Faster than a speeding subpoena....
Siegel's Heirs Granted Superman Rights
Nearly 70 years after the debut of Superman, the heirs of Joe Siegel gain - or regain, really - the copyright to the material published in Action Comics #1, the one that started it all. Copyright law being what it is - heartbreakingly confusing - the full ramifications of this are not yet known. The Siegels are owed compensation for use of Superman by DC Comics after 1999, though whether that includes Warner Brothers' use of him in "Superman Returns" and any subsequent Superman movies is still unknown. It is possible that, once the Shuster heirs are dealt with, Time Warner won't be able to do anything with the character without a license from the two families.
This comes on the legal heels of the dispute over the Superboy copyright. It's in a legal limbo right now, being tugged between the Siegel family and Warner Brothers, which explains why we're not going to see Clark in costume on Smallville anytime soon. What with Superman now in dispute, it should be interesting to see where that show goes.
Damn, I wish I could buy comics over here....
From people who know more about this than I do:
Uncivil Society's write-up
The Patry Copyright Blog
The Decision itself (Big-ass PDF file)
It's an interesting situation, I have to admit. While it's good that the copyright has been reinstated, albeit posthumously, to (one of) the creators, Superman is one of my favorite characters in Comicdom and I don't want to see a great character get locked away because of legal disputes. Kryptonite, magic, Doomsday, shattered cervical vertebrae, all those things are perfectly acceptable mortal challenges to Superman. But lawyers? C'mon....
Nearly 70 years after the debut of Superman, the heirs of Joe Siegel gain - or regain, really - the copyright to the material published in Action Comics #1, the one that started it all. Copyright law being what it is - heartbreakingly confusing - the full ramifications of this are not yet known. The Siegels are owed compensation for use of Superman by DC Comics after 1999, though whether that includes Warner Brothers' use of him in "Superman Returns" and any subsequent Superman movies is still unknown. It is possible that, once the Shuster heirs are dealt with, Time Warner won't be able to do anything with the character without a license from the two families.
This comes on the legal heels of the dispute over the Superboy copyright. It's in a legal limbo right now, being tugged between the Siegel family and Warner Brothers, which explains why we're not going to see Clark in costume on Smallville anytime soon. What with Superman now in dispute, it should be interesting to see where that show goes.
Damn, I wish I could buy comics over here....
From people who know more about this than I do:
Uncivil Society's write-up
The Patry Copyright Blog
The Decision itself (Big-ass PDF file)
It's an interesting situation, I have to admit. While it's good that the copyright has been reinstated, albeit posthumously, to (one of) the creators, Superman is one of my favorite characters in Comicdom and I don't want to see a great character get locked away because of legal disputes. Kryptonite, magic, Doomsday, shattered cervical vertebrae, all those things are perfectly acceptable mortal challenges to Superman. But lawyers? C'mon....