TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to copy

[Joshawott]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Either way, I remember the Beckett magazine from 1999. Now I feel old, and I don't like feeling old.

 

[Jesse GS the II]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Heh, I subscribed to Beckett Pokémon Collector almost since its first issue, up until about 2001 or so. Back then, though, they didn't use the official Sugimori illustrations, so this must be a recent development. (And the illustrations they did use were terrible. I remember when Gold and Silver came out in Japan in 1999, they released a pictorial list of all 100 Jouto Pokémon as drawn by one of their staff artists, and they all looked like crap.)

 

[KantoMaster]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

TCPi is The Pokemon Company international. They are suing Beckett. You should know who TPCi is. It's related to us because it's Pokemon.

People: Bulbanews is a NEWSPAPER. It will report on Pokemon matters that having nothing to do with Bulbagarden sometimes. If you don't like it, you don't have to comment on it.

Well... I don't know who they are. Well thanks for explaining it to me.

 

[F-22]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

As of this thread, I'm convinced that unless it's related to the 5th gen there's always going to be people flaming news posts and bitching about how they're pointless.

Suck it up and get over it guys. It's not like anyone's ordering you to read these articles.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Heh, I subscribed to Beckett Pokémon Collector almost since its first issue, up until about 2001 or so. Back then, though, they didn't use the official Sugimori illustrations, so this must be a recent development. (And the illustrations they did use were terrible. I remember when Gold and Silver came out in Japan in 1999, they released a pictorial list of all 100 Jouto Pokémon as drawn by one of their staff artists, and they all looked like crap.)

Yeah, I remember that list of the Johto Pokemon. Some of them looked nice, but the majority of them did look pretty bad. I think that the art for their covers were much better years ago than what they've been making for the past year or two.

Anyway, I'm actually kind of surprised that TPCI is suing Beckett. They've been around for so long, I thought that they were okay with them reporting information and using pictures for their magazine. I actually did subscribed to the magazine for a couple of years, which recently expired. I'm not surprised if they don't sell that well since most magazines in general have poor sales nowadays. Even though they constantly have errors about the anime series, I hope that they don't force them to stop production. I would feel bad for all the people who lost their jobs after working on the magazine for over ten years.

 

[Lysandre]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Although this is pretty sad from a nostalgia perspective as I used to drive out almost every day to the general store to see if a new issue had come in, that was 1999 and to be honest, its importance has gone down. With most fansites spreading lies like the Pokegods closing up shop and the whole fandom being run by news giants like Serebii and Bulbanews, the need for a magazine to explain such things has become much less important. Back then most of us learned of Gold and Silver through Beckett's coverage, nowadays they tout Black and White as "breaking news" when the issue about it was released almost a month after the first details were released. In a time where kids lacked the knowhow to find Japanese resources and information, a time where there was no ebay and how much you sold a card for on the playground was a matter of life and death (and having a price guide actually helped), a time where we all had to have the titles and plots of future episodes spelled out to us instead of a daily update on Serebii... this magazine was neccessary. To be honest, I compared a couple of current issues to the couple of my many old issues, and it's not even nearly as good these days. The fan cards section is gone, the editorials aren't even hardly about Pokemon, and half the magazine is advertisements for either some other random anime they're getting paid to promote or some other card/web games like Wizard Online. It should be called "Beckett Three Pages of Pokemon And a Crapload of Advertisements".

To those not in the know, Beckett Pokemon Collector stopped production for several years, becoming Beckett Yu Gi Oh and Anime Collector (or something along those lines), and it only recently (a couple of years) came back. Although I'm not sure exactly what has changed, I have a few hunches. For one thing, since the magazine returned, their old policy of having one of their artists make an original and creative (often parodying something else) cover using Pokemon characters has changed to pretty much using stock art from the anime and stock pictures of Pokemon figures. Aside from removing one of the big positives of the magazine, this also changes the legality a bit, as what could have been considered "fan art" has become official art posed to sell a magazine. The same can be said for the inside, where rather humorous fan-copies of popular Pokemon were used in favor for stock art way back when, and there's a loooot more of the official stock art where there used to be screenshots or scans of cards (which were, arguably, protected under fair use).

The other big difference is that there is now an official Pokemon Magazine. I'll be honest, Beckett does a lot better job than IT does, since Beckett still has a few interesting segments explaining where Pokemon came from and a few fan sections. Pokemon Magazine WANTS to be a news magazine, but since this isn't Japan we don't get new information, rather a rehash of the screenshots available on the Japanese website that have been on Serebii and Pokebeach for a month. The problem is, Beckett is COMPETITION, so "eh, maybe it's in a grey area, they're just promoting us" becomes "THEY'RE TAKING OUR SALES AND THEY'RE BEING ILLEGAL."

 

[Hidden Mew]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Although this is pretty sad from a nostalgia perspective as I used to drive out almost every day to the general store to see if a new issue had come in, that was 1999 and to be honest, its importance has gone down. With most fansites spreading lies like the Pokegods closing up shop and the whole fandom being run by news giants like Serebii and Bulbanews, the need for a magazine to explain such things has become much less important. Back then most of us learned of Gold and Silver through Beckett's coverage, nowadays they tout Black and White as "breaking news" when the issue about it was released almost a month after the first details were released. In a time where kids lacked the knowhow to find Japanese resources and information, a time where there was no ebay and how much you sold a card for on the playground was a matter of life and death (and having a price guide actually helped), a time where we all had to have the titles and plots of future episodes spelled out to us instead of a daily update on Serebii... this magazine was neccessary. To be honest, I compared a couple of current issues to the couple of my many old issues, and it's not even nearly as good these days. The fan cards section is gone, the editorials aren't even hardly about Pokemon, and half the magazine is advertisements for either some other random anime they're getting paid to promote or some other card/web games like Wizard Online. It should be called "Beckett Three Pages of Pokemon And a Crapload of Advertisements".

That is a good point. I remember when I would get all of the most recent Pokemon information through magazines like Beckett before I went to Serebii. Even though I think that they still do have a good chuck of their magazine focused on Pokemon, I agree that they also have a few too many pages focused on advertisements on things like Wizard Online and some video game reviews they've been doing recently.

To those not in the know, Beckett Pokemon Collector stopped production for several years, becoming Beckett Yu Gi Oh and Anime Collector (or something along those lines), and it only recently (a couple of years) came back. Although I'm not sure exactly what has changed, I have a few hunches. For one thing, since the magazine returned, their old policy of having one of their artists make an original and creative (often parodying something else) cover using Pokemon characters has changed to pretty much using stock art from the anime and stock pictures of Pokemon figures. Aside from removing one of the big positives of the magazine, this also changes the legality a bit, as what could have been considered "fan art" has become official art posed to sell a magazine. The same can be said for the inside, where rather humorous fan-copies of popular Pokemon were used in favor for stock art way back when, and there's a loooot more of the official stock art where there used to be screenshots or scans of cards (which were, arguably, protected under fair use).

I definitely missed their fan art covers. So many of them were really awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons why TPCI is suing them is because of their usage of official art. In fact, it could have been because they used artwork for the fifth generation starters and trainers in their most recent issue. I'm not sure if that would be the reason, but it probably didn't help with the use of official stock art for most of their covers. Though, they also tend to use figures and other toys for some of their covers as well.

 

[CardKaptor]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Did Pojo used to publish a magazine? For some reason I feel like I used to read that, rather than Beckett.

Either way, I still think a collected guide of a card's worth would be useful, but you certainly can't use others' copyrights as you wish without expecting some backlash. Ignoring their lawyers probably wasn't the best idea either.

 

[The Outrage]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

TCPi is The Pokemon Company international. They are suing Beckett. You should know who TPCi is. It's related to us because it's Pokemon.

People: Bulbanews is a NEWSPAPER. It will report on Pokemon matters that having nothing to do with Bulbagarden sometimes. If you don't like it, you don't have to comment on it.

Yeah, I mean this one actually is Pokemon related. I like it when Bulbanews publishes news on things the other fansites really wouldn't care about, its still interesting to know what's going on in the Pokemon World beyond our fandom needs.

 

[Lysandre]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Yep, Pojo sure did. They were also huge for a while because of their gigantic price guide book they published, which led hundreds of us to spend 25-50 bucks for Birthday Pikachu (based on their assessment that it was worth 850 bucks)... which, in retrospective, caused it to be even more worthless than it was before xD

I wonder why Pojo stopped. I was under the impression they just weren't making enough but this legal issue with Beckett coming up makes me wonder...

 

[EdelsteinBraginski_]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Wow, I'm surprised. I subscribe to them, I thought they had permission to do this stuff, I guess they didn't?

 

[spriteless]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

I liked Beckett stuff. I guess the only reason they weren't sued earlier was the fact that they build hype and sell cards. So this is just Pokemon Company shooting themselves in the foot. Except now they can license it to be done by another company. And make money off it. So never mind.

 

[Somari]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Am I the only one who has never heard of this magazine?

 

[Zesty Cactus]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Am I the only one who has never heard of this magazine?

Yes.

Heh, I subscribed to Beckett Pokémon Collector almost since its first issue, up until about 2001 or so. Back then, though, they didn't use the official Sugimori illustrations, so this must be a recent development. (And the illustrations they did use were terrible. I remember when Gold and Silver came out in Japan in 1999, they released a pictorial list of all 100 Jouto Pokémon as drawn by one of their staff artists, and they all looked like crap.)

Oh my lord their illustrations were FUGLY!! I remember being so offended as a kid, I'm like "what the heck is this crap?!" (of course, not realising that it was crappy unofficial art to prevent legal issues such as this)

Did Pojo used to publish a magazine? For some reason I feel like I used to read that, rather than Beckett.

He definitely did and I definitely own one random issue. His magazine was so much better than Beckett just saying. I wonder if there's been an article on Bulbapedia made yet...

Yeah, I mean this one actually is Pokemon related. I like it when Bulbanews publishes news on things the other fansites really wouldn't care about, its still interesting to know what's going on in the Pokemon World beyond our fandom needs.

I agree. I have no problem with this article, it's interesting and actually pretty damn relevant. Most people here have actually heard of and read this magazine, and TCPi suing a fan magazine in any case is worth at least a mention.

 

[Iteru]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Am I the only one who has never heard of this magazine?

No xD

Interesting to see what TPCI gets up to.

 

[Rayne]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

That's interesting. I just happened to find my Beckett Pokemon guide in time to squash a huge spider the other day.

Yeah, Nintendo is tightening a leash on all it's media, but I'm shocked they're going after Beckett now since Beckett's been at it for so long. I'm more shocked that Beckett is still around pokemon. As others in the thread can attest, I don't believe they have a huge presence beyond nostalgics these days so I can't honestly imagine what sort of threat they have on Nintendo's bottom line.

I wonder why Pojo stopped. I was under the impression they just weren't making enough but this legal issue with Beckett coming up makes me wonder...

The magazine kicked the bucket barely a year it was published since the demand trickled as the initial wave of pokemaina dwindled. However the site is still kicking, it focuses mainly on the TCG now (among other franchise TCGs).

Somehow I thought the two worked together for sometime.

 

[Miya902]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

OMG! I'm like rolling on the floor laughing right now.. I use to subscribe to this magazine! (proof--> http://miya902.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d23rf7f ) and it was just the worst! The information was inaccurate, the grammar was horrible, and the cheats it told, everyone knew, and the origin stories I could find just as easily on Bulbapedia for free! xD Plus, they never send me the cards I was suppose to get for Subscribing! So haha Beckett, I hope Pokemon sues your a$$ good! >3

 

[shining-Celebi]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

I remember going to Kroger's and reading this.

I also remember the G/S illustrations and the crappy translations haha.


Wow blast from my past haha

 

[Teltu]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

But-But I still Subscribe! Well I really don't know why TPCi felt the need to do this after TEN YEARS!

 

[kamui]

Re: TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher: Beckett Media sued due to

Wow I used to buy Beckett too! That is crazy~ @-@