Public Domain Superheroes? 251
SerpicoWasTaken writes "Here is an interesting article about a group of comic book heroes from the golden age that are in the public domain. Apparently, a bunch of golden age heroes were never copyrighted and just faded into obscurity. The article also contains a long discussion of copyright and the public domain. It is an interesting read for all those interested in the public domain." Update: 09/25 17:51 GMT by M : Link removed at the request of the site maintainers because it's killing their server. Update: 09/25 19:02 GMT by M : They've put the document on a static page instead of a cgi script. :)
"Never copyrighted"? I don't think so. (Score:0, Interesting)
If they were created, they were copyrighted. Perhaps the copyrights were not registered, but that doesn't make them public domain. Perhaps the copyright owners are dead or defunct, or just don't care. Perhaps no one knows for sure who had the copyrights. And perhaps the copyright has expired.
Just don't say "they were never copyrighted" because that's just not true.
Copyright expires... not with DRM (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, and when does the copyright for the first movies and audio recordings expire again?
Mickey Mouse (Score:3, Interesting)
We have two periods of Copyrighted material. BM and AM. Most BM (before Mickey) material is in the public domain, while all material AM (after Mickey) is protected.
Never what the origional creators of copyright law intended.
-Pete
Shazam! (Score:2, Interesting)
You do not have to explicitely copyright something (Score:2, Interesting)
At least today, you do not need to explicitely say that you have copyright to something, you get this automatically. Of course it helps if you type down your name and stuff to be easier to enforce.
Re:This raises an interesting question.. (Score:3, Interesting)
It was really only after years of that crap that he became serious again (in the early issues of Detective Comics, Batman was incredibly serious, and casually killed criminals).
But it was during the campy years in the comics that the Adam West TV series was done.
Kierthos
obscurity (Score:2, Interesting)
I was tickled by the idea of the worst super hero that never lived. Then I went looking for a link to post with this, and discovered that DC went ahead and used the character in 1996! I don't know whether to be horrified or pleased.
http://www.ian-rowland.com/Vault/FunAFOB.htm [ian-rowland.com]
Captain Good vs. Doctor Evil (Score:3, Interesting)
How long... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:copyright vs trademarks (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm kind of unclear how this works. The way I understand it is this: I create a superhero, and I call him PublicDomainMan. I make it clear that he's not actually IN the public domain, but is trademarked, but I will allow anyone to use him if not for anything horribly offensive.
So someone comes out with "PublicDomanMan Saves a Puppy" and I don't sue for infringement, because I don't WANT to.
Then, someone else comes out with "PublicDomainMan rapes a puppy while helping Adolf Hitler gas Jews" and I feel that's in poor taste and I would like to sue. Is it true that I can't sue, just because I didn't sue the first guy?
If this is the case, it's no wonder so many companies are rat bastards, if the only way to keep ownership of your property is to BE a rat bastard...
Re:Captain Good vs. Doctor Evil (Score:2, Interesting)
There are good and evil characters with each title. See a list of characters named "Doctor" here. [comicsdb.com] Ignoring multiple characters with the same name, good superheroes called "Doctor" or "Doc" of note include Strange, Fate, and Savage all of whom have had their own series; for evil "Doctor"s the only ones of similar stature are Doom and Octopus. (I'm not including the more obscure villians Destiny, Psychlo, or Alchemy; heroes of similar notability include Samson, "Doc" in the DCU, Light, and Midnight.) "Doctor" heroes actually slightly outnumber villians in my opinion.
Notable [comicsdb.com] "Captain" villians are fewer but ones I'd heard of include "Captain"s Boomerang, Cold, and Nazi; they're similar in notability to the second group above, while there are three very well known hero "Captain"s who have had their own series (America, Marvel, Britain)... So I can agree that there's a correlation of good characters and the "Captain" name, but dispute the above absolute statement if "military all good".