For those who have been under a rock. Here is the breakdown...
The mayor of a city in southeastern Turkey, which has the same name as the Caped Crusader, is suing helmer Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from blockbuster "The Dark Knight."
Huseyin Kalkan, the Mayor of Batman the city, has accused "The Dark Knight" producers of using the city's name without permission.
Obviously, this is a litigious dumbass trying to earn a buck, right? I mean, this can't possibly be considered a legitimate argument. After all, the city itself wasn't called "Batman" until 1955, and no one has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comicbook character in 1939 and the "Batman" TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton's first bigscreen rendition for Warner Bros. came out in 1989. Undoubtedly the fact that "Dark Knight" is about to pass the $1 billion mark at the B.O. played a big part in giving this Turkish asshole the idea, right?
Anyway, it turns out that the guy has done this before--AND WAS PAID OFF BY DC COMICS!!! Shame on you DC for rolling over like that! Now we don't have to wonder where he got the idea. What's more, he may have used the pay-off to promote terror! This is from Wikipedia...
"He first gained international notoriety after it was revealed that he had filed a lawsuit against DC Comics for using his city's name in their Batman Comic book franchise. In 2007, DC Comics confirmed that they had settled with the city for an undisclosed amount. In February 2008 the mayor was sentenced to 10 months in jail for promoting terrorism. Prosecutors speculated that Kalkan may have used money from his settlement with DC Comics to fund terrorism."
That's right fans. Our beloved caped crusader, the dark knight of gotham, may have indirectly financed terrorism.
CLICK HERE and
HERE for details of Kalkan's imprisonment. The article relays that his party has ties to terrorists, and that he was passing out propaganda and speaking in favor of a known terrorist.
"The court in Diyarbakir sentenced Huseyin Kalkan, the mayor of nearby Batman and member of Turkey's main Kurdish DTP party, under a provision that penalises helping terrorist groups (PKK) and spreading their propaganda."
The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, is regarded as a terrorist organization by the government of Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
How come nobody is reporting this? I want to know why a dude outside of the country can even bring a lawsuit of this kind at all. Aren't there some provisions in copyright law for language barriers? Does the word/name of "Batman" mean anything in the Turkish language? And is it spelled or pronounced the same way in a foreign country?
Beyond the pale is this jerk's claim in his lawsuit...
“The mayor is prepping a series of charges against Nolan and Warner Bros., which owns the right to the Batman character, including placing the blame for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film’s success has had on the city’s inhabitants.”
Can you believe that bullcrap?!! Especially since it is their own screwed up religion and culture that is REALLY to blame for that kind of evil stuff--like the degradation of women and "honor killings." But that's exactly what the bad guys do. They blame others for their problems.
Here's a bit from
FilmThreat.com...
"Apparently the town of Batman, Turkey does have a high rate of female suicides, and Batman is to blame. Not the caped crusader, but the town itself. As the New York Times reported two years ago, the city of Batman, Turkey has an inordinate number of so-called ‘Honor Suicides’. What’s an honor suicide? Well, it’s like an honor killing, but better! Instead of a young girl or woman being murdered by her own family for some random sexual offense (adultery, sex before marriage, getting raped, glancing at a boy, etc), the ’shamed’ family makes the girl kill herself."
Well, as mentioned above, this has ceased to be funny. Someone needs to bitch-slap that dude.