Best from Hindi (Indian) Comics Industry

[maitreya]

Hello Friends,

I am Maitreya from India

I will try to post as many indian and hindi comics as i can on this forum

[narfstar]

Thank you. Newer comics are not allowed as they are not PD. Please be sure that the older comics are PD. You may want to drop by www.comicbookplus.com they have a larger non-English section.

[Yoc]

Thanks for you offer but yes, CB+ would be the best place to share non-English materials.  We don't have a section for them on DCM.

[John C]

We're always thinking and rethinking what we want to support, by the way, so if you have any information on Indian copyrights (specifically what's in the public domain), it'd be greatly appreciated.  I've noticed that countries seem to have a policy to not preserve old versions of laws, making it very difficult to know anything other than when copyrights expire when something is published today.

[narfstar]

Some of the reasoning involved at CB+ involves these factors
1) The original company no longer exists and its successors are not known if any
2) No one is currently reproducing the material as copyright
3) There are prominent sites putting the scans online without complaint.

If the copyright owners are not hassling the sites that are well known and put the material out there blatantly in the home country then it would be difficult for someone to claim hardship or loss by copyright infringement later. The sites in the published country should be targeted before coming after a US site. No this is not legal advice but some reasoning.
----
[tweaked this to CB+, I'm sure Narf was thinking it when he typed DCM]
-Yoc

[John C]

I don't object to anybody worrying about what they "can get away with."  I would mostly rather veer towards legally defensible, for my own sake.  In the grand scheme, if anything ever went to court, I'd much rather face off against a Disney/Marvel or Warner/DC (with lawyers who understand the limits of law and the PR backlash) than an independent zealot (like a John Carbonaro, who sort of predicted the DMCA regime by going after distributors to censor his competition, rather than have his claims tested in court).  Sort of the difference between (if you'll pardon the exaggeration of the illegal act beyond all recognition) robbing a bank where there's a policy to not let anybody get hurt and cops probably won't shoot you when they find you, versus breaking into someone's house, where it could be easy sailing, or you could be facing off against hungry, abused pit-bulls and a shotgun.

It's shaky relying on observation, too.  Keep in mind that copyright means exactly what it says, the rights over copying.  That means the holder can choose to ignore fights against, say, Fox appropriating their material because the lawsuit would be too expensive, and instead go nuclear against fan sites to show who's boss.  Unlike a trademark, you can be as arbitrary as you want enforcing your copyrights.

Long story short (too late...), I don't wring my hands over CB+ or anybody else making "the wrong decision," and you shouldn't feel any need to defend it.  I'd just rather be able to say that such-and-such book is public domain or at least nobody has standing to sue, which is functionally the same, and we're this sure.  (Not that we're 100% there, because there's a whole lot "grandfathered in" that we don't have time to check.)

[narfstar]

The nice thing is we got an email from Penny Press the current Dell owners that they do not have the comic book rights. If they later realize they were wrong we have the email on file. If the non U.S. companies were to ask we [CB+] would of course remove the books. With the other sites carrying the books it would be difficult to say that our little site cost them any money. Yes anything could happen but it is also not usually in their interest because the money just is not there in comics. The money actually is in trademark and we would assisting in making it more valuable by making it more prominent if they want to make a movie.
---
[just to help clarify whom Narf is speaking for in this reply]
-Yoc

[Yoc]

Hey Narf, that's Great News about Dell!
Could you send me a copy of their email for our records as well?

[narfstar]

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Betty Andrews <bandrews@pennypublications.com>
To: jimludwig@bellsouth.net
Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 2:00 PM
Subject: Dell comic books - dc]


No
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Dell comic books - dc
From: jimludwig <jimludwig@bellsouth.net>
Date: Tue, June 04, 2013 1:24 pm
To: Betty Andrews <bandrews@pennypublications.com>

Thank you for your quick response. My question is if your company bought the copyrights to the dell books along with the puzzles. thank you.

From: Betty Andrews <bandrews@pennypublications.com>
To: jimludwig@bellsouth.net
Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 9:24 AM
Subject: Dell comic books - dc


To Whom it May Concern,
 
We do not sell the comic books.  Must be a different Dell Company.
 
Thank you for contacting us.  We hope to be of service to you in the future.
 
Sincerely,
 
Betty Andrews
Reader’s Service
BA/dc
 
203-866-6688
800-220-7443
 
Please visit http://www.pennydellpuzzles.com to view our latest puzzle values!
 
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Dell comic books
From: jimludwig <jimludwig@bellsouth.net>
Date: Tue, June 04, 2013 1:13 am
To: "customerservice@pennypublications.com"
<customerservice@pennypublications.com>

Hello, I was wondering about the status of copyrights to Dell Comics that were not licensed materials. Are they owned by Penny Press? thank you

[John C]

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I worry more over the letter of the law:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/buzzfeed-faces-36-million-copyright-suit-not-so-much

Statutory damages are available from the time the copyright is registered, and can run up to $150,000 per incident, however the court is willing to count things.  So it's not necessarily just handwaving that you lost money.

Also, is Dell a relevant entity, here?  I thought Western Publishing was the owner.  Their assets went to Random House and Dreamworks, from what I can gather on Wikipedia.

[narfstar]

I gather that was God Key and the book publishing.

[John C]

I'm definitely not an expert (I only heard of Western a couple years back), but Wikipedia says...

From 1938 to 1962, Western's properties were published under a partnership with Dell Comics, which also handled the distribution and financing of the comic books. In 1962, Western ended this partnership and published comics itself, establishing the imprint Gold Key Comics.

"Distribution and financing" doesn't sound like Dell would own the copyrights.

[narfstar]

CB+ has no Gold Key. We carry the Dell only books carried after the split.