Hells Angels sue Disney over movie plans

[Sven]

Fri Mar 10, 2006

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hells Angels has sued Walt Disney Co., claiming that a planned movie about a group of motorcycle riders called "Wild Hogs" infringes on its trademark name and skull logo.

A Disney spokesman said the suit was without merit.

"Wild Hogs," which has not yet begun filming, is a story about "a group of middle-aged wannabe bikers look(ing) for adventure out on the open road, where they encounter a chapter of the Hells Angels," according to the tag line on Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).

In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of California on Wednesday, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corp. said the characters in the movie are identified as members of the club and wear trademark logos, although in the suit the club said Disney had not given it a copy of the script.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation was formed in 1948 in California's San Bernardino area and describes itself as a group of motorcycle enthusiasts.

Law enforcement officials have frequently linked the group to drug trafficking, racketeering and other criminal activities, but it was also recently paid $990,000 by the Santa Clara County for a botched raid of the club's property in 1998.

[aussiebandit]

I would have thought the Harley Owners Group (HOG) would have been more upset over the use of HOGS.

There was a story on the Sunday program here in Oz last week about the 'outlaw bike clubs' in South Oz.  The Government basically wants to outlaw the outlaw clubs (which to me sort of doesn't make sense).  The Governments postition is that the 'clubs' are the foot soldiers for organised crime.  But there haven't been very many court appearances, let alone convictions, of Outlaw clubs in Oz.

The Premier of SA at one point said "We want to make all clubs illegal"...that statment is quite scary when you consider that the largest 'club' in Oz is the Ulysses Club.  The Ulysses is aimed at people over 50, you can join at 40 as a junior member.  Now, these blokes (and blokettes) do an absolute shyte load of work for charity and are far from being 'outlaws'.  Not to mention touring clubs like the Redback Tourers (the club I belong to).  We're just a bunch of people who like riding bikes and socialising.  Yes, some of us to break the occaisonally traffic law (read speed), but we to are far from Outlaws.

Don't get me wrong, I know a number of Outlaw club members, and they are sometimes not 'nice' people, are involved in some crime, but not to the extent that the SA government makes out.

There was one quote from Barger (Yanky Hells Angel)..."If you want to be a criminal you do not want to be a Hell’s Angel. You know how we are watched, if you are watched like that, do you think you get away with anything illegal for very long?"


See here for story....

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/article_1950.asp

[solman]

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation was formed in 1948 in California's San Bernardino area and describes itself as a group of motorcycle enthusiasts.

I grew up 20 miles west of San Bernardino and never new that they formed so close to where I grew up.

[tacoman]

A really good book is Sonny Barger's "Hells Angel", it covers all their exploits from the early 50's to present day.  Personally, I don't see the harm in biker gangs anymore.  They were overhyped in the 60's and were never that bad.  They were/are high profile so the Gov't goes after them.  You want scary gangs, its those being formed by illegal immigrants from Central America, the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13.  Bad news, a real scourge.  They're starting to show up here (Tacoma, Wa) and the cops are nervous.  I'll take a group of Hell's Angels any day.  I actually chatted with a few in a beer garden at a local concert, nice guys.

[Sven]

A really good book is Sonny Barger's "Hells Angel", it covers all their exploits from the early 50's to present day.  Personally, I don't see the harm in biker gangs anymore.

I read that book, and it blythely mentions stealing motorcycles, petty thievery, barfights, etc.  Combined with the common knowledge that hardcore members of these groups survive on drug sales doesn't make them sound like a harmless group.  Sure, there are worse, but they're not just big ol' ZZ Top-lookin' sweathearts, either.

I don't know that we can resolve this issue here.  Read the discussion at Wikipedia for a variety of views, all of which claim tobe "informed".  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hells_Angels

[Signal9]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400060842/002-2962063-3494419?v=glance&n=283155

Here is a good look at the "overhyped" outlaw biker gangs...nowadays they are just less obvious in their criminal dealings.  A majority of the meth traffic in some areas is ran by these groups.

[aussiebandit]

Look don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the Outlaw clubs and their illegal activities, but I do beleive there are worse people and worse organisations out there that contribute to the crime rate a hell of a lot more than the bikies do.  I'm not saying that they should be left alone, but lets put our taxes to better use when fighting crime....

There was another article I read that stated that the SA Government wants not only to ban the Outlaw clubs but also "....turn riding in formation into unlawful assembly..."  This is getting really scary....what happens to non-outlaw clubs that have club runs, not to mention the annual Toy and Blanket Runs.  How many bikes constitutes a 'Run'.

My wife was the Spare Parts Manager at the local HD shop, and in her experiance the young squids on their 600cc crotch rockets and the weekend wannabes were alot harder to deal with than any of the 'Outlaw' bikies.

Yes, she has had to ask them to leave the store and not to come back in until they've finished their smokes and removed their side arms.  At worst her request was met with a "Oh, f&^k, sh*t, sorry, no worries love".  They generally behaved themselves (tried to keep the language and noise to a minimum), and simply spent lots of money.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to cross any of them if they were in a bad mood.

[tacoman]

All groups have their 1%ers,  Its the small gangs trying to make a name for themselves that are probably the bad ones.  Sure, Sonny Barger and his gang had their crimes and run in with the law, but they were petty and not real damaging to society.  Take the Enron scandal that bilked taxpayers out of millions and cleaned out thousands of peoples' pensions, thats some serious crime.

[LowRyter]

I re-read Hunter Thompson's "Hell's Angels" a few years ago, I first read it in Jr Hi.  It begins with him teling the story from ER.  He rode with them a year or so.  He got worked over pretty good.  After that he welched on paying them with a few cases of beer he promised them to get the story.

I miss Hunter.

John 98 Red B12 almost 50kmiles

[B6mick]

I'm not going to enter the debate of whether they are nice or not. But the fact is the Angels org is copy righted, and by law, they, have the right to protect their copy right. Now if the Angels used something of disney, I bet you, disney would have the Angels in court for breach of copy right real quick.