Possible collections of Comic Covers?

[rmdavidson]

I don't know if this has been proposed before but would DCM accept collections of just comic book covers?  I'm thinking themes such as a particular artist or genre.

The reason I ask is because covers do not seem to be covered by copyright, hence their extensive use in reference books and price guides and the use here of covers on Green Hornet and Famous Funnies (Buck Rogers).  So would we be able to do a Wally Wood collection including EC covers?  Or a TV show cover collection?  Or a complete Tarzan comic cover collection?  Would this allow us to use covers beyond the 1959 cutoff?  I assume you wouldn't want to mess with the Marvel and DC superhero titles, but what about their non-superhero titles (DC did some movie and TV titles, for instance)?

Fans wouldn't even have to own the comics to do a collection.  They could pull them from various online resources like Heritage Auctions.

Can of worms, anybody?

[John C]

A cover in a price guide would be Fair Use, and otherwise definitely would be covered by copyright.

[rmdavidson]

This from the US Copyright Office website regarding Fair Use:

"Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work "

In the case of covers in a collection available at DCM, they would be for "nonprofit educational purposes," the cover being only a small portion of the complete copyrighted work, and would be considered for teaching, scholarship and research.  As to the effect on the potential market, DC and Marvel have done book collections of covers in the past but it is unlikely that other publishers would. 

Perhaps this is something that would have to be decided on an individual project basis.

[John C]

My suspicion (not that I have any legal training) is that a judge would say that such a compilation would go head-to-head with possible products from the rights-holders, the cover is the book (or at least significant) to a surprising number of people, and just covers means there's nothing transformative to it, so pay up.

I try to stay out of policy decisions until specifically asked, but I don't see a project like this being on very sound footing if it ever got to court.

Plus, there are sites like the GCD that use the covers for identification purposes (definitely Fair Use), and linking to their page on the comic would probably be more useful to build around.

[narfstar]

I would say to avoid EC or Street & Smith as well as DC and Marvel of course. If the covers were included like GCD no problem but to specifically collect them I would say would be.

[rmdavidson]

If we start saying maybe if we leave out EC, Street & Smith, National, Atlas, and basically anything that we don't already accept on DCM, there wouldn't be much point in doing it.  That would be like saying "let's do a complete history of comics but without those publishers."

I know DCM usually comes down on the side of caution in most cases.  We've seen too many websites go dark for offering non-PD comic downloads.  So I'll just let it go.

Still, I have to say that when all the images are already online legitimately at Heritage and GCD, it would seem any company couldn't claim hardship if someone took a hundred or so of those same images and made them available in one free download.

[narfstar]

Because Marvel and DC have already done this. I have a SA Action comics cover books around somewhere. That would indicate it could be a problem.

[mr_goldenage (RIP)]

What about a collection of comic book covers from a specific country like South Africa or Indonesia for example? Would that be fair use for educational purposes? Or of be any value or interest here?

Mr_Goldenage

[John C]

Fair Use is a matter of intent and possible effect.  Collections aren't usually "fair;" transformation is usually the issue at hand, and collecting doesn't transform anything.  An auction site doesn't include covers as covers, it does so to let people know what they're bidding on, which is an entirely different purpose.

Likewise, a history of some set of comics illustrated by original art would probably be Fair Use, provided there was substantial new work in proportion to the covers.  TwoMorrows probably clears every image they use, but I think that's more a "good neighbor policy" than a strict legal obligation.

It's not a matter of who else has "gotten away with" using the art, who originally published the art, or whether the defendant just claims the intent was educational.

Also, keep in mind that Fair Use is a defense that needs to be presented in court, not something that protects from lawsuits.  Rightsholders do still sue over things that should clearly be Fair Use, and sometimes they win, because their lawyers made a better argument than the defendants' did, so it's not a particularly good idea to rely on the idea in publishing.

[Yoc]

Seeing as GCD already has this 'covered' I don't think DCM should start hosting cover collections guys.
It is a can or worms we'd rather not open.  But thanks for the suggestion richard.  CB+ might feel different.

-Yoc

[narfstar]

We do tend to think US centric. If we can not host collections of non-pd US covers then the same rational would apply to other countries covers. Although from a US standpoint it would lean to being more for an educational point of view. All covers are welcome at GCD. They have many many non US holes that need filled.
They also have an advanced search function that allows search by country

[Yoc]

I agree the GCD would benefit the most from such projects guys.