A Princess of Mars, the story that became the movie John Carter, is public domain. Nevertheless, after the 2012 movie flopped, Disney lost the rights to the character. How do you lose rights to public domain works?
Well the Burroughs estate claims the copyright is still good in some countries, which would restrict overseas sales. Plus the estate has trademarked John Carter and Tarzan. That led to a lawsuit Dynamite Comics over its John Carter series, on the grounds their portrayal of the characters hurt the trademark. Dynamite settled, though the premise is dubious: trademark suits hinge on the plaintiff using the trademark to label goods (e.g., Nike and sneakers) which the estate doesn’t appear to be doing. There are other nebulous issues noted at the last link, such as moral rights (if Dynamite’s stories were too sexy, that would hurt Burroughs’ image). One of the comments in this Scalzi post explains a little more about those.
A great many films and books are entering public domain soon (Mickey Mouse. The Great Gatsby). Surprisingly, copyright holders are not fighting for the usual extensions, which may be because pro-public domain forces are better organized (according to Ars Technica at the link) or it may happen a year or two from now. Oh, Motherboard has a list of sites to download the new public domain stuff.
Another copyright issue: the right to resell a digital copy as you would a used paperback or an art print. The law’s lagging behind the tech.
Does Google benefit from allowing digital piracy?
What happens if the U.S. overreaches in the use of lawfare against international IP piracy?
Does copyright law protect dances and other culture created by black teens? Particularly dance?
An orphan work is one that’s under copyright but the rights holder can’t be found; in that case, in some jurisdictions, it’s legitimate to use the work. However doing a diligent search that will protect the user is tricky.
Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew videogame series was a hit for years (my niece played them) but it ground to a stop a few years ago. A minor thread in the skein of woe was having to pay Simon & Schuster royalties to use Nancy (this wasn’t the biggest issue, but it justifies linking in a copyright post).
The copyright and fair use history of the video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing to a Breakfast Club mashup.
Contrary to legend, Paul McCartney did not pay a man’s legal fees in return for the rights to “Ob la di, ob la da”
And for visuals, here’s a cover with the now public-domain superhero, The Boy King, art by Alan Mandel.
#SFWApro.
Thanks for this! As a fan of John Carter universe and a hobbyist writer – does this mean I could technically write a story within this universe (and theoretically publish it) as long as I don’t specifically reference John Carter himself?
There’s a lot of ideas I love but a lot of worldbuilding I’d love to scrap/adapt (like maybe the whole everybody is always half naked despite bladed weapons being so common haha, lacerations hurt people!) – but keep the “soul” of the universe and just do it “better” in my eyes.
From what I’ve read — I’m not a lawyer and can’t give legal advice — everything, including John himself, is public domain, at least in the US. That doesn’t stop them suing — the Conan Doyle estate filed a dubious lawsuit against Enola Holmes for copyright violation even though almost all the Holmes stories are public domain — and I’ve no idea what significance the trademark would have as far as Barsoom, Dejah Thoris, etc (even assuming a court agrees the trademark holds up).
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