MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-04-21 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] super copyright: delayed justice?
|
Judge Says Siegels Now Own Half of Superman
* by Brian Cronin, Staff Writer * Email Author * (More from this
Author)
* Category: Comic Books * Print Article
Fri, March 28th, 2008 at 12:00AM PST
Updated: Wed, April 2nd, 2008 at 2:18AM PST
In a possibly historic ruling, a federal judge Wednesday determined that
the heirs of Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel, are now the rightful
owners of one-half of the copyright of Superman, and have been since 1999.
The New York Times reported today that Judge Stephen Larson of the
Central District of California had delivered a whopping 72 page ruling
on the matter of who owns the copyright of Superman, establishing that
"Action Comics" #1, the first appearance of Superman, was not considered
to be a product of work-for-hire, making the copyright for that issue
(and, naturally, the character of Superman) eligible for termination
by Siegel's heirs. What that means in simpler terms -- the Siegel's now
own half of the Superman copyright.
The ruling was based upon changes made in 1976 to the Copyright Act,
extending the total length of copyright protection for a character like
Superman from 56 years to 75 years since creation. This change also
allowed any copyright transfers to be terminated so that the original
copyright owner (or his/her heirs) could gain the benefit of those extra
19 years of protection (with the presumption being that it would be
unfair to the original copyright owners, as any deals they made before
the change in law were based upon the 56 year duration, not 75).
DC has an array of defenses, but their best one was that "Action Comics"
#1 was a work-for-hire, which means that DC would be considered the
creator of the copyright. Larson ruled against DC on this point, stating
that Siegel and Shuster sold their property (and the copyrights therein)
to DC for $130, in a standard copyright transfer. It is this transfer
that Siegel's heirs filed for termination, which would have become
effective in 1999, which Larson confirmed Wednesday.
There are a number of details still at play here, of course. The most
notable right now is that DC will certainly appeal Larson's decision. The
second is that Larson left it open to a jury to determine both how much
money Time Warner (owner of DC Comics) owes the Siegels for the usage
of Superman since 1999 (note this is only for US rights of Superman,
DC still maintains full international rights), and how many rights the
Siegels have to characters created after "Action Comics" #1 (as those
later issues were work-for-hire, but how many of these characters were
derivatives of Superman?).
Finally, the most notable event for future details is that this opens up
an extremely interesting situation in 2013. In 2013, Joe Shuster's estate
is eligible to terminate their half of the Superman copyright. You see,
Shuster had no heirs, so his estate was unable to terminate those extra
19 years mentioned before, as the changes in 1976 to the Copyright Act
were only available to authors or their heirs. In 1998, however, the
Copyright Term Extension Act was passed, giving an additional 20 years to
all copyrights established before 1978. Unlike the previous Copyright Act
extension, the Act passed in 1998 gives the estate of Authors the right
to terminate, as well. Therefore, in 2013, Shuster's estate (represented
by Shuster's nephew Mark Peary) will terminate just like Siegel's heirs,
meaning DC might very well lose the copyright to Superman entirely until
2033, at which point Superman would enter the public domain. Of course,
who knows whether Congress will pass another extension before then.
-- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com -
Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like
Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -
RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS -
RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers
to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in
our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be
damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
© Copyright for the Digital Millennium
|
|
