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Kirby Dynamics

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robsteibel:
Hi,

My name is Rob Steibel and I recently started a daily weblog called Kirby Dynamics.

http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/dynamics/

Does anybody have an idea of what Kirby comics are considered "public domain." I seem to be the only comics blogger on the internet not posting complete stories because I don't want to violate anyone's copyright -- do you guys know: what Kirby stories are unquestionably public domain so I can post them on the Kirby Dynamics weblog? I guess I should research this myself but I'm really busy and would appreciate any info.

Thanks a lot for your time,

R-

darkmark (RIP):
My guess is, it'd be pretty hard to find any Kirby comics that are p.d. right now.  But I'm not certain of the legalities and such...I just know that we can't carry very many of them on this site.

robsteibel:
Thanks, I'm starting to think the same thing. I just emailed Joe Simon via his website to see if they might allow me to use some stories on my weblog.

I wonder if Jack's stories for Atlas and DC during the 50s are PD? Does anyone here know the cut off date for stories becoming PD? I just don't know anything about this topic and would appreciate any help. I hate the fact that you can see complete Kirby stories all over the internet, but I'm not allowed to use any because I'm trying to be respectful of the copyright holders.

Thanks again for the reply, and thanks  to all in advance for any info,

R-

John C:
I'm glossing over as many irrelevant details as I can and apologize if I leave something out, but the short version is that anything published prior to 1989 can be in the public domain if it was published without a copyright notice (and there was no attempt to fix the problem within six months to five years, depending on the publication date) as well as anything published prior to 1964 WITH a valid notice but no renewal twenty-eight (actually, 27-29) years later.

Are there Kirby stories that fit?  Sure, especially from companies like Fox--I don't think anybody's ever found a renewal for a Fox book.  But almost certainly not from anything published by Marvel or DC (or a precursor of either), because they paid lawyers to take care of that sort of thing when renewal time came.

(It sounds like you probably already know where to look, but most renewal listings prior to 1979 can be found in that year's Catalog of Copyright Entries, which Google Books currently keeps copies of--they're indexed by title of periodical or author of contribution to periodical.  Post-1977, the Copyright Office website has a decent search engine--and yes, there's overlap in dates, but not in content.  Those are the renewals, meaning publication dates divide around 1950.)

However, especially if you're concerned about infringing on someone else's rights (and twice if you have any worries about getting sued or shut down), no matter how good the information you get sounds--including everything I just said--you'll want to check for yourself.  If someone comes calling to complain about infringement, there's a world of difference between "if you look here, here, and here, you'll see why I believe you have no claim" and "some dude on the Internet with an unpronounceable name said it'd be cool."

Oh, and keep in mind that for a relatively brief story, if you're going to pick it apart and provide analysis and commentary--I don't know what your plans are, after all--then you can always make a Fair Use argument, in that the (copyrighted) source material isn't what you're really "selling," but your analysis is useless without making it available.  But that's pretty dicey if you're just going to talk about it briefly and theen run the story.

I hope that helps, some.

robsteibel:
Hi John,

Thanks, that helps a lot.

Unsurprisingly there are all sorts of opinions on this, but I think what you wrote is very clear and makes sense.

I suspect there may be zero Kirby stories I could post without someone complaining, but my hope is that maybe there are some stories from maybe the 50s I can post just to give my weblog some variety. It seems a shame to me that a Kirby Museum site cannot show a 5 page Kirby story without the risk of some kind of retaliation.

What books are PD and what constitutes fair use is a topic that I find fascinating as we watch intformation exchange evolve on-line, so I'll be curious to see how his all plays out in terms of sharing and discussing Kirby stories in he future.

Thanks again for the info, and if anyone knows of any specific stories by Kirby I could reasonably post on my Kirby weblog I'd appreciate any advice. Of course I can always remove the stories if anyone complains and I'll be sure to mention your website as well.

Thanks again,

R-

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