Reality TV star Gene Simmons spoke on a panel at MIPCOM 2010 with all kinds of advice about how to deal with digital piracy.

"The music industry was asleep at the wheel," Simmons complained, "and didn't have the balls to sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded material. And so now we're left with hundreds of thousands of people without jobs. There's no industry."

Poor man, reduced to earning money by slapping the KISS logo on any bit of merchandise that will hold it.

"Everything from KISS condoms to KISS caskets," Simmons disclosed. "We'll get you coming and we'll get you going. We literally have everything from KISS Hi-Def television sets that are about to come on the market to KISS Motorcycles. Well, it's Planet KISS. Oh, I've already trademarked that, I forgot that."

Meanwhile, the rampaging hordes of Anonymous launched Operation Payback--DDoS attacks on the MPAA, the RIAA and others . . . including GeneSimmons.com.

Gene Simmons' response is about what you'd expect from a fading 70s rock star who doesn't quite get this Internet business:

Some of you may have heard a few popcorn farts re: our sites being threatened by hackers.

Our legal team and the FBI have been on the case and we have found a few, shall we say "adventurous" young people, who feel they are above the law.

And, as stated in my MIPCOM speech, we will sue their pants off.

First, they will be punished.

Second, they might find their little butts in jail, right next to someone who's been there for years and is looking for a new girl friend.

We will soon be printing their names and pictures.

We will find you.

You cannot hide.

Stay tuned

(Scuse me a moment, I have to stop giggling uncontrollably at the thought of somebody saying this to Anonymous.)

The comments on Ars Technica devolve into the usual arguments about the State of the Music Industry, but at least one person points out that Mr. Simmons might want to "put his house in order before waging war against the interweb"

Thanks to wtf for the Write up at fandom_lounge.

Alrighty. It seems that Nick Simmons, son of Gene Simmons, is a comic book artist. And a huge fan of Bleach. So huge that he apparently copied from it wholesale. Especially Orihime and Captain Badass, er, I mean Kenpachi. But not Byakuya *is secretly a Byakuya/Kenpachi shipper, ZOMG THEIR LOVE IS SO EPIC AND TRUE!*

Ahem.

(ETA He swiped from a whole bingo card worth of fandoms. Hellsing 1/2, Deathnote, FMA, One Piece, Naruto 1/2, Deadman Wonderland, Lupin the Third, Neon Genesis Evangelion, More Hellsing with touch of Death from Sandman, various artists on Deviantart, and probably a few others I've forgotten about. The most blatant stuff is Bleach and Hellsing)

Bleach fans mobilize on Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and Nick's Deviantart.

VIZ and Kubo Tite respond on Twitter. A rough translation for Kubo here.

Nick's publisher responds:

We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter. We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry.

See RDR Books? This is how you respond to situations like this.

Comic Book Resources and Anime News Network on the issue.

ETA:We have fanarts!

Flammable by *speedking on deviantART

ETA 2: tetradecimal has a hilarious sporking.

Son of ETA: The obligatory Encyclopedia Dramatica page. Use protection and avert your virgin eyes.

CNN GO

ONTD

ETA 4: A couple reviews on Youtube pointing out the problem SIX MONTHS AGO! Here at 2:53 and here at 3:56. "This is just another horror show of copy write infringement."

ETA 5: Yulieana is Yulieana. And proves that it is possible to bring shipping wank into everything. Thanks schoenschoen!

Return of the ETA: Nick Simmons kinda sorta apologizes. New York Times arts blog.

“Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium.

“I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.”

Thanks reeve!


Hey someone do me a favor? I suspect that that spine-thing Blondihime attaches to Mot and Chadichigo's spines might have been swiped from Blue Beetle. You know the scene where the Beetle welds itself to Jaime's spine and it's all glowy and blue and you can see every vertebra. But I don't have any scans of either scene so I can't check myself. Thanks tetradecimal and perletwo! I think at most it was inspired by BB, the poses are too dissimilar, but you decide.