General Category > Comic Related Discussion
PD law - 'Manufacturing consent and copyright law'
John C:
--- Quote from: JVJ on April 04, 2010, 11:33:18 AM ---The problem, as I see it, John,
is that it should be possible for someone else to create a blonde, thee and thou-spouting Thor who transforms into Donald Blake if they wanted to. And, just as Walt Disney's versions of Snow White and Cinderella and The Little Mermaid and Zorro and Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, and etc. etc. have become the new defacto "versions" of those stories, perhaps someone else could create one for Thor. It's been done several times (Why does Walt Simonson spring suddenly to mind?) under the corporate aegis of Marvel, but think of what might happen if Thor was in the Public Domain.
--- End quote ---
You're not wrong at all. However, I also look at it as, well, Marvel isn't done with Thor, yet. They paid for it, and they should be allowed to get what use they can out of the idea.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the pseudo-libertarian, nicely-fascist "corporations are people too" concept. But even (especially?) today when the cost of entry for self-publication is almost nil, publishers serve an important service of getting ideas INTO currency so that they're worth protecting. I think Kirby's career speaks well to that.
(For what it's worth, I don't care how long the copyright terms are, though they're probably too long. I care that they last forever without any effort. If they needed to be renewed every ten years in perpetuity, I'd be happy, because the fact that someone's filing the paper means that they're aware of what they're sitting on, and I can find them if I need to license it. But without renewals, the world is basically forbidden to get fresh, analyzed copies of the later Jimmie Dale novels, just because the rights are stranded in some Disney vault from the time Walt had a great idea for a TV series.)
That's not to say that I wouldn't be thrilled to see what happens if the world plays around with a public domain Superman or Fantastic Four or Iron Man, of course. But I also see that wall as good for innovation, hopefully one day giving us the NEXT Superman or Fantastic Four or Iron Man to capture our imaginations. I realize it's unpopular to say, these days, but I still think there's plenty of room for innovation in the field that not being allowed to copy the Hulk shouldn't be all that painful.
bbbrown:
John C,
I agree with you regarding that there shouldn't be things locked away just because some one bought the rights years ago.
With todays publishing capabilities and the internet I think it should be possible to go to some site and get a copy of any out of print book, paying a fee depending on if I wanted a digital copy or was willing to pay more to get an actual paper version of it. If this means that some Mark Twain novel is not available for purchase there could be several companies offering the book or if it was some more recent author, just the publisher that owns the rights.
bchat:
--- Quote from: John C on April 05, 2010, 05:04:39 PM ---
(For what it's worth, I don't care how long the copyright terms are, though they're probably too long. I care that they last forever without any effort. If they needed to be renewed every ten years in perpetuity, I'd be happy, because the fact that someone's filing the paper means that they're aware of what they're sitting on, and I can find them if I need to license it. But without renewals, the world is basically forbidden to get fresh, analyzed copies of the later Jimmie Dale novels, just because the rights are stranded in some Disney vault from the time Walt had a great idea for a TV series.)
--- End quote ---
I see the major disadvantage to automatic Copyright renewals being ideas virtually locked-away well after the original publisher has disappeared. I think of the fly-by-night publishers of the 1980s & 90s who disappeared years ago without transferring the Copyrights to another company. Maybe they didn't have great concepts, but who knows if there is some creative individual out there who has great ideas for those characters. They have nobody to contact & legally can't touch those characters/concepts without the consent of a company that no longer exists for fear of being sued when someone claiming they own the Copyrights pops-up out of nowhere.
John C:
BChat, I agree, and I'll go a step further. History is slipping away (except among pirates, basically). A book, as you say, might not be good, but what if it had the seeds to Byrne's Superman reboot, for example (Lancelot Strong comes to mind further back, as does Hero Alliance)? It'd be an important artifact for research, because it shows the flow of influence and ideas, but instead it would be something we're not allowed to share because someone (who presumably doesn't care about it, and may not even be aware of the ownership) has exclusive reprint rights and isn't exercising them.
BBBrown, I would agree if that didn't sort of violate the central principle in copyright, which is that the owner has the, well, right to make the decisions. I'd love that kind of system, but it means creators giving up the option to actively suppress their work for whatever reason.
(This was longer and better-reasoned a couple of nights ago, but the upgrade got in my way. Apologies for the haste.)
narfstar:
The Pirates of Preservation exist. The obscure titles from the 80's and 90's are being scanned and placed on the internet. Illegal as it may be, it makes worries about most books disappearing forever not seem very warranted.
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