CBR: Marvel Wins Copyrights Over Kirby Heirs

[CBR News]

In a summary judgment, New York federal judge Colleen McMahon denied that any copyrights to the Marvel Universe of characters every belonged to Jack Kirby as the work he did in the 1960s was firmly work for hire.


Full article here.

[DeadXMan]

Good.

Jack disevered the rights not his kids

[mugiwara]

I'm divided about that.

It would have been totally unfair to give Kirby all credit about characters that dozen of other writers and artists contributed to make more interesting over the years.

On the other side, as a reader, I would have loved to see the copyrights for the FF, Hulk, Thor and most of the other iconic characters taken away from Marvel. Granted, Wolverine and Deadpool would still have been everywhere, but there would have been more room for recent and/or underexploited characters. Marvel would have had to evolve or die, and maybe the House of Past would have become the House of Ideas again.

[AnthonyJ]

Seriously whoever thinks suing a company with Lawyers on retainer has a few screws lose if they think they have a chance at aquiring rights of characters over 50 years old.

Nah, if they actually have the evidence on their side it's possible enough. Unfortunately for them, they don't.

[Infestor]

Good. I'm glad.

[Infestor]

Good. Very good.

[Expletive Deleted]

Seriously whoever thinks suing a company with Lawyers on retainer has a few screws lose if they think they have a chance at aquiring rights of characters over 50 years old.

Toberoff has a pretty good record of beating companies with lawyers on retainer, actually.

[Ronin1108]

im really glad those kids didnt get squat. If it was really an issue it woulda been taken up ages ago, not when theres movies and all this extra stuff surrounding the product now. You can bet if comics fizzle dout, these kids wouldn't have given marvel a second thought. In closing, dont mess with mickey mouse's lawyers.

[NickFury90]

Somewhere out there, thecomicscube is upset by this news.

[Michael P]

Bleeding Cool has the judge's decision: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/...st-jack-kirby/

[Jake V]

I agree that Kirby was treated unfairly and wasn't given proper credit, and it's unfortunate that things weren't resolved when he was alive, but I don't think his heirs deserve anything.

[Gryphon]

Its good that it was acknowledged as a case regarding work for hire, not who did what.

[Expletive Deleted]

If it was really an issue it woulda been taken up ages ago, not when theres movies and all this extra stuff surrounding the product now.

For whatever it's worth, the way the termination clause in copyright law works, they couldn't make have made it an issue any earlier.

[SpideyCzar]

Toberoff has a pretty good record of beating companies with lawyers on retainer, actually.

But the odds aren't very good.

I'm not going to get into the rights of creators or what their kids, grand kids or great grand kids feel they are entitled to. But the time that Kirby was working for Marvel as a work for hire artist/creator was a much different time than the current comics industry.

He or in this instance his heirs should be financially rewarded but they should not retain any rights to the characters at all. Some of the characters listed in the suit, kirby had little to nothing to do with their creation from all the info the public has been privy to. Just a little humorous.

RIP Jack 'King" Kirby
I hope Marvel honors Jack in the best way possible by listing him as creator of the properties he worked on and had a lengthy run on like FF, Avengers, X-Men and many others.

[Brannon]

I couldn't agree more with the notion that Kirby should be credited to the same extent that Stan Lee has been in the past and that his heirs should be compensated. It's the ethical thing to do for the guy who created your company for you. That being said, not even Kirby himself should OWN those characters any more than John Byrne should own Alpha Flight or Sabretooth.

The problem has been, of course, that Marvel has never done the right thing by Kirby or his family. This isn't REALLY a legal issue, it's an ethical one.