Tuesday News: Kenyon v. Clare, Deadpool (again), Arlington denies WASPs, and wearable caffeine

JanetPublishing NewsArlington / caffeine / Cassandra Clare / copyright / Deadpool / female pilots / infringement / lawsuit / Sherrilyn Kenyon / technology / trademark / WASP program / World War II5 Comments

[UPDATE] Cassandra Clare sued for copyright infringement over Shadowhunter series – Cassandra Clare’s attorney has responded to Kenyon’s suit for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and false advertising. Note that his commentary focuses primarily on the copyright claim, even though, as Jane’s comment here points out, there is a lot of  action around the trademark issues.

UPDATE (2/11/16): EW has received a statement from Clare’s attorney, John Cahill, which says that Kenyon’s “lawsuit failed to identify a single instance of actual copying or plagiarism by Cassie,” and notes that some ideas Kenyon claims Clare stole, like having “normal objects…. imbued with magical properties such as a cup, a sword, and a mirror,” have long been part of the human storytelling process. . . . 

“Cassie was both surprised and disappointed that Ms. Kenyon would file this baseless lawsuit, a decade after the debut of Cassie’s books. Kenyon is wrong when she claims that Cassandra Clare or her publisher made any agreements about using ‘shadowhunters.’ Cassie never gave Kenyon any assurances regarding this and, although she would have preferred to resolve any concerns that Ms. Kenyon has or may have had, Ms. Kenyon never contacted or spoke with her.” – Entertainment Weekly

How ‘Deadpool’ Returned Ryan Reynolds to the A-List and Saved R-Rated Comic Book Movies – An alternative viewpoint on the success of Deadpool, this time emphasizing the amount of energy that is now going to be directed as mimicking the qualifies that made Deadpool successful. Because the irony that novelty is all about, well, the newness of something, expect to see sequels and copycats galore, despite the admonition here to remain “true to the source material.” There is also an argument here that one of the film’s appeals is the fact that Deadpool was more interested in personal goals than a global mission.

But don’t just drop F-bombs for the sake of being labeled edgy. As “Deadpool” demonstrates, the movie and the marketing both have to be true to the source material. The reason the Comic-Con crowd flipped at the initial footage from the film, and that social media embraced images of Deadpool on the toilet or stretched out on a bearskin rug doing his best Burt Reynolds impression, was that they were cheeky parodies of a genre that has grown self-serious. That’s true of the Deadpool from the comic — he is a mercenary, fourth-wall shattering figure, more interested in landing the perfect put down than he is in saving the world. – Variety

Women who flew on home front in WWII seek burial in Arlington -During World War II, more than a thousand U.S. women serves as WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots, basically working domestically so that male pilots could fly overseas. And a recent change in policy means that Arlington, which is run by the U.S. Army (other cemeteries are run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the VA), is now refusing to bury any more WASPs in the cemetery. However, Elaine Harmon, who served as a WASP and died after the policy change, wanted to be buried at Arlington. So her daughter has taken up the fight, which includes a Change.org petition and legislation in both houses of Congress to overturn the Army’s decision. One factor influencing the new stance may be that space is becoming an issue at Arlington (you can fill in the rest of the logic here).

With thousands of male pilots fighting overseas in World War II, 1,074 female pilots joined the short-lived WASP program. They flew more than 60 million miles domestically, test-flew and repaired military aircraft and ferried male officers around the country. They even towed targets during live-ammunition training. Thirty-eight died while serving.

Congress granted them military and veteran status in 1977. In 1984, they each received a World War II Victory Medal and in 2010, the pilots were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal (an effort also sponsored by Davis).

In 2002, Arlington’s administrator said that WASP were eligible for full military honors when being buried at Arlington, and that they’d been eligible for burial there since 1977. In March, McHugh rescinded the decision in a memo, saying that the 1977 law declaring them to be “active duty designees” applied only to programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Since the Army, not the VA, runs Arlington, WASP aren’t eligible unless the Army says so, he said in the memo. – Los Angeles Times

This wearable will deliver your caffeine fix through your skin – Someone has heard my prayers, and they have an Indiegogo campaign that is going to make my dream come true with the Joule Caffeine Bracelet!!!!!

The patches are safe to wear whilst you actually consume a cup of coffee or an energy drink, they’ll just balance your energy so you can go longer before your next fix, so theoretically the bracelet could be used to help wean wearers off of their caffeine addiction. Though we’re not sure how effective it would be, or whether the bracelet would just be used to justify drinking more coffee. – Gadgette

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

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