Sunday, September 05, 2010

First, kill all the lawyers...

Yep, Shakespeare got it right after all (as if there was any doubt). I know that this is “old” news, but is is still worth repeating here.
Marvel is suing the family of the late artist Jack Kirby in a bid to retain copyright to some of the company's best-loved comic book characters.
Legal action, filed in New York, sought to invalidate 45 notices sent by his heirs, claiming rights to characters would revert to Kirby's estate in 2014.
Marvel maintains Kirby's illustrations, published between 1958-1963, were "for hire" making the heirs' claims invalid.
 Needless to say, Kirby's family has vowed to “vigorously defend” their (totally legitimate) case.

You can read the rest of this BBC article here.

2 comments:

Sol (Frederick) Badguy said...

How about doing like "Stan Lee" & "Bob Kane"? They still get money (at least now things go for the heirs of Kane after he passed away), and their characters are still published by the companies, can't Kirby heirs follow the same footsteps?

rjsodaro said...

That’s because they cut deals while they were still alive, and Jack never did.

Guy Dorian, Sr. interview: The Marvel Years

Here is one of my older articles that originally appeared on a website with which I am no longer associated, hence I wanted to repost it her...