Public Domain Question

[davealex]

I have newbie question. I see that these Spirit comics are uploaded here:

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=194

On Amazon, I see that DC Comics published these in a book in 2007:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Spirit-Archives-Vol-21/dp/1401212549/

Does that mean it's somehow not public domain anymore? What if I wanted to publish these Spirit comics as a book myself? Would DC then come after me?

Dave

[Yoc]

Hello Dave.
Business questions are covered in our FAQ section -
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2759.0.html
As we say there - we are not lawyers.  If you want to publish your own Spirit Collection seek legal advice!

The Spirit we believe they've fallen into the public domain.  We have asked a member that will be visiting the Library of Congress to confirm their status sometime in 2013.
DC owns the rights to their archives as they rework the stories and can copyright that version but anything that has gone into the public domain can not be removed.

But for now we know Eisner always insisted he owned the copyright, etc of The Spirit.  If you follow our instructions on how to check for PD status in the next link and check -
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2452.0.html
There's no renewals for the Quality books (entries that start with 'R') that would have to have been done before 1972 (1944+28 yrs).

Please be sure to check the FAQ section as we cover a lot of stuff there that frequently comes up - http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/board,18.0.html
-Yoc