Hm. A bit of irony. The former lawyer for Marvel’s new owner is defending Marvel’s main competitor.

Anyway, this is a major move. The lawsuit looks to have no resolution for another few years at the least.

It would be absolutely tragic if DC were to lose Superman. Look, no one is denying that the Siegel & Schuster got epically screwed. That being said, the only reason the Superman character is what it is today (and worth all that money) is because of DC’s work shepherding him over the past 70 years, not to mention the countless creators who worked on him. Give the Siegel and Schusters the money they deserve but NOT the copyright. I don’t think they deserve it.

Disney/Marvel will NOT be able to acquire the rights to Superman in any usable way. DC owns so many trademarks outright that the character in his modern incarnation would be unusable by any other company.

Not surprised Time Warner is doing this for they now either way they may wind up losing super man to Siegel and Shuster either by a court battle where a judge will rule that the heirs own the rights out right or keep trying to tie up the case in legal challenges and before long 2013 roles around and the copyright reverts to shusters heirs legaly so this is just one more tactic by warners to try find a win knowing the out come will sooner or later be they lose super man to his rightful heirs. legaly by court rulings or by copy right law .

What could the family do with him? Nothing! I say pay them some cash plus future royalties and get this settled asap! Superman fans deserve more than this for keeping the title alive for 70 years!!

If DC were to lose Superman, then they’ll need a BIG PLAN to try to save it’s remains.

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While it’s true that Superman as a character is unrecognizable without DC’s building of the property over time, it is also true that the HEIRS of Seigel and Shuster are guarenteed by law to the reversion of copyright.

The question is: what will Warners PAY to extend their use? Anyway, ALL these concerns are going to be MOOT in 2030-2050 when ALL intellectual properties from the 1930s revert to PUBLIC DOMAIN.

What’s Warners going to do THEN? Buy a couple of US Senators again? The only reason these properties STILL haven’t reverted is Sonny Bono.

As for Disney: Mickey Mouse comes up for public domain JUST LIKE Superman. What are THEY going to do when their key trademark become PUBLIC property?

A way bigger problem than Warners not wanting to PAY to continue to use Superman in toto. All they need to do is change the costume and NVER refer to Superman’s origin. Or simply, give him a NEW ORIGIN. They DON’T HAVE to pay. That’s what they are probably telling S&S’s lawyers.

But for a company that rode the back of two under-compensated teenagers for 70 years, THEY SHOULD pay a few million to the heirs. S&S went a LONG TIME through this world VERY POOR, with hardly enough to get by. They have MORAL obligation, but most likely NOT a legal one.

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Superman is the creation of writer Jerry Seigel and artist Joe Shuster. DC comics has built an entire industry and made hundreds of millions of dollars on their idea. Everybody working at DC Comics effectively owes their jobs to these two men. Rather than spending millions on lawyers, Time/Warner should do the right thing and pay the heirs. I find it somewhat ironic that the company that publishes Superman’s heroic adventures are the villians in this case.

To Kirth: Actually only the intellectual properties that have not had active use since the 1930s are up for grabs. Active use of any intellectual property extends copyright. For instance James Bond is continually used so nobody can come in and try to grab the rights and write a story about him without the permission of the Broccoli family. Copyrights go through use and not creation date. However, I think DC should just keep the Clark Kent character and just rename his heroic persona. Honestly, Clark Kent is the more interesting aspect of the character and probably of less interest to the family than the Superman name, costume, and symbol. Sales would probably drop for a bit but I for one would support such a move. In the end the family didn’t create the characters and are trying to profit from a chance of fate. They lucked into the Siegel and Shuster families and did NOTHING to earn this money. They are trying to earn money on the backs of their forefathers and the DC writers. I call BS on that. Get a job and do something on your own. Don’t try and sponge off your dead relatives and b**** about not getting your “fair” share. One should live and die by their own laurels not the successes of their parents and grandparents. Make your own way.

Maybe, I’m the only one, but I’ve never liked Superman flying. I always imagined him jumping to get around.

It’s hard to explain, but I would love to see what the S & S families would do with….. Lets say a JMS penned, Image Comics, “Superman series” I’d call it “The Superman”. New friends, new family, new goals, and new everything.

I should say, that’s my dream project.

Ludicrous! Without Gaines involvement Superman would never have been published and you would not even be posting your thoughts concerning this. Face It! Without DC there may have never been a Superman or a legacy of superheroes to follow. They gave two struggling teens an outlet for their creativity. You can spin it anyway you like but DC did Siegel and Shuster a huge favor when they took in the property to publish! Shuster had already torn up a previous version due to rejections from the major newspaper strip publishers at the time. No DC, No Superman! Siegel and Shuster owe DC just as much as their heirs feel DC owes them. And that is an unarguable fact! So take the spin elsewhwere!

lol – so DC – the company that has PAID the creators not once, not twice – but three times – are the villains in this little drama? Hardly. S & S were compensated three times. Enough is enough – I hope DC wins and the families quit their crying.

You know, the legal costs from both sides will probably come to enough to have made the heirs happy several times over before this is done.

The creators of superman didnt get as screwed as their heirs and some people want to think they did. Did they get screwed? Yeah. But it was 50 years ago, in terms of a copyright then, that they sold to dc for a sum of money. That sum probably should have been bigger, but shuster and seigel werent big time lawyers, they got what everyone else was getting. Superman didnt become the major property he is today because of them. He became this property because DC used and marketed him in this way. So many more creators, marketing guys and other mediums made superman what superman is. S&S were more then happy to take the pay back then, they could have sat on the title and that would have been the end of it. S&S ended up down and out in a game they fully knew they were in.

Greed is not the case here Time/Warner is just protecting the intelectual propertty that they own They are bound to due this due to stockholder agreements.

Asigning the term “greed” is vastly mis representing their actions and smack of fanbism rather than any actual thought.

Why not a yearly sum paid to the family over an agreed period of time??
2 mil a year for the next 25 years. That’s still ALOT of cash, and sure it would hurt Time/Warner, but when you consider the amount of money generated by the character over the last seven decades, and future potential earnings in the NEXT seventy, it’s a small price to pay.

You know when you sell something to a company you are no longer the owner of that product so these greedy selfish people need to leave superman alone.

These is just like someone buying your house once you sell it you can’t go back and kick them out because its your house because its not you sold it to them

What would he Siegels do if they win? I suppose they would license the character back to DC for as much money as they could squeeze from it on a yearly basis, in perpetuity. They might shop him around, but I doubt any of the others could touch their fee – heh, except perhaps Marvel/Disney. Now that would be kinda funny.

If these were the actual authors involved, I would support them, but the heirs? What merit did they do? I think DC has already payed to much to people who are doing nothing at all and just try to suck money instead of working for a living.

USA is a funny place when it comes to laws. And I thought you can’t condemn someone twice for the same crime or fault, how is it the heirs can suit DC whenever they want? :S

The only sensible thing is for Warner to eventually pay up. The law’s not on their side.

Similarly, the Siegels wouldn’t gain much by shopping whatever piece of the property they get elsewhere because of the trademark issues described above.

If the two sides will just sit down and work out a handsome money transfer, the gravy train can keep a’rollin’ for everybody.

The only things keeping this from happening are if the Siegels are just hellbent on revenge and pinhead executives at Warner can’t see past the ends of their noses. Warner WILL pay in the end–it’s just a matter of how much, and how much they pay their lawyers. And as for the Siegels, well, the best revenge is a big fat check.

Who are these Seagle and Shooster guys?

I thought Stan Lee created every comic book character.

>>>Gotta love the self-interested entitlement of the fanboys arguing the corporatist viewpoint here.>>>>

No kidding.. it’s like they’re rooting for Lex Luthor here.. or more likely..the Parasite..

SUPERMAN.. as created by Seigel and Shuster.. is an IDEA. That idea.. no matter how well or poorly executed by others.. has sustained a vast audience since it’s creation.

No matter what variations.. additions.. manipulations have been applied after.. every single thing springs from the original IDEA.

Yes.. the copyright for that idea was assigned to a company. But that was for a limited time. What is going on now is like if you rent your house for a month.. and the renter says he repainted it so he gets to keep your house forever!

DC’s time is up. They have had the SUPERMAN idea for much longer than what they paid for.. time to give it back to the owners.

>>>>So while I’m not sure if I can really say they were paid their fair share, it’s not like they never got anything for creating Superman.>>>>

The issue that DC made payment of some sort for the use of Seigel and Shusters idea.. is not an issue. The law assigned them use of the copyright for a limited amount of time. That time is now up.

You can lease a car.. when the time is up.. the owner gets the car back. You can rent a house.. when the time is up.. the owner gets the house back. You can buy a one year membership to a health club. When the time is up.. you don’t get to use the health club anymore.

Time Warners time…is up.

Fanchildren, stop living in your Krypton Dreamworlds!
Comic books make diddly-crap compared to the massive income a successful Superman movie could generate. Not even James Cameron could make a successful Superman film without the name and costume of said idea beast. Therefore the statement “we can go without Superman in our all-important little continuity-land for like five years” is a meaningless statement when applied to the intentions of a major corporation. They will pay whoever and however many they need to in order to fight for the last chance to extend their copyright. And when they lose in the end, they’re going to pay out to S&S whatever license fees they have to in order to keep hold of the thing. Your little dreamland is all too secure.

Jim, Time Warner will eventually settle with the Siegel estate and with the Shuster estate in their follow-up. Eight-figure payouts will be mentioned, but those will be disbursed over several years, I’d think.

Disney will do something similar with the Kirby estate.

DC and Disney will continue using the characters, as the characters’ value is limited outside their respective publishing universes… but there will be licenses and revenue streams for the estates.

Siegel and Shuster should have been paid well, but that was the pay for a “kids book” at the time. The heirs have been paid several times over the decades. The family is trying to suck more money for something they had nothing to do with. Where is Shakespere family, shelley’s family; or the thousands of other creative forces families who weren’t paid.

Good thing the Smallville continuity never came out and said “Superman”, huh? But they have used the name “Krypton”…bummer.

It’s funny that everyone assumes the families are just in it for the money and no one considers that perhaps they are interested in creative control. Superman from the 40s on was a bastardized creation, hopelessly distorted and whitewashed by DC editorial. The socially aloof Superman who would only fight crime but not work to solve problems like poverty and war was the complete opposite of the character Siegel and Shuster intended — in fact, a total betrayal of the character premise. Part of the reason Superman has been such a bland character for decades is that he was robbed of his essence very early in the game. Personally, I’d love to see the families retake control of the character and bring Superman back to his social crusader roots.

It is all just business. Time Warner is doing what is best for them and the Siegel/Shuster estates are trying to get what they believe they are owed.
If the Siegel/Shusters get Superman back (their version), they could self-publish but it would be like reading “Supereme”. This would not be “Superman” as he is known around the world to millions of people, it be would an homage to the original hero and the novelty would wear off pretty quickly since they could not use characters created after Siegel/Shuster.
The real winner here is Superman, making the news and causing us to discuss all of the legal shenanigans. I myself err on the side of DC but would lose no sleep over the verdict but it would set a precident that I think would damage the comic industry with creators coming out the wood work trying to do the same thing.

thank you very much wonderful web page post article Warner Bros.; I feel so sorry that they’ve gotta hire new high-powered attorneys to continue to screw over the proper owners of this character in the first place.”

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