Jack Kirby vs. Marvel Settlement...

[bminor]

It is finally over, for now.
Last Friday the Kirby family and Marvel came to a settlement.
Finally, after all these years Jack, Roz and family have finally will receive a piece of what the mind of Jack Kirby has brought to this world!
I have been waiting for years for this to happen. Finally there is some sort of justice.
I see that Marvel saw the writing on the wall. The Supreme Court was to revisit the ruling of a few years ago.
The implications of Kirby perhaps winning a Supreme Court decision, David beating the Goliath, caused Disney to settle out of court.
The huge changes that could have been if the Kirby Estate won would have sent seismic waves though out the entertainment industry.

What the settlement is. I imagine as time goes by the information will be released.

I would like to think that Jack now is smiling down from above, sitting at his drawing board. A place he was at his entire career to provide for his family. From beyond he is now reaching back and will provide for them.

B.

[Drusilla lives!]

Meh.  I'm happy to hear Kirby's family has gotten something out of all he went through throughout his comic industry career... particularly those last few decades of his life, when he had to stand around and watch his work turned into a money machine for others.  But for some reason I feel it's a hollow victory that's not really worth discussing.   In other words, back to business as usual for everyone else in the comic biz.

[crashryan]

It does seem like a hollow victory, both because Jack is long gone and because the legal issues will never be settled. It's obvious that Warners were terrified by the prospect of the case going to the Supreme Court. Even given the conservative/business-friendly bias of the Court, it was remotely possible the Court might have decided in favor of the Kirbys. If that happened, it would set a precedent that would blow a hole through 75 years of work-for-hire and corporate ownership of the work of individual creators. The day after such a decision would see a flood of creators, and not just comic artists, filing their own suits to get a piece of properties they created. You can bet Warners would be happy to pay a heap of money not to risk such a debacle. Personally I think a Court that declared corporations are people would have no problem granting a corporation any ownership rights it claims. But the stakes were too high to take that chance.

[Drusilla lives!]

Exactly crash, that's exactly what I meant... and ya know, it's not just "business as usual" in the comic/entertainment industry.  It's in all industries that have "work-for-hire" contracts/agreements... can you name any off hand that don't these days?  I can't.