Marvel sues to keep Spider-Man, X-Men Copyrights

[Lord_Stewie]

Hey,

Caught this and thought of sharing it:

NEW YORK – The home of superheroes including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men sued one of its most successful artists Friday to retain the rights to the lucrative characters.
The federal lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan by Marvel Worldwide Inc. asks a judge to invalidate 45 notices sent by the heirs of artist Jack Kirby to try to terminate Marvel's copyrights, effective on dates ranging from 2014 through 2019.

The heirs notified several companies last year that the rights to the characters would revert from Marvel to Kirby's estate.

The lawsuit said Kirby's work on the comics published between 1958 and 1963 were "for hire" and render the heirs' claims invalid. The famed artist died in 1994.

For the rest of the Article click on the Pic.

There seems to be a lot of headaches lately associated with Marvel not only in comic book worlds only, What is going on?

Thoughts.

Enjoy.

[tbizzle]

These money hungry families are annoying!

[Lord_Stewie]

That is one big issue. They Superman in some kind of a dilemma, LOTR (not sure if that was over and done with), and more. This is getting out of hand with those who just wants a piece of the pie. I hope Marvel wins this suit.

[P@t_Mtl]

Becoming more and more current these lawsuite

[fatediesel]

Copyright law allows artists or their heirs to regain the rights to their works, so it would be stupid for these people not to try to get the rights. I would guess a settlement will happen that will get these people a lot of money.

[ZIPPO]

This sucks! I heard about the Superman issue last year, how did it turn out?

[Darkhawk9587]

Originally Posted by tbizzle

These money hungry families are annoying!

Very true. Plus, Marvel does have a point. They hired Kirby to create characters for the company.

[RiseDarthVader]

Originally Posted by ZIPPO

This sucks! I heard about the Superman issue last year, how did it turn out?

The family won the rights. Say goodbye to Superman from the silver screen forever!

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by RiseDarthVader

The family won the rights. Say goodbye to Superman from the silver screen forever!

Not exactly true, DC still holds the rights until 2013 so if Warner started a movie by next year and release it before the rights change they could still do it. However, for whatever reason Warner doesn't seem to want to do another movie at this time so they or another studio will have to buy the rights from the heirs. There will be more movies though. The heirs will sell the rights.

[koontz1973]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

Not exactly true, DC still holds the rights until 2013 so if Warner started a movie by next year and release it before the rights change they could still do it. However, for whatever reason Warner doesn't seem to want to do another movie at this time so they or another studio will have to buy the rights from the heirs. There will be more movies though. The heirs will sell the rights.

True, they are bound to sell, but I think that they (the family) are over estimating how much they are worth. Studios are not going to pay over the odds.

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by koontz1973

True, they are bound to sell, but I think that they (the family) are over estimating how much they are worth. Studios are not going to pay over the odds.

In addition DC still holds the rights to a lot of the key elements of the Superman mythology, like Superman being able to fly, the characters Lex Luther and Jimmy Olson, and other Superman powers, meaning if a company wanted to make a Superman movie they'd likely have to get rights from both the Siegels and DC.

The way the Spiderman and X-Men case is different than Superman's is that Superman was created independently and sold to DC, while Marvel claims that the Spiderman/X-Men creator was hired to produce new characters and therefore doesn't have a claim.

[P@t_Mtl]

Most of the early 20 century heroes can cause trouble to the corporation who owns them. A lot of them were created before they were bought by DC or others.

A lot of the 60's heroes of Marvel were team work and the family of Kirby and others will have a serious hard time getting the rights. Stan Lee wrote and came up with a lot of these as well working with Kirby and the others. I am not so sure these famillies will have a succesful day in court.

[Jellybeans]

If Marvel doesn't succeed, they will send The Incredible Hulk!

[koontz1973]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

In addition DC still holds the rights to a lot of the key elements of the Superman mythology, like Superman being able to fly, the characters Lex Luther and Jimmy Olson, and other Superman powers, meaning if a company wanted to make a Superman movie they'd likely have to get rights from both the Siegels and DC.

The way the Spiderman and X-Men case is different than Superman's is that Superman was created independently and sold to DC, while Marvel claims that the Spiderman/X-Men creator was hired to produce new characters and therefore doesn't have a claim.

Do not be so sure, I agree with you in the most part, but I cannot see a lawyer and the family putting in the time and effort + money to take Marvel to court if they did not have a chance of winning. Many a judge has made a bad/stupid call.

As we the fans do not know what the original agreements are, this is all speculation but a good contract back then could be a badly worded one now. A word or phrase put in or left out could give the family a chance.

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by koontz1973

Do not be so sure, I agree with you in the most part, but I cannot see a lawyer and the family putting in the time and effort + money to take Marvel to court if they did not have a chance of winning. Many a judge has made a bad/stupid call.

As we the fans do not know what the original agreements are, this is all speculation but a good contract back then could be a badly worded one now. A word or phrase put in or left out could give the family a chance.

I wasn't saying they don't have a claim, I was saying it's Marvel's position that they don't have a claim.

[Elandyll]

Unless the Kirby estate can prove that he created the characters -before- being in Marvel, their lawsuit is without merit.
No sane judge is going to open the can of worm that allowing an employee to sue its own company for creative ownership would be.

[koontz1973]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

I wasn't saying they don't have a claim, I was saying it's Marvel's position that they don't have a claim.

It's good. Hope Marvel keeps the right like you (I think) as it would be a shame to see so many good characters going into hiatus for a time.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

Not exactly true, DC still holds the rights until 2013 so if Warner started a movie by next year and release it before the rights change they could still do it. However, for whatever reason Warner doesn't seem to want to do another movie at this time so they or another studio will have to buy the rights from the heirs. There will be more movies though. The heirs will sell the rights.

They might sell the comic rights to Marvel... since it has the backing of Disney, that would be awesome for Marvel due to the fact that they have the most profitable studio in the Hollywood system helping them out.

Logan

[doctorD]

Well, it is their right. I don't like it either but it'd be silly if the heirs didn't do something like this or at least negotiate for a piece of the pie with studios.