Quality Comics

[dhr. GeeK]

Hallo,

I have a question, can I use the spirit comic of Quality Comics in Holland. Translate en publ. as a Duct Comic? Or others comic on the site?

vr.gr,
LoneJim

[Yoc]

Hello Jim,
This is a very common question we answer in the FAQ section here -
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2759.0.html

Short answer - check with a local lawyer but I'd expect the answer would be no.

-Yoc

[dhr. GeeK]

Thanks for your replie, maybe as a re-print of the original? There are some fine comics who have to go to the Dutch readers! I like to start a horror serie of differend publ. Any idea how to proseed?

Kind regards

LJ

[Yoc]

The easiest thing would be to send these people Here to the site for zero cost or headaches.
Reprinting stuff costs time, money and headaches.  You'd need to find someone to print your books there.  They would tell you what you needed to give them.  But we still Strongly suggest you contact a copyright lawyer in your country and see what the law is there for this kind of project.

GL,
-Yoc

[John C]

Exactly.

Since the Netherlands is a member of the EU, it's a Life+70 country.  Therefore, it's possible that the books are in the public domain only in the unlikely event that every contributor died prior to 1941.

However, if the system recognizes a "shortest term" rule, then the shorter US copyrights may be valid, putting them into the public domain for you.  That is, unless the Netherlands recognizes GATT, also, which some countries use to restore the copyrights of people who fought in World War II, which Eisner did.

And it might be even more complicated.

I don't have anybody to ask about Dutch copyright law, unfortunately, so I can't help more than that.  If you speak to a local lawyer, though, we'd love to hear what he has to say on the subject.  We're trying to get a sense of what copyrights look like outside the United States for these purposes and the opposite (hosting non-US content here) with very little luck.