Warner Bros. Loses Rights to Superman's Origins

[dirtymonkey22]

Superman co-creator's family given rights
Siegels now control character's Krypton origins

Warner Bros. and DC Comics have lost a little more control over the Man of Steel.
In an ongoing Federal court battle over Superman, Judge Stephen Larson ruled Wednesday that the family of the superhero's co-creator, Jerry Siegel, has "successfully recaptured" rights to additional works, including the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper comic-strips, as well as portions of early Action Comics and Superman comic-books.

The ruling is based on the court's finding that these were not "works-made-for-hire" under the Copyright Act.

This means the Siegels -- repped by Marc Toberoff of Toberoff & Associates -- now control depictions of Superman's origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash.

The first Superman story was published in 1938 in Action Comics No. 1. For $130, Jerry Siegel and co-creator Joel Shuster signed a release in favor of DC's predecessor, Detective Comics, and a 1974 court decision ruled they signed away their copyrights forever.

In 2008, the same court order ruled on summary judgment that the Siegels had successfully recaptured (as of 1999) Siegel's copyright in Action Comics No. 1, giving them rights to the Superman character, including his costume, his alter-ego as reporter Clark Kent, the feisty reporter Lois Lane, their jobs at the Daily Planet newspaper working for a gruff editor, and the love triangle among Clark/Superman and Lois.

While ownership of the Man of Steel is one point of all this legal activity, the real issue is money and how much Warner Bros. and DC owe the Siegels from profits they collected from Superman since 1999, when the heirs' recapture of Siegel's copyright became effective.

DC owns other elements like Superman's ability to fly, the term kryptonite, the Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen characters, Superman's powers and expanded origins.

In a statement, Warner Bros. and DC said, "Warner and DC Comics are pleased that the court has affirmed that the vast majority of key elements associated with the Superman character that were developed after Action Comics No. 1 are not part of the copyrights that the plaintiffs have recaptured and therefore remain solely owned by DC Comics."

The Shuster estate originally did not participate with the Siegels' case because Shuster has no spouse or children. But his estate later won a ruling of a recapture identical to the Siegels, which will be effective in 2013. At that point, the Siegels and Shusters will own the entire copyright to Action Comics No. 1. That will give them the chance to set up Superman pics, TV shows and other projects at another studio.

If they want to get a new "Superman" or even "Justice League" pic featuring the superhero, Warner Bros. and DC will be forced to go into production by 2011


man i wonder how bad this will fuck up superman

[sTr]

it won't fuck up superman, it was about time they gave your people their dues... fuck all the ones that got fucked every other way, if we have a black man for president we will finally give joe siegals family the rights to superman's origin....

[Insanecowposse]

thats all about money they won't mess with the story they just want the loot

[juggalogigolo]

word, dc comics has been fucking these guys forever, bout time they have to pay em the money they a re due for creating the most known superhero icon on the fucking planet

[NEKESTRO]

thats every bit of rediculous/confusing

[dirtymonkey22]

fred Wrote:word, dc comics has been fucking these guys forever, bout time they have to pay em the money they a re due for creating the most known superhero icon on the fucking planet

wut sucks is both the creators are dead its the fam thats getting this and its makeing it hard for dc/wb to put out a movie in another artical i read about this they were saying that dc has till 2011 to start filming a new movie

[Paullehh]

After the last movie we can only hope there will not be another.

[sTr]

or we can hope that the family gets involved and makes them put time and effort into not fucking up their families name....

[SciRob]

Personally, I think these people just want money. And don't really give a fuck if they are destroying shit to get it. And all the really own is the original version of Superman, everything else after it is owned by DC.

[dirtymonkey22]

its more then that they also get the rights to stuff like movies and tv and all that shit thats why its so hard to get some chareters on cartoons like they had teen titans at the same time as the batman and they couldent bring robin to batman till titans was over. same thing with smallville they wanted bruce wayne along time ago but with all the movies and cartoons the rights are to hard to get really thats why we havent seen more DC movies of adam west batman on dvd

[Grimlin]

This is a 2 way confusion....sounds like a case of major greed.

Quote:The first Superman story was published in 1938 in Action Comics No. 1. For $130, Jerry Siegel and co-creator Joel Shuster signed a release in favor of DC's predecessor, Detective Comics, and a 1974 court decision ruled they signed away their copyrights forever.

This bothers me....because they signed a released.Sounds like they had a second thought after they found out how much money DC was making on it and now they want that profit in their pockets.Once you release your copyright,you really have no say in it anymore.

[juggalogigolo]

they never signed any release to anything, way back in the day in the 30s and 40s, they were just two writers, they prolly made 50 or 60 characters, and all of em were then "owned" by the company they were working for, just a days job.

think about if it were you, and you were at work, and you made, or found something out, that blew the fuck up and because as popular as superman, and generated billions of dollars, and your boss basically said fuck off, its ours, not yours, you got paid your 9 bucks for that hour that you were at work

[sTr]

that was way back when they would have doctors and dentists in cigarette commercials for endorsements and shit...

[Grimlin]

fred Wrote:they never signed any release to anything, way back in the day in the 30s and 40s, they were just two writers, they prolly made 50 or 60 characters, and all of em were then "owned" by the company they were working for, just a days job.

think about if it were you, and you were at work, and you made, or found something out, that blew the fuck up and because as popular as superman, and generated billions of dollars, and your boss basically said fuck off, its ours, not yours, you got paid your 9 bucks for that hour that you were at work

I'm not saying what DC did was right,but I'm going according what is in that article.Somewhere down the line they forfeited their comics over(simply working for a company includes that).That article is saying they did it for $130.They worked for the company....Doesn't that mean the company has some say in it since they shelled out money to get the comic out? That's what doesn't make sense.I know those dudes got paid somewhere down the line.Maybe they did get under paid,then why agree to work for the company then?

Now since they have it back....they can turn around and sell it again.This is what i don't understand.You can't just take the work you did for the company that paid you.If they never paid the guys then i can understand the case.

I'm just saying both sides sound fishy.....I doubt facts are being stated on both sides of the party. The fact that they worked for the company and got paid....they can't just take their comics and leave without the company without some copyrights issues.Knowing DC they probably copyrighted their work and they(Siegels) did agree to it.Otherwise the comics would have never been made under DC.

[sTr]

well if they do change the story ! hope they make it like the jerk where superman is raised by poor black people...

[XIII]

What if Marvel buys the rights?

[sTr]

that would be gangster....

[XIII]

That's why I hate when stuff like this is hanging in the air. Because then the business aspect kicks in, and all the creative aspects take a back seat.

Marvel could buy the rights, and I keep hearing through the grapevine that if they don't make a Superman movie by 2011, they're gonna lose rights to everything about SM.

I love Superman and I hate seeing the mockery that he's become.

But here's the season 9 trailer to Smallville. Looks like I might be watching again.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/08/20/smallville-season-9-promo/">http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/08/20/ ... n-9-promo/</a><!-- m -->

[sTr]

fuck, superman would be better off going through a bidding war... hopefully somebody that gives a damn will get the rights and take superman back to his glory days.. pretty much everything until the mid-90's after he came back from the dead... after that it could have been a shit towel for all ! care. the only decent superman shit has been the bs novel comics they put out(Red Son, The Doomsday Returns series)

[XIII]

They should do a trilogy, or another 2-part series. The Death and Return of Superman. Have Doomsday arrive and gradually get stronger throughout the film. Lex should be running for Prez. End the first film with SM dying. Start the new one like, 1 year later, and have the reign of the supermen... and end it with SM coming back.

After that they should try doing stuff like Brainiac, Metallo, Bizarro, and the like... cuz Lex is getting played out.

[sTr]

hell yeah, they dropped the ball with that last flick. the only way to make superman returns good is to watch 1, 2 then returns. it would be great to have a death/return series, one of the best series in the history of superman comics....

[XIII]

Everything about Superman Returns was great... except!

1. Lex is the main villain. His story should have totally been a b-story.
2. Superman has a kid. What they should do is have that kid in the next movie, but he dies of an unknown disease. That could give Superman a darker side. To ignore Superman Returns now would just be lame. Seeing as how the movie's only a couple years old.

[SciRob]

XIII Wrote:Everything about Superman Returns was great... except!

1. Lex is the main villain. His story should have totally been a b-story.
2. Superman has a kid. What they should do is have that kid in the next movie, but he dies of an unknown disease. That could give Superman a darker side. To ignore Superman Returns now would just be lame. Seeing as how the movie's only a couple years old.

Didn't they do a darkside thing in one of the older films?

[dirtymonkey22]

no darkseid was only in the cartoons and was fucking awsome thats the trilogy they need to make superman the newgods darkseid fuckl yeah

[sTr]

darkseid, hank henshaw(cyborg superman) and doomsday... that superman moview would be the bomb shit, son... maybe through bizarro superman is there too, wtf, no love for bizzy boy...