Originally published at: Public domain or not, Warner Bros. may sue if your Superman flies | Boing Boing
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The “flight” thing didn’t really happen all at once; it started with mile-high leaps and there was even one issue where he kicked his legs super-fast to push through the air like propellers in a challenge against some of Luthor’s airplanes. An amusing if undignified way to travel the skies.
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Watching ancient re-runs on an ancient TV we kids always used to giggle over how Superman would proudly stand and ricochet bullets off his chest only to cautiously duck when the gangsters inevitably throw their empty guns at him.
(and knowing vaguely about Newton’s third law scatologically wondered if super flatulence wasn’t the key to super flight)
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Copyright should last no longer than 10 years.
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And of course, if you make him “fall, but with style,” you’ll run afoul of Disney’s notorious legal machine…
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If copyright only lasted 10 years there’s basically no chance any authors or artists would get to reap the benefits of major studios adapting their work into film or television.
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I like the idea of graduated usage rights. For example:
For two years the creator retains absolute control over the work.
For the next 5 years, it’s similar to current “fair use”.
The following 10, they can demand compulsory licensing fees, but can’t prevent use.
The next decade requires attribution with any and all use.
15 years after that, it goes into public domain.
You could allow extensions if the work is part of a series in current release- So, for example, the clock might reset to fair use if an author is still releasing books based on that main character, or for a daily comic strip that’s still being produced.
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Yeah, 10 years is a bit short. It was originally 14 years. Then they made it where you could renew it one time for a second term of 14 years, for a total of 28. Then they doubled the terms, making it 56. And they kept extending it until we got to where we are now, which is ridiculously long. I think 28 years is fine. I could even be ok with 56. Anything more is unnecessary and doesn’t benefit the creators much. 20 years seems to work just fine for patents. I don’t know why copyright has to be 5 times longer.
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So for the first 2 years, not even fair use is allowed? That would make it really hard to do a movie review, or publish an excerpt of a book for a book review. Or report news on any art, film, literature, or music. The problem I see with your scheme is that movie studios just won’t adapt any books until 7 years after publication, and won’t adapt many until 17 years. That would screw authors out of a lot of money, which would end up in the hands of movie studios. We want a system that is more fair to individual creators, not large corporations.
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My Superman isn’t flying, he’s levitating. Come at me Bros.
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1938 superman in 2033 sounds interesting as hell. Also I’m tired of the same characters over and over again.
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Yeah, ironically a jumping, barely-bulletproof Superman is more grounded and relatable (and easier to make a movie about) than the space-god he’s turned into since 1938.
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He was basically Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter, except “Kryptonians are strong by Earth standards” instead of “Earthlings are strong by Mars standards.”
I’d like to see it as a period piece actually set in the 1930s though. That way audiences would have an easier time suspending disbelief about the most fantastical part of the character (i.e., that he works for a thriving newspaper).
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I say he’s being a good citizen, stopping any bullets from travelling further, but if anyone is standing behind him still, they deserve a pistol to the forehead?
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I said that last year. You owe me a quarter.
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My Superman isn’t flying. I’m just really bad at drawing horizons.
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Same arguments apply to Sherlock Holmes. The earliest Holmes stories are in the public domain, so only certain traits, characters, cases, etc., can be used. Otherwise, Conan-Doyle’s estate is coming after you.
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Yeah, thanks Sonny Bono.
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