Michael Grabois has the news and the links: Superman copyright reverted to Siegel heirs.
I'm reading through the decision (Bonus: Appendix A contains the entire 13-page Superman story from Action Comics #1, like you haven't read it a zillion times before), and one thought comes to mind:
Paul Levitz is a mensch. I've met him, and he's a mensch. Starting in 1975, DC's corporate culture changed dramatically, and they began to treat creators with something more like the respect and dignity they deserved. As today's decision makes clear, and as Mark Evanier wrote in his Kirby coffee table book, in the early 1980s in particular, DC Comics went against its own selfish interests to make sure that Joanne Siegel and Jack Kirby got a piece, even if only a small piece, of what Jerry and Jack had created for the company. Paul Levitz was a major player in those actions, and I have no doubt that he and his fellows did what they did because of what they learned from the very superhero comics that DC owned: To do the right thing.
Today's decision was a loss for DC Comics.
I suspect that Paul is not unhappy to lose.
Posted by Greg at March 29, 2008 12:52 AM
It's about time, although I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised that I'm surprised. When the copyright-reversion procedure was written into the new U.S. copyright laws in the late '70s, this is precisely what it was supposed to accomplish. Still, I never doubted that Time Warner would throw up a flurry of red tape and nuisance motions, so maybe my surprise is that the Siegels' have survived to the point of winning preliminary decisions. There's more to come, but the Siegels are in a much better position today than they were last week.
I`m not sure how. I should feel about this. Dc has already lost the right to use Superboy until that other lawsuit is resolved: what if the same thing happens with Superman?
You could, I dunno, read the articles and discussion, where you'll learn that DC continues to own half the copyright (giving them independent control), plus all of the copyright on all of the additions to the mythos, plus all of the trademarks, plus all of the foreign copyrights.
So there is no chance that DC will lose the right to use Superman.
Actually there is a very high likelyhood that Dc and Warners may lose their right to Superman. Warner Brothers and DC Comics will not be moving forward with any Superman movie project until the lawsuit brought by Jerry Seigel's heirs is settled. It is complicated and it is going to be costly as the Seigels(rightfully) already have been granted 50 percent ownership of Superman with the ownership of Superboy still not settled. There is also the upcoming lawsuit from Joe Shuster's heir coming in 2013. If the Seigels win both the Superman and Superboy lawsuits, then there is a very real possibility that Joe Shuster's heir will win the other 50 percent and Warner Brothers and DC comics will be completely out of the Superman business unless they can negotiate new deals with the Seigels and Shuster's heir. Unitl all of this is settled, all of these stories about a new superman Movie, reboot or sequel are simply not true!