay himself probably doesn't even have standing to bring the suit. If I showed up before the court to sue CompUSA for infringing upon Disney's IP, the suit would be dismissed instantly, because I have no standing to bring it.

As a more general issue, while Jay's TRON suit is an impressive accomplishment, especially from a geek perspective, I don't see anything novel about it from a legal perspective, it's simply a derivative work of someone else's copyright. While CompUSA might very well be infringing upon Disney's IP, they're probably not infringing upon "Guy dressing up as TRON," because that's probably not even protected in the first place.

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Ask and ye shall receive...

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

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You'll be hard pressed to have a case with this. I haven't seen the commercial, but unless he:

1) materializes from some VR world (which they could claim, and use other (bad) movies to point out)
2) makes specific references to Tron or its plotline
3) glows in the dark without the help of CG effects

there's not a legal leg to stand on.

The costume looks nothing like yours, is of a completely different design and has words on it, and is also missing one of those discs. "Influenced by" and "ripping off" is a very hard thing to prove unless specific references are made, otherwise Hollywood could easily sue itself in the soap opera world alone.

He also looks nothing like you.

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I'm afraid I'll have to agree. Their costume is more akin to "guy in a computer circuitry suit" than "guy in a TRON suit". Their costume does not present the wearer as a "warrior", although I have not seen the commercial so I cannot say wheither that is the context CompUSA was aiming for.

Regardless, the idea of suing because some company decided to use, to put it bluntly, "another fat guy in a computer costume", is rather laughable IMHO. Plus their guy looks absolutely nothing like Mr. Maynard. It's a waste of everyone's money, including that of the American taxpayer. To support the concept of suing CompUSA with Disney's blessing over this issue is frankly frivolous.

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Saw this via another journal. Maybe you should be flattered they picked up the idea from you? Or maybe they also got it from Tron.

As it is, there is always going to be idea sharing and some borrowing of ideas in the world. People should just learn to accept that and try to be the better act. As it is, the current sue happy copyright environment has turned the world of content creation upside down and supressed a lot of great ideas. I know someone who started making these neat little hats and selling them on Ebay and within a week, there were about 5 copycats doing the same. She doens't sue them, she just gets more creative than them.

As for your costume, that is really pretty cool. Can't say if it had been me I'd have been yellow, but hey, it's still cool, especially the neon!

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Which other journal? I don't mind the influx of new readers, but I was curious where it came from.

It's not really yellow, more of a light green. The electroluminescent wire is neat stuff, though.

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I`m no legal expert, but from my admittedly limited understanding, unless they`re claiming that it`s a Tron costume (which they don`t seem to be), I wouldn`t have thought there were any copyright issues. The colouring is radically different, the designs are radically different, and it`s even labelled 'Technology', which the Tron costume clearly is not. They`re not even implying it`s a Tron costume and other than the shape of the helmet, the costume can be described as vaguely similar at best.
As regards the actor`s appearance compared to your own, he looks somewhat younger (no offense), he doesn`t wear glasses, and he`s completely clean-shaven, so irrespective of whatever costuming similarities there may or may not be, the actor himself bears no resemblance to yourself that I can see.

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