This is an important artist's-rights issue, so I'm glad Ellison is fighting.

But I have to argue with Gerrold. Harlan is, was, and always will be a "cranky belligerent dwarf on a rampage." He'd be the first to admit it, I bet. The problem is that too many Internet twits think it's a bad thing to go on a rampage--in this case, a well-justified rampage.

Remember, this is Harlan Ellison, the writer who said he "goes to bed angry and wakes up angrier every day." His rampages are usually based on real, important issues that need to be resolved; he knows the value of well-aimed fury and justly delivered revenge.

Go, Harlan!

This is a simple contract issue. People are confusing their love of Star Trek with the ability of an artist to defend his rights.

Go Harlan!

Wait a minute.....If you create something and then get money for it...are you not in a sense selling it? isnt that script sold?...the property of someone else now? If I but a new car from a dealership, and then 10 years down the road decide to sell it to someone else, you can be sure I'm not going to give the dealership a portion of the money! he sold it! move on and write somthing else..then sell that too!

Wait a minute.....If you create something and then get money for it...are you not in a sense selling it? isnt that script sold?...the property of someone else now? If I buy a new car from a dealership, and then 10 years down the road decide to sell it to someone else, you can be sure I'm not going to give the dealership a portion of the money! He sold it! move on and write something else..then sell that too!

What merchandising for "City on the Edge of Forever?" When did that misshapen donut toy go on sale? I remember that a novel utilizing the donut was written some 20 or 30 years ago--and that's about it.

Sour grapes. He (along with many other writers, actors, etc.) of the day made their deals and now the deals most writers make are sweeter. So frakking what? You can't go back and change the deals now. How about moving forward instead of continually looking back over your shoulder, Mr. Ellison? You've probably got quite a muscle spasm buy now. No wonder you're cranky. Don't get me wrong - I really think we as a society could use a few more curmudgeons. I just think this sort of thing dilutes the value of your crankiness.

Intellectual property rights must be updated as technology evolves. It is extremely unfair to the creator of a script to receive no remuneration as the story is re-packaged and re-distributed for additional profits (laserdisc, VCD, VHS, Beta, DVD, PSP, etc...). for the studio. Add in the re-creation of SFX and you have a whole new version of a story that would not even exist without the creative inspiration that the author first brought to the project. Rights may be the wrong buzzword, but how about fairness? Siegel and Shuster sold their cartoon for $500. End of tale? No, because fairness to the creators of an important literary character (Superman) compensated them in a more equitable manner. Let's think more about decency as opposed to entitlement and maybe it is an easier pill to swallow.

The problem is that he waited 40 years to do this. In that time,the Guardian has appeared on the animated series in novels and in comics. He really looks like he's just doing this now to grab movie money-I can understand that but I don't think it's right to pretend that it's anything but that. I have no problem with his grabbing all the money he can get-I just don't like pretending it's some artistic crusade when it isn't.

In case everyone's has forgotten, Ellison STOLE the concept of Tribbles from Robert H. Heinlein! ( See "Flat Cats" from Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones".) He never paid a dime for for the rights!
Ellison, stop trying to make even more money off another writer's original work!

WiZZard...
Ellison didn't do squat on Tribbles, David Gerrold wrote the original story on that. Ellison did City on the Edge of Forever (also available in a pb book of six plays - original story, not the produced script)

J/P=?

Wow, a lot of twattish comments about an artist enforcing their own rights. Are people actually defending the corporations against the individual? Writers are treated like raw material by the industry, not human beings. And so what if Mr. Ellison is a cantankerous old git; he's allowed to be at that age, and with his reputation and body of work. You guys are unbelievable!

Star Trek is the ultimate corporate property. The Paramount execs have "repositioned" Star Trek half a dozen times already (movies, Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise) and suck up the cash from this cash cow the fans support.

I think the fans should start supporting the creators rather than the property. This has already happened a little with Ronald Moore, who created BSG after leaving Trek. SO what I am saying is, Go Harlan, even if you are cranky!

I do agree that the contracts need to keep up with the changing technology not even thought of 40 years ago.
But yes, Harlan is an angry man. Seems now he has one more reason to be.

Again, people seem to not care about the fact that Ellison is enforcing the contract he signed years ago! It's amazing how little respect some of you have for the actual creators of Trek lore but are willing to bow down and sing the praises of a multi-billion dollar corporation that has a history of doing less than honorable things!!

The film and TV industry are just as corrupt as any giant Wall Street firm. The way some of you ignore this and attack Ellison shows the worst element of human nature to stick to someone regardless of whether the person is in the right.

A few years ago, a bozo judge in Texas refused to order a new trial for a man sentenced to die on death row even though DNA proved he could not have been the killer. The judge decided that the case needed closure regardless of justice.

That kind of insanity and disregard for basic human decency is what some of you seem to be arguing for when you say Ellison is an old crank and should shut up.

Ellison had a contract signed years ago that he would receive certain profits from any creations derived from his work on Star Trek. Only recently did he learn that Paramount had released new books that took advantage of his creation. The company failed to pay him. Now he is defending himself.

How many of you would bat an eye if you read that GM was suing XYZ for patent infringement? Would you just give a knee-jerk reaction of fine because it's a corporation suing another corporation?

When a person gets screwed over and tries to defend himself, it's another person. Jealousy seems to take over and people resent real people trying to defend themselves.

That's twisted.

Ellison is a big bag of wind who is torn by the fact that the area of his greatest commercial success (Science Fiction) is looked down upon by the fine arts crowd. He's embarrassed by the science fiction community, and I'm embarrassed by his "the world owes me" attitude.

bob53186, what part of "Ellison and CBS Paramount signed a contract, and Ellison hasn't been paid" don't you understand? Which word didn't you understand? There are classes you can take to help with that.

Come work for me man, I promise I'll pay you *really* well....

What the hell do some of you mean "what merchandising?" Franklin Mint put out displays of that donut, I've seen collector's plates of that scene with the donut, I've seen toys of that donut scene, I've seen that donut on the covers of novels by other writers published by Pocket Books. It featured in one of the most famous episodes of the cartoon series. Do you think Mr. Ellison got squat for any of that? Do you think maybe that's why he's suing? Oh yeah, what about these new cgi-fancied up episodes that were first broadcast and now I don't know, are they released on DVD? Think he got a piece of that pie yet? It's called just compensation people. Without Mr. Ellison's original story, Paramount wouldn't have made all that money off that story and he just wants what he's due and I say yay for him and I hope he get's his day in court and the money he's due!

DoctorOtto,
I don't quibble with his attempt to get any legitimate royalty from his work. I'd say he should go for it (and I don't believe I commented on the legal issue).

I just think he's a dork, based on decades of watching him in action.

This is old new in the music business. Mississippi bluesmen have been dying in the poorhouse for years while young artists and record companies have gotten rich off of the music their music. I know they don't like it, but corporations need to do more than uphold the "letter of the law," they need to uphold the spirit as well. If they don't, well, let's just said juries are usually much more sympathetic to the creator than the corporate owner.

Go Harlan. You guys attacking him are crazy.

Without artists like him, we will get crap from the corporations.

The criticism in this case really isn’t a question of supporting or not supporting the “artists” against the big, bad corporations (and apparently in Ellison’s opinion, the big bad WGA too). Ellison IS a “cantankerous old git” but it has nothing to do with his age. He was apparently born that way. He’s been railing against this episode for over 42 years. 42 years. Dude. Seriously. Move on. He is well known for his massively overindulged sense of his own importance and perpetual victimhood. If you look up the words 'confrontational' and 'litigious' you’ll see his picture there. Ellison sues; the defendant settles just to make him go away; and he hungrily accepts. With all due respect to Mr. Gerrold, I don’t believe for a second that Ellison is being remotely altruistic in this.

In the case in question, the drafts of the teleplay that he insisted on submitting at the time were largely unusable and had to be extensively rewritten by Dorothy (DC) Fontana, Gene Coon and, arguably, Gene Roddenberry. In fact, it was so significantly rewritten Ellison famously disavowed it and tried to have his name removed from the credit and replaced with his uncomplimentary pseudonym, Cordwainer Bird. Ellison has never forgiven them for daring to contradict his delusions of his own perfection, publicly badmouthing the episode as aired, the entire franchise and people associated with it, and Gene Roddenberry personally in particular with a venom that is frankly disturbing in it bilious ferocity.

The original script, unfilmed and owned exclusively by Ellison, won a Writer's Guild of America award, while the filmed version ("a thalidomide-baby version of my script," according to Ellison) won a Hugo in 1967 for Best Dramatic Presentation. Ellison accepted the Hugo award in "memory of the script they butchered, and in respect to those parts of it that had the vitality to shine through the evisceration." Either it is his script or it isn't. He can't have it both ways. Look, the dude can write, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t also a very angry, very small minded, ugly little man with delusions of grandeur.

Here’s a relatively quick and dirty assessment of the apparently ongoing ad nauseam conflict.

http://hubpages.com/hub/cityontheedgeofforever

You know Artists right is something that has been developed a lot latley. However back then it was a bit of a dark ages as far as legality goes. As much as I would like to make sure artists get what the should we really need to see his original contract to know what he should get or not.

Just because people now days are getting better deals and contracts doesn't mean however many years later Harlen should be able to say "Crap I wish I had a better contract maybe if I sue they will just give me more!" I mean plenty of people have signed bad contracts and got taken for good money they should have earned. it's life. Live and learn.

I have to admit, I haven't kept up with this case very well, but I must say. Ellison, hit up Interplay because they used the Guardian for a little visual spoof/treat in one of their Fallout games. You'll proabably have to hit up Bethesda Softworks as I believe they own the Fallout franchise now.

I am glad Mr. Ellison is taking this action. Without the screenwriters, or Writers in general we would have Stories. And no civilised culture can thrive without Storytelling.

"The scriptwriters of the DS9 episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations' will receive residuals in perpetuity every time that episode earns money. The scriptwriter who created the tribbles receives nothing for that reuse of his work. Is this fair?"

What about Robert Heinlein who invented the fuzzy creatures in "Space Family Stone" - Martian Flatcats are tribbles in everything but name and you stole them from him.
Are you gonna donate your fee to his trust?

Regardless of the contract, no one should benefit off the fruit of another's labor. CBS has enough negotiation room to keep a major player from the past happy especially when they are presently pocketing his money from his work.

Harlan has been a major pain for years, often rightly so but just as often he hasn't been in the right. What he is in thi situation, I am not certain.

My thought is that he may have let the boat sail on him. He says that he has been dealt badly with for 42+ years but why did he take so long to sue. Most of the potential 'merchandise' problems occurred some 25 or more years ago so why did he wait another 17 to step into the limelight, other than the movie. I know writers are told to step right into things today to keep their copyrights and right intact, so again, what took him so long.
As for Mr Gerrold, did you feel that everything small and furry belongs to you? That kind of leaves H. Beam Piper out in the cold, the same as Mr. Heinlein and others. They all wrote of small furry creatures while RAH actualy wrote about creatures with a highly accelerated life cycle.

Yeah, it is a pain that something you wrote 25 years ago is picked up and used by somebody else. Of course the fact that it wasn't entirely a creation entirely of your own to begin with.

I am not dispariging your work or Mr. Ellison's. You put words together and make them sing while most people can't even get them on the same key.

It would be nice if the big media corporations were cool and willing to share. It's not just the writers either, I will admit. Bob Denver got a simple paycheck for each week's work on Gilligan's Island, then never another cent while the studio raked in millions. Ask Clayton Moore who was forced to abjure the mask because a studio thought he was too old to be even close to the image of the Lone Ranger.

So please don't put it that you, Harlen and writers are the only ones being put upon.

I've read Ellsion's original script for City on the Edge of Forever now a number of time in his book about it. It wasn't then and isn't now true to the Star Trek format and to the characters on the show. in fact, IT SUCKS as a Star Trek script. Thanks God that that Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coon and Dorothy Fontana rewrote it! Rest in peace Gene!