Expired copyrights impacting recognized movie and show brands 2 2

[Bosco685]

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A sad fact of Hollywood is that while superheroes never truly die, all copyrights do. On Jan. 1, Disney lost control of “Steamboat Willie,” and within 24 hours two horror-comedies starring Mickey Mouse were announced. The DC characters are the next major expirations looming on the horizon. Superman and Lois Lane will enter the public domain in 2034, followed by Batman in 2035, the Joker in 2036 and Wonder Woman in 2037.

 

Chris Sims, a comic book author and Batman expert, expects a flood of unauthorized Batman comics to hit the stands as soon as the copyright expires.

 

“There’s going to be 100 of them,” he says. “They’re going to have them ready to go.” Movie producers will also be able to make their own versions — much as they already do with public domain characters like Dracula and Robin Hood — though in the beginning they will have to stick to the original versions of the characters.

 

“You get Batman, but you don’t get Robin,” Sims says. “You get Superman, but you don’t get kryptonite.”

 

The initial Superman could only leap — not fly. “Those characteristics are going to fall into the public domain one by one,” says Amanda Schreyer, media and entertainment lawyer at Morse.

 

DC has been preparing for this for years. At a press event in 2023, CEO James Gunn noted that the next Superman film will introduce characters from “The Authority,” a comic series that launched in 1999, in part because the Superman copyright is about to expire.

 

Jay Kogan, DC’s deputy general counsel, laid out a strategy to protect characters that fall into the public domain in a 2001 article. Since only the older versions lose protection, he urged: “Keep ’em fresh and up-to-date.”

 

“By gradually changing the literary and visual characteristics of a character over time, a character owner can keep whatever the then-current image of the character is as the de facto standard in the public consciousness,” he wrote.

 

The company has done a good job of updating Superman, argues Steven Beer, an IP lawyer at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.

 

“The public’s perception is the contemporary Superman. It’s distinctive,” he says. “That gives them a lot of protection.”

 

Another tactic: Maintain a high level of quality control.

 

“The public should be conditioned to view any works from unrelated parties featuring a trademark owner’s characters as second-rate knockoffs,” Kogan wrote.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Are they able to reacquire the full rights at some point?

[Bosco685]

On 1/18/2024 at 1:30 PM, Silver Surfer said:

Are they able to reacquire the full rights at some point?

Companies can retain recognized design elements from the way the article spells out the forms of go-forward protection.

Quote

Jay Kogan, DC’s deputy general counsel, laid out a strategy to protect characters that fall into the public domain in a 2001 article. Since only the older versions lose protection, he urged: “Keep ’em fresh and up-to-date.”

 

“By gradually changing the literary and visual characteristics of a character over time, a character owner can keep whatever the then-current image of the character is as the de facto standard in the public consciousness,” he wrote.

 

The company has done a good job of updating Superman, argues Steven Beer, an IP lawyer at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.

 

“The public’s perception is the contemporary Superman. It’s distinctive,” he says. “That gives them a lot of protection.”

 

Another tactic: Maintain a high level of quality control.

 

“The public should be conditioned to view any works from unrelated parties featuring a trademark owner’s characters as second-rate knockoffs,” Kogan wrote.

 

Kogan also suggested that trademarks could be used to block the use of a character’s name, image and slogan even after the copyright expires.

 

But trademark is not a cloak of immunity, argues Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. “That only prevents uses that are likely to cause consumer confusion about source or sponsorship,” she says.

 

In other words, the characters’ names should be fair game, so long as it’s clear that the depiction is not coming from DC.

 

“You could still create a Superman horror movie or Batman horror movie,” says Jonathan Steinsapir, an IP attorney at KHIKS. “You just need to be careful about how you advertise it and how you use images of Superman in a branding sense.”

 

DC has done a careful job of tying the characters to itself by trademarking the terms “Man of Steel” and “Caped Crusader,” as well as Superman’s “S” and Batman’s logo.

 

“The bat symbol is a very strong mark,” Schreyer says. “That is going to limit what subsequent creators can do.”

 

Even so, expect the mid-2030s to see a glut of off-brand superhero content.

 

[Yorick]

Hopefully this will incentivize Warner to make a good Superman movie.

[Axelrod]

The earliest versions of these characters aren't all that close to the "modern" versions, in their origins/powers/costumes.  So, any use of these characters is going to be limited at first.  

But ultimately, this will be a good thing, though.  I think.  Characters should fall into the public domain.  The more the better, I say.  Right now we've got companies constantly making Robin Hood and King Arthur movies since those characters are "free" to use, but some fresh blood would be nice.  

People worried about their comic collections plummeting in value as the younger audience moves away from comics might get pleasantly surprised when copyright expiration means there's suddenly a lot more interest in these characters from all over than there was before.  

[Brock]

My sense is that we are less likely to see a new Superman comic from Dynamite, for example, and more likely to see efforts like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Millionaire Lex Luthor (public domain 2036) hires a group of shadowy adventurers including famed mariner Popeye (2025), Doc Savage (2029), the Shadow (2027) and the planet-hopping John Carter (2006) to track down a mysterious Super-Man from the distant Planet Krypton (2034). Ace reporter Lois Lane (2034) teams up with detective duo the Hardy Boys (2023) to find him first.

Some of this could be pretty good, but a lot may be terrible.

Edited January 18 by Brock

[Yorick]

Lex doesn't appear for a couple years after AC1 (not available in public domain), but since we seem to be a moment in time similar to when Superman debuted - bringing him back in his original form may be quite successful.

[Buzzetta]

On 1/18/2024 at 1:46 PM, Bosco685 said:

Companies can retain recognized design elements from the way the article spells out the forms of go-forward protection.

 

You would probably see the first public domain iteration of Superman as a Superman that can leap tall buildings in a single bound but one who cannot fly.   Superman is not mentioned as having the ability to fly until a couple of years after his introduction. 

These expirations of copyrights will mean that the characters as featured in publications of that specific time period may be reproduced and not anything mirroring the current iterations.  

So, if you want to make a Superman movie for release in 2034, you are making one where even the 'S' on the costume resembles that which was used in Action Comics 1 and the only powers that Superman has will be those featured in that issue and nothing that is introduced later until those issues as well fall into public domain. 

[The humble Watcher lurking]

Sherlock Holmes and Dracula have survived and more popular than ever. The super heroes will be alright. 

[The humble Watcher lurking]

Ps. Note Rob Liefeld on his podcast says as soon as Superman goes into public domain he will release his Superman version he has been drawing for years. True . Lol.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 1/21/2024 at 12:40 PM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

Ps. Note Rob Liefeld on his podcast says as soon as Superman goes into public domain he will release his Superman version he has been drawing for years. True . Lol.

So no hands or feet... 

[The humble Watcher lurking]

On 1/21/2024 at 1:42 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

So no hands or feet... 

Lol. Check out Rob Liefeld podcast.Robservations.  He been planning this for at at least 2 years. He smart business man no matter how his art is. Made a great deal with Marvel to make money with Deadpool and Cable. Todd McFarlane didn't have that deal with Venom. He said he is drawing Superman comics now and just waiting for public domain in a few years. Asked about Batman he said no.  Only Superman. 

Edited January 21 by The humble Watcher lurking