Five Things, 11/21/20
Posted on November 21, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 48 Comments
Because, hey! Just because I haven’t done one for a bit doesn’t mean I can’t do one now.
Trump loses again, again: Yesterday saw Georgia definitively go into the Biden win column, and (presumably) Trump’s grand plan to steal Michigan via the state legislature go into the crapper. There may yet be Michigan drama if the state certification board does some dipshit thing, but the remedy for that is straightforward. Trump also got dunked in Arizona and Nevada yesterday (the latter being a court case he didn’t bring but was relevant to his interests). It’s become increasingly difficult for Trump to even pretend he can steal the election, and by and large, the actual adults have been moving on. There have been rumors that Trump knows he lost, he just wants to be an asshole about it, which is, of course, on brand for him.
I do think there’s a bend in the curve where Trump’s bullshit starts hurting him even with base, and that we may be near it. Not with the full-on racist crapbags, of course; they’ve signed up to be conned by him long-term and aren’t going to back down now. But the ones who voted for him and may have had some concerns about vote fraud, based on what they’d been told by semi-legit sources, may begin to hike back to reality. It may take longer to insult their intelligence than I would like, but eventually you do get to that point, and I suspect the multiple court defeats and Giuliani literally melting down have begun to take their toll. It doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly support Biden, mind you. Merely that the magic is over and the longer Trump keeps this nonsense up, the fewer supporters he’s going to have at the end of it.
I know. Call me optimistic.
Adios, Arecibo: This makes me hugely sad: The massive radio telescope in Puerto Rico is being retired after having taken too much damage recently. Like any space geek, Arecibo always loomed large in my imagination, and honestly seemed to be to big to fail — but fail it has. It has a pretty good run of nearly 60 years, however, which in itself is an impressive feat; there’s not a lot of tech that stays in use that long. I’ve been to Puerto Rico a couple of times, and both times I could have taken a tour of the telescope but chose not to. Fool! I’ll not get that chance now.
More love for my Pixel 5: I noted this yesterday on Twitter:
If you can’t see the tweet. It shows a graph with the battery of my Pixel 5 at 38 percent after about 30 hours of use. I got another four hours out of it before I plugged it in; it had gotten down to 17% by that point. I’ve never gotten that sort of battery life out of any phone I’ve had before, and certainly not out of a Pixel. Yes, yes — let’s see where we are a year from now. But I’ll tell you what, for now, I’m loving this phone, and not just because of the battery. Nor am I the only one — I’m seeing a fair number of articles like this, in which the author sort of amazedly admits to really really liking the Pixel 5, despite other, higher-specced phones being available. It’s apparently the mid-range phone that could.
Alan Dean Foster: Speaking of my Twitter feed, I was reminded that a lot of you who visit here don’t pay much attention to it, because I’ve gotten emails and other queries asking why I hadn’t written about Disney stiffing beloved SF author Alan Dean Foster out of royalties. In fact, I wrote extensively about it on Twitter, the gist of which is this:
I’ve been pleased to see that Alan’s cause has gotten some traction on social media and at news sites, but honestly it should have not taken SFWA shaming Disney in public to deal with this. Alan’s royalties are probably a very tiny percentage of the craft service budget on a Marvel shoot; Disney will not miss what they owe him. Which is neither here or there about whether they should pay him — he’s got a fucking contract, of course they should pay him — merely to make point that Disney bought itself a lot of public shame over a sum that’s relatively trivial to the company, but which actually matters to Alan. Inexplicable.
Krissy and Smudge: I think this is my favorite picture yet of the two of them.
It pretty much captures both of their personalities, which is what you want a picture to do. And of course, they are both ridiculously photogenic.
— JS
Thank you, John. That pic of Krissy and Smudge gave me a big ol’ smile. Smiles are scarce and precious these days, so gratitude to all of you!
I am so depressed about the election. Not what Trump is doing, that is totally predictable. But where is the Republican leadership? Do they really not care? Do they really only care about power? McConnell has been this way since he sabotaged Obama’s presidency. He’s not going to change. Does no one in the Republican party actually care? Sorry, I’m normally a fairly optimist person.
I had XCEL Energy attempt the same thing with us. We found a high-pressure natural gas line under our fence line that they charge people for (including us, it is part of their delivery system that they bought whenever they bought the energy company here in Denver) around which we were doing maintenance. We find that the folks who poured the concrete for the posts had poured right onto the gas line. We call and ask them to come help deal with the concrete, as we really, really don’t want to damage the line. The lady in Minnesota says “Nope not our problem. We just bought the rights to sell energy.”. I’ve never actually heard my kind, loving wife laugh at somebody that way. It was almost (but only almost) funny. My wife said “OK, we’ll knock the concrete off and stop paying you, since you are unwilling to take care of the old infrastructure you didn’t buy.”. They had a team out within 30 minutes, who said “No idea why that person in MN said that, we do this sort of maintenance every day.”.
On the Alan Dean Foster case, I think the case needs to go to court, where hopefully a judge will penalize Disney for breach of contract at a monetary level that stops this kind of thing from being an issue again.
I too am very sad about the telescope. I really wish they could save it (or rebuild it).
RE: Alan Dean Foster, it’s not that unusual in an asset purchase agreement for a buyer to purchase certain assets but not the liabilities–looks like this is what happened in Foster’s case. Luckily for him, the seller, Lucasfilms, is not an empty shell, so he can sue them AND Disney and let them sort out who owes him the money. But yeah, I agree, dick move by Disney.
On the telescope, since the second cable had been examined and determined to be OK and not under stress after the first broke, they would have to dismantle and rebuild the whole thing to be safe. They have had budget issues where they did not know if they would be able to continue operating the next year, so they definitely didn’t have the money for that. Congress would have to be interested and put a rebuild into the budget. The practical justification outside of science would be it’s use as a radar determining precise orbits of threatening asteroids.
Question for astronomers: could a radio telescope be built in, say, a nice dry desert like arizona with similar capabilities? Or wouod that be too far north?
Seems like building that thing in a jungle was really asking for trouble.
Also, could the reciever be put on top of a tower instead of cables? Or do they use the cables to move the reciever and point at different things in the sky?
Re: Krissy and Smudge-gorgeus picture and excellent example of Smudge being very good at being a cat.
@Eyeinthesky I read up on it, and the latitude makes a difference, the similar telescope in china is limited because of that. Also you need a natural depression to build it in to keep costs down, both Arecibo and the chinese one are in similar basically massive limestone sinkholes.
A tower was first proposed, but blocks out the center of the dish, like 60% of sensitivity, and means you are pointed only by the rotation of the earth, and can’t track a target. The cables do move the receiver.
@eyeinghesky you can have radio telescopes wherever you want, but the further away they are from the equator the less of the sky they can see. United Kingdom has Jodrell Bank in Manchester (on a latitude with Nova Scotia in Canada) Australia has Parkes or whatever it’s called now, sat in a desert at a similarly southern latitude to Arizona is northern, America has the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia.
They’re all on top of steerable towers, but they’re a lot smaller so a lot less sensitive than Arecibo (you can get round the sensitivity by joining telescopes together. Think how your vision is a lot better with two,eyes open vs one closed)
The best explanations I’ve seen for Trump’s “winning” (in his own definition*) series of lawsuits are (i) that he’s using it to milk the suckers for more campaign donations, most of which will end up in his pockets, and (ii) creating social divisions that his allies will benefit from even if he isn’t re-elected.
* Winning 1 of 25 cases = “I wontby a landslide” in Trump math.
In the first case, donations less than a certain sum (I’ve mostly seen $8000 mentioned) that are nominally intended to support the lawsuits will actually go elsewhere (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/insight-donations-under-8k-trump-215918486.html). That will line Trump’s threadbare pockets in various ways. That’s pretty much on-brand.
In the second case, this is all part of a longstanding campaign to convince Republican voters that the election was stolen and that they can’t trust the democratic (or Democratic process). More than half believe this already and I’ve seen higher percentages reported elsewhere. Sowing this kind of division is again, very on-brand for Trump. It’s going to poison anything Biden tries to accomplish in coming months.
We’re not out of the deep woods yet, either. Trump is said to be seeking permission to start a hot war with Iran (https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/politics/trump-possible-offensive-iran-nuclear-site/index.html), possibly in the hope that despite abundant historical precedent to the contrary, he’ll be able to claim an international crisis that will make it infeasible to transfer power to Biden. Then there’s Trump’s good buddy in Moscow (no, not Mitch McConnell… the other fascist) to start something nasty that would give Trump an excuse to try to retain power.
I’m on Twitter, but I don’t check it a lot! Glad so many people are sticking up for Mr. Foster. I bought one of his (non-tie-in) books yesterday in support! Love the sweet picture of Smudge!
My bad. *Won* by a landslide, in Trump-speak.
As Kevin noted, it’s common practice for a new group of “investors” called “vulture” capitalists to buy a company, strip it of its assets, and leave behind a shell that consists only of liabilities (debts, etc.). Though “vulture” is clever imagery, “tick” is probably a more appropriate metaphor, since said capitalists don’t consume dead companies. They function as bloodsucking parasites that drain a living being of its lifeblood and leave it to die. It’s easy to see someone thinking that the Alan Dean Foster case is a great way to set a legal precedent for other companies to avoid paying their creative talent.
Sorry to appear to be a butt WRT the ADF vs. Disney issue, there’s a few like me who refuse to use twitter (on principle) & I had not seen any commentary on this, especially from writers like you whom I respect. Of course there’s a contract but should the house of mouse get away w/stiffing ADF that will change the face of entertainment Forever, IMHO a bad thing. Now back to the shadows & thank you…
I had some heartburn when I heard about Alan Dean Foster’s contract woes. Not because he isn’t well represented and won’t get help, but that he is literally the first science fiction author I read. Although I wasn’t aware at the time he was the author of the Star Wars book but I read that until it was dogeared and purchased Splinter of the Minds Eye as well. His writing brought me into scifi books.
And well Trump will be Trump, and I suspect he’s getting people spun up in order for the GOP to keep their Senate majority. He is willing to throw one of his own loyalists under the bus in Georgia. There are many Republicans disgusted by him but some won’t say it out loud. They will in January.
This is so much fun! I love going to far right wing web sites and trolling them. These pukes need to have their hopes built up, let’s give them hope, let’s watch as they so earnestly hope, only to see it crushed! Come on, have some fun, let’s give these white supremacists some hope! It will be so good to see their disgusting dreams dashed like water on the rocks
On a similar note, Jim Wright, on his Stonekettle Station Facebook blog (you follow it, I hope) set up a go-fund-me for his author friend, David Gerrold. Assuming he’s the author of the Chtorr series, he’d already been screwed once by his first publisher. This time, his attorney/financial advisor robbed him blind at a time where he needs funds to cover medical issues. The fundraiser cleared the $100,000 request in somewhere around 18 hours. It might even still be going.
As a life long resident of Michigan don’t underestimate the dumb fuckery that the Michigan GOP will stoop to in service to their cult leader. Trump has zero chance of winning but will do his best to deligitimize Biden’s election and tarnish American democracy. All because he’s mentally a toddler. And we all have to live through his tantrums.
If it says somewhere in the asset transfer agreement something about leaving liabilities with lucasfilms, It’s doubtful that would apply to royalty payments for sales of books made after the transfer.
That would be like buying a house but the previous owner has to keep paying the utilities.
Especially since Foster, his agent, and SFWA President Mary Robinette Kowal all very clearly state that the contract contains language obligating the original publisher *and its succesors and assigns* to pay those royalties. Disney is full of it, and they’re probably hoping that Foster will simply die and the whole thing will be dropped so they can screw him over and use the case as a precedent for screwing over other authors.
Jodrell Bank in Manchester that Lord Edam mentioned is of similar vintage to Arecibo, but still going. The place was founded in 1945, but the Lovell Telescope itself, the big beast everyone thinks of, was completed in 1957 in time to track Sputnik 1’s booster rocket by radar, the only facility in the world able to. Fun fact – part of the gun turret mechanisms from the battleships HMS Revenge and HMS Royal Sovereign were reused in the telescope’s motor system.
I did have a chance to tour Jodrell Bank and did – though not when I was a student at Manchester University up the road, of which the place is a part, but rather more recently, when I lived much further away. It was 2006 in fact and, ObSF ref, as part of a small UK rec.arts.sf.composition meetup that included Charlie Allery and Jacey Bedford.
It is very impressive close up, though not as impressive as Arecibo looks in its environment. It’s sited in a fairly flat landscape of fields, hamlets and small towns, and the M6 motorway – a main UK artery between Manchester and Birmingham at that point – is less than four miles away, and Manchester International Airport less than eight miles away.
I’m sad about Arecibo, too. I probably had heard of it as a child, but the first time I was really aware of it was the movie Contact.
I did take an excursion to see it in 2005 (or perhaps we rented a car and drove out there). I think it took an hour and a half to see all that we were allowed to see. I’m glad we made the effort.
“Which is neither here or there about whether they should pay him — he’s got a fucking contract, of course they should pay him — merely to make point that Disney bought itself a lot of public shame over a sum that’s relatively trivial to the company, but which actually matters to Alan. Inexplicable.”
As others have commented: Entirely explicable. They hope to establish a precedent whereby they can retroactively convert creative works created under contract to straight work-for-hire. If they can do it to ADF, a figure well known in the SF world but not outside of it, they can next try it on bigger names. Jack Kirby. Brian Henson. Whomever.
It’s despicable.
Just an echo of the telescope comment (Jodrell Banks) –
Yes, gun turrets = observatories. The only difference is scale.
I had a friend on the Big Island who worked up on Mauna Kea. He’d trained in tank turret design in England right before the Brits downsized their military. Being smarter than I am, he parlayed this knowledge into a job at the UK IR scope. I got an invite one day, which is why I know that E Eridani has a thick dust disk and how I got to shovel snow in Hawaii.
For Trump and the loser GOP ( yes, we will catch up to you some day) some good old Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks:How Can I miss You If You Won’t Go Away
Arecibo was my Disneyland, even though I am a Floridian, it makes me sad, but things will change in late January.
I am really sorry about Mr. Foster, I have enjoyed a lot of his work and no one has said he is an asshole I can’t read anymore. Yes, the Mouse that Ate Orlando is a nasty beast, they have people drive around our state to find unlicensed use of their crap so they can sue them. Hard to find their strategy when they want to just grab all the cash and keep it.
Totally off topic: It’s nice to see the photos come back to the blog’s masthead. Visually, it was really sad and boring for a while.
And now Con Man Don has officially requested a full recount in Georgia, which is, of course, to be done at the expense of the county governments. Republicans are still trying to put up a smokescreen about signature verification on absentee ballot envelopes, repeating their BS about proper procedures not being outlined and followed. They just can’t quit being slandering, lying, accusatory scumbags.
I wonder if we’ll ever get to see the end of the fake saga of Rudy Giuliani. This remarkable man has occupied legitimate positions he has invariably managed turn into fake ones: fake Mayor of New York City, fake security adviser to a South American government or two, and now the fake lawyer of a real president who got his breakthrough in politics as a Birther and went on from there.
As for enough people who voted for Trump and have become disillusioned enough to stop supporting him in substantial numbers, I don’t know. Has, by any chance, anyone here read “Fall, or Dodge in Hell” by Neil Stephenson? “Ameristan” anyone?
My concern is that Trump, and his kids, and probably some of his lackeys in the administration, are looking at personal bankruptcy and a variety of fraud and tax evasion charges starting on January 21. They have nothing to lose by calling on their supporters to take up arms to “protect the election”.
I may start to relax if we get through Thanksgiving without any shooting starting.
Disney’s got nothing to lose here. If ADF gives up or loses in court, they win. If he sues or they settle, the amount is chump change to them, even if he gets damages and court costs. So why not screw him over? Sure, it’s a tiny amount, but corportions can be incredibly obsessive about sucking up loose change in various ways. And as others have noted, if they win they can pull this shit again.
Part of the problem is that our legal system really isn’t set up to restrain individuals or companies who get this rich and powerful. It’s very hard to hit them with enough financial damage to hurt and a lot of prosecutors will sooner settle for a slap on the wrist than take on a long, expensive case they can’t win.
Haven’t gotten around to reading Fall, or Dodge in Hell yet. There’s a character in Reamde whose first impression, upon seeing a no-holds-barred Idahoan open-carry neighborhood, is “American Taliban.”
News coverage of the American election has been quite measured here. This is welcome, because the commercial media are so obviously working both sides of the street with regard to COVID. Horrendous death toll! Cruise ships, nursing homes! Hours in queues for testing! Insane border closure policies! Economy going down the gurgler! It’s all good!
Be that as it may, Amelia Brace and Tim Myers are more than deserving of the Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism they received for their courage under (literal) fire at Lafayette Park. https://www.walkleys.com/award-winners/amelia-brace-and-tim-myers/
Gorgeous photo of Krissy & Smudge!
Is that a physical analog copy of The New York Time? Oh my jealousy is rampant. You can’t get one of those anywhere in my area and I still love you get a little newsprint on my fingers.
I don’t know which is scarier, that Trumpster has
/a/ had a dis-associative break with reality,
OR
/b/ that he knows exactly what he is doing with the goal of owning the party for ever.
Either way I’m mindful of the dog that finally catches the car it’s been chasing and asks “Now What?”
If the Disney Wild West theory of contracts prevails, I’d like to buy the rights to print Mickey Mouse comics from one of Disney’s printers – but not the obligation to deliver them to Disney.
It’s an anecdote rather than data, but my father, who had been a Trump supporter until the election, made his first critical-of-Trump comment following Trump’s refusal to concede. I hope he is one of many who are distancing themselves from Trump.
Wasn’t Arecibo one of the locations for ‘Contact’? Classic SF film.
As much as I enjoy the personal vision of Trump being wheeled out of the White House by the Secret Service with his wrists and ankles bound we know that isn’t going to happen; too embarrassing. He either leaves quietly the weekend before Inauguration Day or stomps off in a huff sometime convenient in the next few weeks.
Who knows what the future GOP looks like but any of those dweebs who think “normal” is going to return after Trump leaves I think are sadly mistaken; next time we get a competent Trump who really grinds them down.
There will be no meeting with Biden though…
Shrike58: Here’s my vote for “stomp off in a huff.” He’ll be at Mar-A-Lago on January 20th, desperately trying to distract the news media and the country from Biden’s inauguration by still screaming “Fraud!” and “I really won!” Here’s hoping it doesn’t succeed: I want Trump to be humiliated and ignored, as soon as possible. Failing humiliated, I’ll take ignored, as soon as he is no longer president.
annaparadox: Your anecdote is kind of what I’ve been hoping happens with a great many more people than just your father–that there is a limited number of people in this country who can’t count, and enough of at least Mathematically Literate ones in the Trump camp to realize that this nonsense is just genuinely embarrassing if not out and out damaging to the country. Up until now, every time someone has said, “Trump’s base will desert him over this,” I’ve been, “I don’t think so. He’s still president.” But this? This is so obviously stupid and un-American that it is therefore the best hope I’ve seen in four years for people coming to their senses. Some of them, at least.
It is kind of interesting to see how many people believe in Trump so strongly that all the lawsuits he loses and all the evidence that doesn’t exist means nothing for them, because liberals something something fake liberal media something something.
Some people are very keen on the notion that property rights and voluntary contract are sufficient to everything not home or national defence. I don’t know how many of them have experience trying to get a contract enforced when the other party has Gatling lawyers.
@Sandra L. Levy, I am troubled as well. If I were to guess, the GOP is not trying to stand in Trump’s way because they are “setting the table” for Trumpism without Trump. Republicans know Trump is head and shoulders far more popular than any of them, and the only living Republican with a personality cult. Reagan was the last one, and George W. Bush was such a catastrophe by the end that he could no longer serve as one. Trump has Reagan’s personality cult despite failing faster and harder than Bush.
Republicans see Trumpism as a management failure, not a moral one. They’re going to try to rehabilitate the Trumpian ideology of aggrieved white entitlement, but something along the lines of the amiable dunce at the head of the ticket and a capable tactician as a running mate. The ideal presidential candidate has to appeal to the Fox News wing of the party and the “meme magic” wing of the party. It’s sticking that right balance between being a featured guest on prime time Fox News and saying that one stupid/batshit quote that will get ripped out of context and first trend on social media for rightly being dragged as stupid/batshit, then reshared by the base because the mockery feeds into pre-existing grievances they have toward liberals/coastal elites/SJWs. Let’s call this maneuver the High Palin, or the Fox Trot.
People who fit this mold: Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, Doug Collins, Matt Gaetz and the Queen Mother herself, Sarah Palin.
The capable tactician would serve as the evil henchman who can run 4-dimensional chess gambits and navigate the complexities of bureaucracy. Think of how Dick Cheney organized the wars after 9-11. The field is rather thin for the GOP here. There’s Cheney, there’s Mitch McConnell — assuming he’d want to give up the Senate Majority Leader post — and now William Barr. Maybe Stephen Miller or even Scott Walker, but that’s it.
And another vote for the huff + puff+ stomp maneuver.
I also share the concern expressed upthread RE: Trump’s deployment of armed and enwhiteled guardians of America in his war against the “deep state” who intends to punish (bet this is how the possible legal trouble will be characterized at wound-licking rally’s) him for winning at life and trying to make America great again.
As for a tide of Trumpist enlightenment, I’ll believe it when I see/hear/read it.
Right now, I’m seeing/hearing/reading a ton of conspiracy theories, racist tantrums and threats and petulant declarations that Biden isn’t*their* president.
I don’t care enough about how Trump supporters feel to insist that Biden is their president whether they like it or not.
I don’t expect them to care anymore than I or others did when they or other democrats stated the obvious in 2016.
They can deny reality, tear at their robes and hoods and gnash their teeth in the streets until the white heat of their outrage melts their bones.
So long as they aren’t physically harming others, they’re of little consequence.
All that’s left to do is secure the senate seats in Georgia so that republicans get to spend the next little while stewing in their own impotence and outrage as democrats go about the business of repairing the damage Trump and his accomplices, sycophants and brain-sharers have done to this country.
I assumed the GOP is going along with Trump’s nonsense because they will use his “vote fraud” argument to justify even more voter disenfranchisement, and Trump supporters will now support it no matter how severe it is.
It wouldnt surprise me if 2021 has some GOP folks proposing a poll tax or a pop quiz you must pass to vote, history be damned.
@ Eyeinthesky:
“I assumed the GOP is going along with Trump’s nonsense because they will use his “vote fraud” argument to justify even more voter disenfranchisement, and Trump supporters will now support it no matter how severe it is.”
Trump supporters already support voter disenfranchisement, the more egregious the better. I doubt that this particular ploy will change their “minds” significantly. You can’t improve on 100%.
@ Sarah Marie:
“As for a tide of Trumpist enlightenment, I’ll believe it when I see/hear/read it.”
I’m not terribly hopeful either.
Red states hardest hit by COVID-19 went bigly for Trump in the election. These folks are so delusional and consumed with hatred that they’re willing to kill themselves simply to prevent the Other Side from winning. Even if they gain nothing from it. Facts be damned, democratic process be damned, and they haven’t had common decency in at least a generation.
The most we can hope for is that Biden’s inauguration doesn’t trigger more mass synagogue/mosque shootings, running cars into civilians, etc.
@Fatman:
Agreed, and I wouldn’t bet on silence or safe streets in the coming months.
Those who aren’t dead or permanently disabled from covid will likely take to the streets in force to terrorize “colored folks, gays and uppity womenfolk” who voted “against murica.”
We aren’t dealing with rational, careful or critical thinkershere.
Even more dangerous is that there are far too many people making excuses for their past and current antics and trying to pressure their targets into living and let harm because “healing” and “unity.”
I hope I’m wrong, but I really think that violent Trump supporters are going to be shielded from criticism by folks on the left, middle and right who have…certain things in common with them.
I think they’re going to be compared to BLM protesters in an effort to guilt people into excusing the bloodshed
Again, I hope I’m wrong, butI remember which voters ditched Obama when he dared to defend Dr. Gates.
On another note, regarding poll tests and the like, oh please, pretty please let them fire that particular bullet into their feet.
Such a move would most definitely disqualify Qanon subscribers and anyone who conflated socialism or communism with the social safety net.
Anyone who didn’t know how contagions work, let alone how to combat the spread of a virus would also be disqualified.
This includes the bright bulb in Jacksonville who tried to link Coronavirus with the consumption of corona beer.
Hell, anyone trying to root white supremacy in scientific fact shouldn’t even be allowed to walk past a polling place.
Trump couldn’t even vote for himself in 2024.
Simply put, I’d love, love love to see them try.
Provided such a move wasn’t immediately crushed to space dust, things might not go the way they anticipated. 😊
@Kevin Grierson: while asset purchases w/o liabilities are absolutely a thing under certain circumstances, I find it hard to believe that’s true in the context of Disney claiming “yes, we lawfully have certain rights to use and benefit from intellectual property, but when we acquired them we mysteriously didn’t acquire the obligation to pay the owner of those rights for using them”. I’m not even going to pretend to opine on whether California state law about asset purchase agreements ports over to federal copyright decisions, and it’s way too early on a Monday for a discussion about Ray v. Alad and its progeny, but my super hot take is that @frashersherman has the right of it: Disney’s lawyers don’t care that they’re pulling legal arguments out of their butts, because settling with ADF is just the cost of doing business (and, if they’re outside counsel, is a fine billing opportunity).