The Lawsuit that Killed Eleanor

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Sorry, occupational hazard: This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos! All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

Special thanks:
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images and AP Archives
Music provided by Epidemic Sound
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[brianweaver]

It's boggling that a man can buy all of these parts out of his pocket, do the work himself, but someone can just say "Hey that looks like my car, lol it's mine now."

[AnimeWolf]

Here's the thing; this was a HUGE botched opportunity.

"Gone In 60 Seconds" has not been in public attention for a while. So to have a fan build a replica in homage to your franchise is already pretty cool.

Now imagine if the GI60S guys had reached out and said "Hey, this was dope! Can we do some PR with you?" This dude would be stoked, the fans would think it's great, and you'd get some revived interest in your series. Especially with people getting burnt out over F&F franchise, this could have been a great opportunity.

Now you lost 14 videos about your precious "Eleanor, " you pissed off a content creator who actually liked your car, and you made a group of people who would have been interested in you now think your a deucebag who uses lawsuits to steal cars.

tldr; they may have won the battle, but they lost the war.

[OlOleander]

She and her lawyers sound like the kind of people that most of us would enjoy introducing to exposed machinery.

[alexanderboulton]

This is essentially a car cosplay. Can you imagine if media companies started suing every person who makes a cosplay of their characters? That would be insane!

[alex]

That widow is actively destroying the one little bit of public legacy her husband left behind.
Great work.
In her mind, everyone in costume at comic con should be mowed down by corporations for grave crimes and have all their clothes taken away.

[eingames]

What gets me angry is that Haliki went after people that made just gt 500 mustangs that may have looked close to Eleanor but were actually made to look like 500's that existed before the movie. They deserve to lose everything.

[Vinemaple]

I think Chris's tactic of giving the Halecki party what they wanted, and just clearly informing the public about what he was doing, was actually quite effective in harming the Halecki party, and possibly may have paved the way for the reversal and the Shelby lawsuit. Basically, he allowed them to make themselves look bad.

[brett-westgrove-country-music]

I watched this whole thing play out in real time and could only think “what a MASSIVE opportunity missed to collaborate and grow your brand with a rising car builder, but instead you took the negative dark route and tore this super great, positive car enthusiast apart.” I grew up working on and building cars and LOVED this particular car when it first appeared in the movie - but that is all gone. The car community is tight and we don’t stand for this kind of thing. I honestly still can’t believe, given the other options, that they were able to take the entire car.

[robertthomas]

I'm not a car person and didn't know Eleanor was unique. I assumed it was a mass production classic car. I don't think I'm alone on this. The batmobile on the other hand is hard to mistake for anything else.

[keleynal]

The story of a woman whose entire life and worth is wrapped around one thing. And that one thing isn’t even something that she made or accomplished, but that she assumed. Instead of taking the unique thing she has and sharing it with the world, she is hoarding it, falsely believing this will add value and meaning. In fact, it will make her bitter and isolated from a community that could have embraced and celebrated her. She will take Eleanor to her grave, for all the good that will do her.

[supervillain]

I mean, as a "non-car guy", I get why the batmobile is trademarked. It's distinctively linked with an famous character, has seen sporadic use in pop culture, constant redesigns and doubles as part of a set of "Bat" vehicles.

I had neither heard of Eleanor, nor do I believe I could tell it apart from any other vehicle. There was a mention during the video during some law that the copyrightability was proportional to distinctiveness, I feel that's how it ought be, if you can pull a dozen of independent queries and ask people if they recognize a character, that should determine on a case by case basis, or at least weigh in.

[Jefex]

Her husband is rolling over in his grave knowing all the money she spent for this as well as not sharing his idea with the car community

[ritokazoriv]

The more often I hear these stories the more I think copyright should be bound to the original autor, instead of random people by chance inheriting something they have no creative or artistic input in, if the autor dies it should automatically enter the public domain

[apjtv]

I love that Devon is shining a light on this and explaining the legalese. These sorts of creative restorations are what protect the legacy of these iconic cars. If they're banned, these cars would just fade from memory.

[michiganmaxedout]

So deeper pockets wanted to steal his car and threatened him with a big scary lawsuit, which put enough pressure on him that he handed it over under duress. That's some pretty fancy thievery.

[alexs]

This wasn’t a legal case this was bullying the smaller party into giving them their car. The fact they wouldn’t let him change the car is enough proof for me.

[contortionyx]

Chris did more for the property Eleanor is from than the actual copyright holders because I dont think I've ever even heard of it before this video.

[salvatronprime]

I don't understand how "prior art" doesn't apply here. The Batmobile was invented for the Batman show, the Shelby GT500 was not invented for the Nic Cage movie. The car already existed. The "character named Eleanor" is just an abstraction. The Shelby car cannot be copyrighted by a 3rd party.

[bloodyneptune]

The only thing more unbelievable than that a guy about to be burnt alive saying "tell my wife to protect my intellectual property" is that his wife thought that anyone would believe it

[vigilante]

Follow B is for Build team, and when I saw the episode where he had to stop the build, WOW... That was an absolute shock! Chris made a video the other day (as shown) where he expressed his disgust with Denise and her lawyers. I'm glad this has spread around to the point of it being quite a trending topic!