5 ms·
Aren't there trademarks involved? The original stories would be public domain, but I'm not sure how easy it'd be to market them without Disney/DC's permission.
by CM30 8y ago
Aren't there trademarks involved? The original stories would be public domain, but I'm not sure how easy it'd be to market them without Disney/DC's permission.
There's also the fact that copyright over characters is tied to their first appearance, and (especially in Batman's case), most other recognisable characters from the series aren't public domain. So you could write a Batman story, but it couldn't involve Robin, or the Joker, or hell, any of Batman's familiar rogues gallery.
But it's nice to see this about to happen none the less.
- ezoe 8y agoI don't know your country's law but trademark is just the trademark. Trademark holder can't stop people from using the trademark word. They can stop calling the fake thing as the trademark word because it's not the thing trademark word refer to. If it is indeed the Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie, then it's the Mickey Mouse.
- criddell 8y agoI'm not sure how you could create a Batman or Mickey Mouse product without confusing the consumer and isn't that the test?
- darkpuma 8y agoSteamboat willing entering the public domain would not allow you to create the movie "Mickey Mouse joins the Pirate Party"
- dannypgh 8y agoBut I believe you could make "Mouseman Joins The Pirate Party" and use drawings based on (or directly lifted from) Steamboat Willy itself, no?
- darkpuma 8y agoIf you lift the images of the strange mouse/person hybrid directly from Steamboat Willy, I would expect that to be legal. But I'm not sure if you could draw your own or not, could Disney have a trademark on the general likeness of the mouse man? I couldn't say. That said, parody/fair use would probably cover your ass for that in practice.
- dannypgh 8y agoSee https://fairuse.stanford.edu/case/klinger-v-conan-doyle-estate-ltd/ https://fairuse.stanford.edu/case/klinger-v-conan-doyle-esta... I would expect drawings based solely on thr Steamboat Willy work to be okay. The sequels start new timers on new characters or qualities, they don't extend the copyright on the original work. of course, IANAL.
- Gaelan 8y agoWouldn't a prominent "I don't have anything to do with Disney" do it?
- crooked-v 8y agoMaybe explicit branding differentiation, in the style of "Disney's ____" already used to make for distinct branding from other public domain retelling. "Marvel's Superman", that kind of thing.
- jjeaff 8y agoMost modern Batman stories don't seem to contain Robin or joker.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- moate 8y agoI'm going to assume you mean "movies" because the comics are still rife with those characters.
- beokop 8y agoThat’s not how this works. The actual books/movies/cartoons that Batman appears in will eventually be public domain — you’ll be legally allowed to copy, edit and distribute these without restrictions. However, “Batman” (the idea, the concept) is still protected by trademark laws making it illegal to produce new (non-derivative) Batman books/movies/cartoons without the trademark holder’s consent.
- nafey 8y agoBut, as the article mentioned, you can still sell merchandise of Batman with original design after 2024. Meaning the idea of Batman is not protected only the "implementation" of those ideas that are still within copyright period will be restricted. So you should be able to make Sherlock and Batman movie if you want.
- jamieson-becker 8y ago>Sherlock and Batman Sounds awesome.
- toyg 8y agoIsh. Batman is basically an “action Sherlock” already. You would have to significantly tweak one or the other to make it interesting. But yeah, having the freedom to do that in a professional production would be pretty fun.
- estebank 8y ago"Batman: consulting detective"
- crooked-v 8y agoThat seems like it could be a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-style remix, with a few Sherlock Holmes stories rewritten to feature Batman instead and then packaged as a book.
- habitue 8y ago
- Crontab 8y agoThe intersection between the public domain and trademarks is pretty interesting. For example, Marvel Comics recently paid to re-obtain the rights to publish Conan comic books, even though the character and original stories are in the public domain. This result is perverse, in my opinion.