Charities have realized that comics characters are an effective way to get money and attention, but for every authorized use — such as the Met’s superhero fashion exhibit or Diane von Furstenberg’s Wonder Woman collection — there are countless other examples of charities using comic-book icons without permission. Every so often, a publisher clamps down on one of these initiatives–and their reward is typically negative press. Just this month, for example, DC Comics was criticized for not giving the Heroes Initiative permission to include pictures of DC properties in The 3-Minute Sketchbook.

Singling out DC is a bit unfair — Marvel has had its own share of charitable controversy, and DC has allowed its characters to be used for other charitable projects — but the broader question raised by such incidents is not unreasonable. After all, if the money is going to a charity, why shouldn’t a publisher just let its characters help a good cause?

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Today the judge in the Siegel case is holding a status conference to set the “FINAL and DEFINITIVE schedule” for the trial. The judge’s all-caps emphasis may seem a bit unusual for a routine scheduling order, but it’s a visceral reaction to the twists and turns the case has taken since the calendar was originally set back in April.

A lot of it is legal wrangling that we’ll set aside for another time, but one issue is particularly relevant to readers of this site — because that issue arose from one of our most recent posts.

The post in question was from late August, and it revealed previously unknown artwork and scripts from the 1934 collaboration between Jerry Siegel and Russell Keaton. As Siegel lawyer Marc Toberoff explains in a court filing:

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A Michigan judge on Friday ruled the Macomb County prosecutor’s office won’t be disqualified from the retrial of Michael George, the retailer and convention organizer convincted in March of killing his first wife  Barbara in 1990.

Circuit Court Judge James Biernat also issued a gag order to to prevent attorneys from discussing the case outside of the courtroom.

On Sept. 12 Biernat overturned George’s jury conviction, citing prosecutorial misconduct and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder of Barbara George. The misconduct was related to the assistant prosecutor’s use of Michael George’s mug shot during closing arguments.

Defense attorneys had petitioned Biernat to disqualify Prosecutor Eric Smith and his office from the case.

Last week prosecutors filed a request for appeal of Biernat’s decision with the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Barbara George was shot in the head on July 13, 1990, in the Georges’ Clinton Township comic-book store. Prosecutors contended that Michael George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman.

Michael George remains in Macomb County Jail awaiting his new trial, which had been set to begin on Dec. 2.

The House of Representatives has adjourned–for now–and unless the Clerk was asleep at the keyboard the so-called orphan works bill did not pass.

That means the bill is dead and gone, right?

Not really.

If we’ve learned anything from reading comics, nothing is dead unless we see a corpse–and even then, chances are the deceased will eventually come back to life. Law is much the same way. Since there has been so much confusion about the state of the bill over the past few days, here’s a brief explanation of what happened this week and what it means for the future.

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Warner Bros. screened nearly 30 minutes of previously unreleased Watchmen footage for journalists last night in West Hollywood and, perhaps not surprisingly, it received a largely positive response.

Alex Billington of FirstShowing said it looked “absolutely phenomenal.” Patrick Lee of Sci Fi Wire dubbed the opening-title montage as “impressive.” And Michael Cieply of The New York Times said the three clips “spared nothing when it comes to the messy side of the super life.”

Similar screenings are planned in London and New York City.

Expectant fans may be pleased to learn that Watchmen will have a run time of 2 hours and 43 minutes, which director Zack Snyder felt was necessary to tell the story and showcase the action sequences.

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Despite some reports saying it has died a quiet death, the Orphan Works bill Jeff Trexler talked about yesterday is still alive – stalled, but alive. Per Wired’s Threat Level blog: “Lost in the House of Representatives’ push to pass $700 billion bailout legislation is the so-called Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008.”

Jeff, Blog@’s resident Matt Murdock, is unavailable today to put some thoughts together (he says he’s getting ready for one of his classes, as he teaches law at Pace University, but I think that’s actually code for preparing to fight Bullseye), but he dropped me a note to say that it isn’t dead, that it’s “more complex procedurally than that, as the comments illustrate” in the Wired.com report.

As someone points out in the comments section to the Wired story:

“The House has agreed to drop THEIR bill, but they agreed to take up the Senate bill (which passed this week) and substitute it for theirs. There is a high probability that the House will pass it this week when they come back, under suspension rules that allow them to Hotline the bill and pass bills by default.”

And then on her own blog, Colleen Doran, who has been following it closely, adds, “A little birdy tells me that Senator Leahy fully intends to get right back on his high horse in January 2009.”

Watch for more from Trexler soon.

The artistic community is buzzing over news that the Senate has passed its version of the orphan works bill.

And for good reason. The legislation will significantly change the incentive structure in copyright enforcement.

As I discussed in a previous post, the legislation’s stated aim is to clarify the status of so-called orphan works–old copyrighted material whose rights owners cannot be located. The typical example cited to justify the bill is something old with a personal or educational value, such as a family photograph or a historic archive.

But what matters most is not the ideal application but the actual language, and this is what has so many people concerned.

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A judge in Macomb County, Mich., has denied bond for convicted killer Michael George while he awaits a new trial in December.

The retailer and convention organizer was convicted in March of the 1990 killing of his first wife Barbara and sentenced to life in prison. However, on Sept. 12 Circuit Judge James Biernat Sr. overturned the jury verdict, citing prosecutorial misconduct and new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder.

In his decision on Tuesday, Biernat said George poses a flight risk, and should remain in the Macomb County Jail. The new trial is set to begin on Dec. 2.

Barbara George was shot in the head on July 13, 1990, in the Georges’ Clinton Township comic-book store. Prosecutors contended that Michael George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman.

• Stephen Chow will make his American directorial debut on Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet, and co-star as Kato. Chow has directed five feature films, including Kung Fu Hustle and its sequel, which is now in production. “I’m excited to be taking on The Green Hornet — obviously I’ve been a huge fan of the show since I was a kid,” Chow says.

The movie is set to open on June 25, 2010. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• The legal battle between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. over Watchmen swirls around veteran producer Lawrence Gordon. [The New York Times]

• Uh, spoilers? Alessandra Stanley reviews tonight’s season-three premiere of NBC’s Heroes. [The New York Times]

• Photos from the set of Kick-Ass, with some comics-panel comparisons. [Slashfilm]

• Police in Kyoto, Japan, have charged a man with violating copyright law for illegally uploading the movie Wanted using P2P file-sharing software. The 33-year-old could face 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $96,154. [Variety]

• Frank Miller’s The Spirit gets into the guerrilla-marketing game. [FirstShowing.net]

The owner of Sarge’s Comics in New London, Conn., was sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation for making and selling pirated DVDs.

Robert P. Miller, who pleaded guilty in August 2007 to one count of copyright infringement, also was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $9,575 to the Motion Picture Association of America and other parties, and perform 100 hours of community service.

When agents raided Miller’s store in June 2005, they reportedly recovered 778 DVDs and CDs containing pirated works, as well as a CD/DVD burner. He admitted to making copies of movies and television shows to sell to his customers.

Back in June my buddy Larry sent me a link to a story about a photographer suing Marvel and Paramount over a photo he took of Iron Man that he says was used as part of a mock newspaper front page in the film. The guy took the photos from a parking structure with a view of the set, and it was later posted on IESB.net.

Anyway, Larry sent me a screen grab from the upcoming DVD release of Iron Man, and it looks like the photo has been changed in the movie. Here’s the theater version:

And here’s the DVD version:

Thanks again, Larry!

Comics retailer Michael George, who was convicted in March of killing his first wife in 1990, will get a new trial.

In a decision handed down earlier today, Macomb County (Mich.) Circuit Judge James Biernat Sr. cited prosecutorial misconduct and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder of Barbara George.

The misconduct apparently is related to the assistant prosecutor’s use of Michael George’s mug shot during closing arguments.

Barbara George was shot in the head on July 13, 1990, in the Georges’ Clinton Township comic-book store. Prosecutors contended that Michael George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman.

George was sentenced in June 20 life in prison.

The new trial is set to begin on Dec. 2.

Related: The Detroit Free Press has more details on the new evidence

A federal judge in Los Angeles has set Jan. 6 as the trial date for 20th Century Fox’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the rights to the Watchmen movie.

According to Variety, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess indicated the case isn’t suitable for the preliminary injunction that Fox had sought because the issues are too complex to be resolved on an interim basis.

Feess wants the case to move quickly, and has asked attorneys for both parties to expedite discovery and deposition proceedings.

Fox could still ask the judge to prevent Warner Bros. from releasing Watchmen following the discovery phase.

As we reported yesterday, Fox last week had asked for a June trial date, while Warner Bros. pushed for April. So Feess is working on an accelerated timeline.

Warner Bros., meanwhile, is still aiming for a March 6 opening for Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons miniseries.

Attorneys for 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. laid out plans for the legal battle over Watchmen in a report filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles.

The New York Times points out that Warner Bros., which says that Fox “sat silently” as producer Lawrence Gordon took Watchmen “to studio after studio with Fox’s express knowledge,” seems ready to draw Gordon, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures into the fight. None of those is named in Fox’s lawsuit.

Fox, which is requesting a June trial date, says it will seek an injunction to prevent the planned March release of Watchmen. Warner Bros. contends Fox shouldn’t be allowed to stop the movie, and asks for an April date.

After years of countless Tintin parodies and homages, it seems the executors of Herge’s estate, Moulinsart, have entered a serious lockdown mode. Last week, for example, there was this story of how they played hardball with the author of a book which imagined a much older and depressed Tintin, who is reduced to reporting on the lives of shallow celebrities:

Publisher Paco Camarasa explained that Moulinsart first tried to pressure them into pulling the book from stores, before then agreeing to let it be distributed until the first 1,000 copies were sold. In exchange, Edicions de Ponent promised not to reprint the book ever again.

Although Moulinsart did not consider the illustrations that come with the text as infringement of any copyright laws, the estate concluded that the book “perverted the essence of the personality” of Tintin.

Which strikes me as odd, as I don’t remember them ever complaining about this book. Anyway, according to Forbidden Planet, now Moulinsart is going after the fan Web site Ojectif Tintin, slapping them with a cease and desist letter:

Their complaint ? Objectif Tintin used elements from Hergé’s oeuvre in their logo and illustrations (even though, as Didier Pasamonik asserts on Actua BD, this is fully covered by the Belgian quotation law), and they mentioned or even advertised events that were not licensed by Moulinsart. In other words, Objectif Tintin, in their attempt to be an objective (hence the name) and complete source of information for Tintin fans, failed to ask Moulinsart first if they could publish something.

I remember seeing tons of pornographic, satricial and otherwise outright snotty Tintin parodies when I was over in Europe way back when. Is it just the upcoming release of the Spielberg/Jackson film that has the company so on edge?

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the copyright issues surrounding the cartoon Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse, in particular recent allegations of an “imprecision” in copyright claims dating back to the character’s first appearance:

Film credits from the 1920s revealed imprecision in copyright claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney’s long-held copyright, though a Disney lawyer dismissed that idea as “frivolous.”

So does this mean I can finally publish my Steamboat Willie II: Electric Bugaloo comic? Not so fast, says one legal expert:

No one expects Disney, which declined interview requests, to surrender Mickey without an all-out legal brawl. And the cost of what has been an academic exercise would soar if moved into a federal courtroom.

“Law and equity might line up on the side of forfeiture,” said Michael J. Madison, associate dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. But “Disney has enough ammunition on its side to dissuade all but the most well-financed competitor, or any but the most committed public-interest advocates, from challenging Mickey.”

Also keep in mind that there’s a difference between copyright and trademark … Jeff Trexler talked a little bit about the differences between the two when discussing the Siegel/Superman case here. You can read the government’s definitions of both, as well as patents, here.

Via.

• How could there be so much confusion over who owns the film rights to Watchmen? At the heart of the dust-up between Fox and Warner Bros. is turnaround, a contractual mechanism that comes with all kinds of strings. Michael Cieply tries to untangle them and, in the process, discovers evidence that Warner Bros. may have settled an earlier rights dispute with Paramount — yet another studio that had planned to adapt Watchmen – by handing over the foreign distribution rights. [The New York Times]

• Fox will stream the premiere of J.J. Abrams’ Fringe and the second-season opener of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles online at the same time they debut on television — but only on college campuses. Students, who are more likely to have computers than TVs in their dorm rooms, will be able to log in to the Fox website to watch. [Variety]

• The fourth volume of NBC’s Heroes – aka the second half of Season 3 — will be titled “Fugitives.” [io9]

• Kristen Bell has joined the voice cast of Warner Bros.’ Astro Boy. [Variety]

• Nicolas Cage will be the death of Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, apparently. [Collider]

On Wednesday, Newsarama reported on fans organizing online to demand a three-hour-plus run time for Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen.

However, there’s another Watchmen-related petition — this one following up on threats of a boycott of 20th Century Fox because of the studio’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. over who owns the film rights to the property.

Buoyed by a judge’s refusal last week to dismiss the complaint, Fox is playing hardball — for the moment, at least — with sources claiming the studio isn’t looking for compensation. Instead, it apparently wants to prevent the release of Watchmen because Warner Bros. never bought the rights from Fox, which claims to have acquired them sometime between 1986 and 1990.

Hollywood Insider’s Jeff Jensen dubs the rights kerfuffle as “perhaps the priciest whoopsie! in Hollywood history.”

But that’s all “nit-picky legalistic crap,” according to the “Boycott FOX for Watchmen Litigation” petition, which has racked up 979 names since it was started on Wednesday morning:

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In a comment on the Russell Keaton post, Denis Kitchen — whose contributions to the comics community are many and invaluable — expressed his dismay over the publication of copyrighted material with what he considered to be an inaccurate account of their discovery. In this post, I’d like to provide a more in-depth explanation of the documents’ backstory and the legality of republishing them.

Copyright: These documents are part of the official public court record for the Siegels’ Superman case. In fact, the lawyer who made them part of the public record was the Siegels’ lawyer, Marc Toberoff, who certified their authenticity and filed them with the court. U.S. law has long recognized that the First Amendment protects the reproduction of material placed on the public record in connection with a federal court proceeding.

In regard to co-ownership of the material by the Siegel and Keaton estates, Kitchen notes that the Siegels’ lawyer vetoed the publication of a book collecting the material. However, even if the documents had not been made part of the court record, the Keaton estate arguably has a legal basis for going forward with the collection. As the recent Superman court decision reiterates, joint owners of copyrighted material each have the right to exploit it independent of each other, though they are required to share the profits with the other co-owners.

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Just when it looked like the Watchmen “trailer effect” was subsiding, the collection of the 1986 miniseries jumped five spots to No. 13 on USA Today’s bestseller list — which may be the highest-ever position held by a graphic novel.

Two weeks ago the trade paperback reached No. 15 on the book chart, the same spot held in April 2007 by the 16th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket. I can’t recall a comic performing better than that, but if anyone has a better memory for these things, please correct me.

USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

Fueled by the release of the trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation, sales of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection have skyrocketed. To meet increased demand, DC Comics has printed an additional 900,000 copies of Watchmen since the teaser’s debut on July 17. That means the book will have a print run of more than 1 million copies this year.

Related: Andrew Steven Harris takes a look at the legal fight between Fox and Warner Bros. over the Watchmen adaptation, and provides my favorite headline of the week: “The world will look up and say, ‘sue us.’ And I’ll look down and whisper, ‘okay’.”