Superman, Hulk, Spider-Man images with my caption
Recent Court Rulings Have given Superman’s creators Family, co-ownership of the character, with DC DC comics owning the rest.
It seems in the last few years copyright laws have changed. And what is happening in the Superman case is legal. And you you DC Comic, owned by Time Warner, can afford the best lawyers. And yet, DC is losing their case. They have lost quite a few rulings. This to me is further proof, that DC is in the losing side of this legal battle.
In fact if corporations did not use their leverage, and had the copyright law changed in the 1970′s, Superman would have been Public Domain property in 1994. And anyone could have made books, movies, or anything else they wanted with the character.
This leads me to this articles topic, and wondering if government knew about how comic books were made in the past, would they change the law to protect past creators? And to give them proper credit as co-owners of the characters they made?
When the concept of Work-For-Hire Ownership laws were made in the United States, I think it can be certain for me to say that a creative media like comic books were NEVER considered.
Comic books deal with a media that is both visual and the written word.
Under work-for-hire, it basically means if a company was employing you, and you created something. A character / story / idea, they owned your work.
Yet I wonder and think it’s time to change these laws in today’s world in terms of comic book creation. And especially in regard to past comic book creators work.
This article will also mostly refer to Silver Age Creators Stan Lee / Jack Kirby / Steve Ditko as examples.
Does Marvel, who was then run by Martin Goodman really own these characters? Or should their creators?
Stan Lee was a company man. So at most you could say Marvel owns 50% of the work. Yet to my knowledge, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were not on staff contract workers. They were freelance workers, selling their creative art to whoever would hire and publish them.
So is it right to say that their work, that of someone who is not a contract worker, is owned by Marvel?
Also in a creative media like this, Martin Goodman was not giving direction on what to create. From all accounts it seems that he left the creation to Kirby, Ditko, Lee. The ideas and stories they created were not driven by the company owner.
When an idea was made, Lee pitched it to Goodman for approval or not. But the key factor is, the idea was already made and Goodman had nothing to do with it. He was not in charge or gave direction to his employees on what to create.
So how is it fair to claim ownership of creations he and his company really had no hand in?
I’d say something like this, if in this example the company owner Goodman gave some direction like: I want you to create an Ant themed hero who can change his size to that of an ant.
Then I could say the idea and creative momentum was set by the owner.
Yet from all accounts, something like that did not happen at Marvel. The books were left to the workers to create whatever they wanted.
Also shouldn’t work-for-hire in comics apply to work that is taking place in the office? On company time?
Yet in comic books then, as now. The artwork was made at home. And the writing of Stan Lee, some of it was probably made at home? But I won’t speculate much on the writing.
So if the costume / character designs and visuals were made at home by the artists on their own time. Artists whom I might add were not company employees. Should not the artist have an ownership of those character design ideas, and their artwork pages?
Or is it right that the company own all that?
I’m no legal expert, far from it. But I really do think in terms of comic books, and especially to past creators and their creations. I think the ownership of characters made under work-for-hire should be looked into.
Maybe the points I’m trying to bring up in this article can help stir up discussion on the topic.
Earlier I mentioned those in government who change copyright and ownership laws. And I speculate that if they looked at the creative process of comic book characters, hopefully like Superman’s creators, these other Creators or their Families will get co-ownership of the characters they made.
All it takes is a change in the law for it to happen.