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Mar. 31st, 2008 12:51 pmThis is a relatively just resolution to something that has bothered me for decades:
A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner's international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.
And it reserved for trial questions over how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner's film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with "Superman Returns" in 2006, or only from the DC unit's Superman profits.
...and none too soon. In 1975, Siegel had initiated a publicity campaign, along with Shuster, protesting DC Comics' treatment of them; after a great deal of negative publicity (not least involving the then-upcoming Superman blockbuster movie), Warner Communications, DC’s parent company, reinstated the creators’ “created by” credit, as well as a lifetime pension of $35,000 a year, and benefits. This, for a character that has generated billions in revenue. (I believe it was Peter David, in one of his "But I Digress" columns, who told the possibly anecdotal tale of a messenger delivering a package to the DC offices- where staffers realized, to their mortification, that the messenger was Joe Shuster.)
A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner's international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.
And it reserved for trial questions over how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner's film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with "Superman Returns" in 2006, or only from the DC unit's Superman profits.
...and none too soon. In 1975, Siegel had initiated a publicity campaign, along with Shuster, protesting DC Comics' treatment of them; after a great deal of negative publicity (not least involving the then-upcoming Superman blockbuster movie), Warner Communications, DC’s parent company, reinstated the creators’ “created by” credit, as well as a lifetime pension of $35,000 a year, and benefits. This, for a character that has generated billions in revenue. (I believe it was Peter David, in one of his "But I Digress" columns, who told the possibly anecdotal tale of a messenger delivering a package to the DC offices- where staffers realized, to their mortification, that the messenger was Joe Shuster.)
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