NO Pending lawsuit between Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater

[Orbert]

I think Mike is/was just upset that, despite having to have lawyers involved in the business side of it, the band decided that all communication go through the lawyers only.  I totally get where he is coming from.

That's about the only thing that makes me feel bad for Mike.  These guys are (or were) friends.  I'm sure that they're the ones he talked to when he was down, and he wanted to talk.  Like "Hey guys, I know there's all this legal shit going on, but that's all just necessary corporate bullshit.  We're still cool, right?  Help me through this.  We can all get through this together, right?"  But no one would even take his calls.  He was just told that the lawyers were handling everything.  That would suck.

[CodyWanKenobi]

You guys, we're all forgetting who's really to blame... that damn Avenged Sevenfold. 

[kon_jakae]

That's about the only thing that makes me feel bad for Mike.  These guys are (or were) friends.  I'm sure that they're the ones he talked to when he was down, and he wanted to talk.  Like "Hey guys, I know there's all this legal shit going on, but that's all just necessary corporate bullshit.  We're still cool, right?  Help me through this.  We can all get through this together, right?"  But no one would even take his calls.  He was just told that the lawyers were handling everything.  That would suck.

We never know what they actually did talk about at that time which raised to the point that they should have their lawyer to communicate. There could be something more than those being publicized and known to us.

[ReaPsTA]

Unfortunately, sometimes people just become irrational and continue to escalate things when there's no reason to.  It's easy to get so caught up in "I'm the victim, and so-and-so is going to pay" and then to just become more and more set in that opinion every time the other side opens their mouth.  Unfortunately, it's a problem a lot of us are prone to, whether we admit it or not. 

And that's why, okay MP isn't acting like a complete scumbag, but I'm beyond unimpressed with how he's handled himself the last year.  Every time anything DT related has ever come up both in public and in his private dealings with the band, he's taken the low road.

What he does in his personal life and his financial life is none of my business.  It's the fact that he just... won't... go... away.  Before this, I looked at the last couple MP interviews with mild interest, maybe made a post or two about them, and that was it.  Drama is boring.  Then you see a court summons alleging that the band is illegally using his name, and all I can think is "WHAT?  Why are you trying to be more hurtful?"

Even with how the situation has seemingly shaken out, MP's still not in the right by any stretch of the imagination, at least from how I see it.  If he can't ever bring himself to say a nice thing about the band, then the least he can do is avoid screwing with them and us as fans.

That's about the only thing that makes me feel bad for Mike.  These guys are (or were) friends.  I'm sure that they're the ones he talked to when he was down, and he wanted to talk.  Like "Hey guys, I know there's all this legal shit going on, but that's all just necessary corporate bullshit.  We're still cool, right?  Help me through this.  We can all get through this together, right?"  But no one would even take his calls.  He was just told that the lawyers were handling everything.  That would suck.

Eh, I know what you mean.  But I think most people's response to that situation would be "Oh.  Well, since I value this friendship, can we get all the legal stuff out of the way first and go from there"?  MP took all of this way, way too personally.  It's not like JP and JR never tried to contact him personally on a non-business level.

You guys, we're all forgetting who's really to blame... that damn Avenged Sevenfold. 

The ripple affect of AX7's career on DT's lives and career is rather incredible to be honest.

[chrisbDTM]

Mike's rep will be fine. Always ends up the victim in every situation

[CodyWanKenobi]

You guys, we're all forgetting who's really to blame... that damn Avenged Sevenfold. 

The ripple affect of AX7's career on DT's lives and career is rather incredible to be honest.

Very true, but to be completely honest, I'm sure they feel bad about the whole thing. I mean, they were DT fans too, so I'm sure they feel really guilty about everything that's happened.

[Kotowboy]

If *I* was in Avenged Sevenfold....






...i'd feel bad too

[Snow_Dog]

Good on Johnny P and the lads for not saying much regarding all these issues that keep springing up, as anything said can be twisted in such horrendous ways (although, it seems much worse for Portnoy atm). I've seen them take nothing but the high road during this last year. I do feel bad for Portnoy, because he keeps getting into these messes where so many people (myself included) end up jumping to conclusions, but as was said before what's recently come to light in this lawsuit issue makes matters seem less bad than when the article was originally posted.

[emindead]

Mike's rep will be fine. Always ends up the victim in every situation

Yep. Bah! Humbug.

[Samsara]

Yeah, exactly.  They had to have lawyers involved.  I think Mike is/was just upset that, despite having to have lawyers involved in the business side of it, the band decided that all communication go through the lawyers only.  I totally get where he is coming from.  But even though I don't have any inside scoop on this, given what I know about how these things work, if that was truly what was decided (and I have no reason to doubt that it was), I am almost certain it was something along the lines of DT's lawyers saying to the band, "There's a lot at stake in this negotiation, and given how this went down, it could very well end up in a lawsuit by the time it's over.  You don't want to make a mistake and inadvertently say something that could come back and bite you in a lawsuit, so direct all communications to us to make sure that doesn't happen."  That's just how it works.

Bingo. And to be frank, when you have a personality like MP's where he flies off the handle like he does, it doesn't make any sense to contact him personally. Because he's a wild card. You don't know what MP would say online or to other people, etc.

You have to judge the personalities you are dealing with. And as history has shown, MP opens up his mouth and yaps like the rest of us blink. Smart move on DT's part.

[Knguro]

My 2 cents:

Of course there will be lawyer involved in all this situation either coming from DT or MP or both that's way it's call music business AKA music industry. Where everything started to look bad it was from the bad image that MP has created to himself. I don't really think BB has done anything g bad here, public info. + public figures = news. At the same time, public figure + bad self image created + news = mad fans, as result of al of these a lot of gaps between information had been filled with speculations and gosip. Believe me I don't really like MP anymore, but in this case Im really giving him the benefit of doubt as well for DT. Money involves a lot of good things, but whenever royalties, rights and paperwork need to be solved, money can be a freaking headache for anyone. So basically I have to say that this is PURE BUSINESS been solved.

[Ben_Jamin]

Maybe its the label that required DT to use lawyers.

[Dublagent66]

Maybe its the label that required DT to use lawyers.

Yeah, I didn't think of that.  They have a contractually vested interest in the name "Dream Theater".

[KevShmev]

Oh good, so it's all DTs fault. Glad we got that cleared up.

Well, duh.

And while it is swell that the lawsuit was never actually served, Portnoy still comes off looking pretty bad here.  He had already looked pretty bad because of the way he had handled himself over the past year, and this only made it worse, albeit not as bad as it was yesterday.  If he were like the president who gets approval ratings, he would have gone down to about 30% before yesterday, spiraled down to 5% yesterday, but is back up around 20% today.

[jingle.boy]

Maybe its the label that required DT to use lawyers.

This is also why I back MP in this situation.  What was the point of RR/Blabbermouth posting it yesterday?  If they were involved from the get-go (and it's logical to believe they would have been), what's the point of just letting the news out now?  Did that courthousenews.com website just publish the summons yesterday, so they posted it too?  For what purpose?  The only reason I see is to stir the pot.

[El JoNNo]

I'd hate to look like a meat-head here... But I just read through this thread and I still don't know if MP did or did not sue over the DT name and "wrongful dismissal".

[ariich]

Oh good, so it's all DTs fault. Glad we got that cleared up.

Well, duh.

And while it is swell that the lawsuit was never actually served, Portnoy still comes off looking pretty bad here.  He had already looked pretty bad because of the way he had handled himself over the past year, and this only made it worse, albeit not as bad as it was yesterday.  If he were like the president who gets approval ratings, he would have gone down to about 30% before yesterday, spiraled down to 5% yesterday, but is back up around 20% today.

I'm not sure what's going on, but we seem to be agreeing on pretty much everything over the last couple of days.

I think the world must be coming to an end.

[KevShmev]

I am scared.  Someone please hold me.

Also:



Howard Griffith (the ball carrier) = Dream Theater
Ed McCaffrey (87) = Dream Theater's lawyer
The Green Bay Packer = Mike Portnoy

[ariich]

[VioletS16]

Holy crap it took me forever to figure out who was supposed to be who but when I did 

[bosk1]

I'd hate to look like a meat-head here... But I just read through this thread and I still don't know if MP did or did not sue over the DT name and "wrongful dismissal".

Well, it's hard to answer because he sort of did it halfway.  If you are "suing" someone, that means you filed a lawsuit (i.e., you filed a complaint).  The complaint was never filed; only the summons.  So, no, technically, he did not sue them.


@Kev:  Normally, if a joke requires that much explanation and requires as much time to noodle through and figure out that it took me to noodle through and figure out, it's just per se unfunny.  But I have to give you that one. 

[El JoNNo]

I'd hate to look like a meat-head here... But I just read through this thread and I still don't know if MP did or did not sue over the DT name and "wrongful dismissal".

Well, it's hard to answer because he sort of did it halfway.  If you are "suing" someone, that means you filed a lawsuit (i.e., you filed a complaint).  The complaint was never filed; only the summons.  So, no, technically, he did not sue them.

Oh IC.


So he basically went the legal way of saying I am not going to do anything about it but I still don't like you using the DT name and that I left and you won't let me back.

[johncal]

I thought it interesting, the statement to Blabbermouth coming from DT's lawyers. It could just as easily have come from MP's legal team, but I'll bet there was a lot of discussion amongst everybody last night, and quite honestly it appears to me that the DT crew did MP a huge favor by making the statement.

First, since nobody was believing anything coming out of MP's mouth last night,  that statement coming from the DT camp gives it a real air of credibility. Secondly, it shows some class by the DT guys. They could have kept their mouths shut and let MP fry, but they really were very helpful in diffusing a situation that was only hurting Mike. I think that was a classy move. Obviously they didn't want to see their friend get slammed big time no matter what he may or may not have deserved.

Hopefully this will diffuse things and let them die off for now. Now I'm looking forward to a great tour. Mangini already implied he'd be throwing some flourishes in the songs when playing them live, so it should be interesting.

[bosk1]

I'd hate to look like a meat-head here... But I just read through this thread and I still don't know if MP did or did not sue over the DT name and "wrongful dismissal".

Well, it's hard to answer because he sort of did it halfway.  If you are "suing" someone, that means you filed a lawsuit (i.e., you filed a complaint).  The complaint was never filed; only the summons.  So, no, technically, he did not sue them.

Oh IC.


So he basically went the legal way of saying I am not going to do anything about it but I still don't like you using the DT name and that I left and you won't let me back.

Well, see, that's the thing.  There's no logical reason I can think of why his attorney did what he did.  In 10 years of practicing law, I've never seen someone file a summons and not file a complaint.  If that ever happened, my first assumption would be that the lawyer just got out of law school and didn't really know what he was doing.  But then again, maybe there is some practice in NY that I am not aware of.

[Heretic]

You guys, we're all forgetting who's really to blame... that damn Avenged Sevenfold. 

The ripple affect of AX7's career on DT's lives and career is rather incredible to be honest.

Very true, but to be completely honest, I'm sure they feel bad about the whole thing. I mean, they were DT fans too, so I'm sure they feel really guilty about everything that's happened.

i mean they uh really have nothing to be guilty about. their drummer died tragically and one of his favorite drummers was asked to perform with them for the album and a tour. it's not their fault Mike decided to do what he did and there's nothing for them to feel like they've been responsible for. they were just as shocked as everyone else, and they're definitely not the people to be blaming for anything that MP has done.

[ReaPsTA]

Well, see, that's the thing.  There's no logical reason I can think of why his attorney did what he did.  In 10 years of practicing law, I've never seen someone file a summons and not file a complaint.  If that ever happened, my first assumption would be that the lawyer just got out of law school and didn't really know what he was doing.  But then again, maybe there is some practice in NY that I am not aware of.

My GUESS is that MP filed the summons as a way of saying "Look, I want a share of the money, and by doing this I'll force you to the negotiating table under threat of further legal action."  Since they're talking, I guess it worked.

BTW, something interesting about your post.  Once it came out there was no lawsuit, I thought to myself "Hm, why didn't Bosk suggest that only a summons had been filed but not a complaint?"  The fact it never happens I guess is why.

[bosk1]

BTW, something interesting about your post.  Once it came out there was no lawsuit, I thought to myself "Hm, why didn't Bosk suggest that only a summons had been filed but not a complaint?"  The fact it never happens I guess is why.

Simple answer is:  (1) I didn't know if there was some odd procedure in NY state that I am unfamiliar with, and (2) I tried getting on the court's website, but as I've mentioned, the system was acting up and I couldn't get in and couldn't tell whether there were other documents on file or not.  So, yeah, I thought it was odd that it was just the summons that was on the courtnews website, but I didn't say anything because I didn't know why that was.

[ReaPsTA]

Are you implying that in California you must file the summons and the complaint at the same time?

[bosk1]

In California, you file a complaint, and then the court issues the summons at the time the complaint is filed, and then you serve the summons and complaint on the defendant(s).  That's how it is in most states, at least in the west.  But there are a few states that have kind of oddball procedures for some things (mostly just Louisiana, because they inherited their legal system from the French, and some of the original 13 colonies because they kept a lot of the British procedural stuff).

[ReaPsTA]

In California, you file a complaint, and then the court issues the summons at the time the complaint is filed, and then you serve the summons and complaint on the defendant(s).  That's how it is in most states, at least in the west.  But there are a few states that have kind of oddball procedures for some things (mostly just Louisiana, because they inherited their legal system from the French, and some of the original 13 colonies because they kept a lot of the British procedural stuff).

I learned something today.

[Jamesman42]

[ReaPsTA]

Wait, Bosk, what's your favorite oddity of the Louisiana legal system?

[tweeg]

I read in some old interview the other day, around the time of FII if I remember correctly. They were talking about how they all met,, or something, and  JP told the interviewer that his best friend from school used to be their keyboard player. And on Awake, Innocence Faded is loosely based on the deteriorating relationship between the two of them. So I imagine KM leaving was very hard on JP.

Now I can only assume that MP and JP were also really good friends, so when MP decided to leave maybe it brought back to JP all of the feelings when KM left. I'd imagine that he took MP's news especially hard and maybe that's why he didn't want to talk face to face with MP, and did so through his lawyer, right after the split.

[\outrightspeculation]

[bosk1]

Wait, Bosk, what's your favorite oddity of the Louisiana legal system?

Attorneys who practice in it can't resist the urge to send out a nationwide email to the entire law firm announcing that the Saints just won the Superbowl, much to the chagrin of those of us who were busy in church earlier that day and were watching it on DVD-R after the fact, rooting away for the Colts in ignorant bliss, until our Blackberries received said email. 

...hypothetically, of course.

[Jamesman42]

I read in some old interview the other day, around the time of FII if I remember correctly. They were talking about how they all met,, or something, and  JP told the interviewer that his best friend from school used to be their keyboard player. And on Awake, Innocence Faded is loosely based on the deteriorating relationship between the two of them. So I imagine KM leaving was very hard on JP.

Now I can only assume that MP and JP were also really good friends, so when MP decided to leave maybe it brought back to JP all of the feelings when KM left. I'd imagine that he took MP's news especially hard and maybe that's why he didn't want to talk face to face with MP, and did so through his lawyer, right after the split.

[\outrightspeculation]

Pretty sure JP said he sat down and cried when he found out of MP's decision