Here’s an interesting article for ya’ll regarding creators’ rights. The New York Times is running a piece regarding a recent ruling where the heirs of Jerome Siegel, who along with Joseph Shuster created Superman, are entitled to a portion of the copyright for the character Superman.
The article brings up some interesting points about this new ruling: what does it mean for the upcoming sequel to Singer’s ‘Superman Returns’ or Miller’s Justice League movie? My guess is that the heirs realize the cash potential involved in this, so we won’t the project impeded at all, but in terms of additional costs now that they need to share the revenue could slow things down a bit (not to mention figuring out all the money the heirs are owed for everything since 1999).
But overall, I think this is a good thing. It puts some of the control back into the hands of the people that should be in control. The “business” behind all of this grew a little too much too fast and those lowly people who got trampled under legalese they couldn’t understand or compete against can finally start collecting what they deserve for, oh, what was it that they did? Oh yeah, creating the very things that are making the business all of this cash.
Check out the article here.