«
»
F-F-F-Feudin'

THE SPIRIT OF THE MIKE PORTNOY VS. DREAM THEATER LAWSUIT CARRIES ON

 Thursday, October 27th, 2011 at 10:30am by

Portnoygate

On September 20th we reported that Mike Portnoy sued the other members of Dream Theater back in April, linking to the publicly available “Notice of Summons” document as proof. Later that day Dream Theater’s attorney was quoted as saying there is “no pending litigation” between Portnoy and Dream Theater. Today I choose to file a motion of “bullshit.”

A stealthy MetalSucks named Larry W. reader tipped us off to the existence of this website, a publicly searchable database of all court records in New York state. Pass the captcha, type “Portnoy, Mike” into the Plaintiff Search box (lol at him not using “Michael”), and voila, a plethora of documents relating to the Portnoy vs. DT litigation, the most recent of which was filed YESTERDAY.

There’s a bunch of documents there and you’re busy, so I’ll sum it all up for you: from what I can gather, other than the very first document, all of this stuff boils down to a request to have Portnoy’s and all the members of Dream Theater’s addresses removed from public record, since, ya know, they’d probably like to avoid stalkers. What makes no sense is why the document with their addresses would still be posted, and why they’d even bother with all of this if there is, in fact, no pending litigation. Either it’s some kind of formality to close up a loose end, or Dream Theater’s lawyer quoted above was blowing smoke up our asses.

If there are any lawyers in the MS readership, feel free to speculate in the comments or via email.

-VN

Tags: , ,
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506137459 Chuck Wagner

    Portnoygate

    ROFL

  • Drifika

    Full disclosure – I am an attorney authorized to practice in Washington State, not a New York.  Having read the documents, it readily appears that Vince 100% is correct.  There is still litigation going on where Portnoy is still trying to prevent DT from using that name, and the parties wanted their names redacted from the public record.   

    • Slaughterhouse

      If the plaintiff, in this case, Mike Portnoy, chose to quit the band, does he still have legal right to request that DT not use the name? I’m assuming that he would have to prove in court that he had no other choice but to quit and that is why he still has a right to forbid the current members to use that name. Also, since at least 2 out of the 3 original members are still in the band from its inception, wouldn’t that throw Portnoy’s case out the window?

      • http://www.facebook.com/bernauticus Bernard Machado Otoni

        Trademarks, musics, band’s name are registered like patents… Even if he quits, he has a share in the profit of the use and sales of the band, and if, as it seems, the band is registered to Mike and John, he has 50% of the “rights”, but this doesn’t makes him sound less like a whining bitch.

  • Lughlio

    common could they give it a rest and move the fuck on!!!!! damn!!! this looks like a soap opera!!!! 

    • Gubbah

      No, you see, we already had the soap opera “Dream Theater My New Drummer BFF” and this is the spin off, “Portnoygate”.

    • Anonymous

      Dream Theater sounds like a soup opera to me

  • Johnny G

    I guess all of those silly stage names come in handy every once in awhile.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bernauticus Bernard Machado Otoni

    Common law plaintiffs are funny, postponing the litigation just by claiming that the address is public… I don’t know how the registration of a band name works in the US, but if it follows some international standarts, the band will really need authorization from Mike to keep using the name, or even publishing an album with it. It was really confusing at the time when DT started to publish tourdates before they took the new drummer, or it was therefore an observation of the new drummer was already selected despite the documentaryshit they did or they were really risking thei necks. And this is one of Mike’s complain…

    For those who doesn’t want to read all the blabbering above, there is a litigation and probably DT will change the name, unless they have something to put up in Mike’s ass and makes him drop the cause..

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y2B6KK2PV7O2IJVE5OYFKZALPQ M

    Fuck Portnoy, fuck Dream Theater.  Prog has had some of the best albums in the history of prog metal.  So good that even fans of other types of metal can’t ignore them as some of the bests in metal, period.

    Symphony X: Iconoclast
    Cynthesis: Deevolution
    Arch/Matheos: Sympathetic Resonance

    Do metal a favor and give some nods to these guys before they are gone because everyone was too busy paying attention to Dream Theater drama, despite their musical decline.

    • christheasian

      shut up.

  • Anonymous

    Well Bird Law clearly states that you cannot have a hummingbird as a pet, I am not saying I agree with it but Bird Law in this country is not governed by reason

  • brjoro

    I’m sure it’s about rights to name, future royalties, etc. I’m not taking sides, but i think Portnoy can rightly claim that he worked pretty hard to get DT to where they are now, and future sales of merch, back catalog, etc it’s his right to get a fair share? That’s probably what it’s all about!