The Law Firm of Dewy, Cheatum & Howe
There’s a wide range of opinions on whether these “image ripper” programs are good or bad for the artist and webcomic in question. We had a lengthy discussion before on the copyright issues.
This time we’ve found an add-on to the popular Postpn backend system that lifts comics strips from a number of on and offline comic publications. Here’s it in action on the creator’s homepage. Continue Reading
This article opines on why the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was so good and why the movie was so bad. In part it was because while all of the characters were in the public domain for print some were still subject to copyright for film (The Invisible Man being the primary example who was renamed An Invisible Man for the movie). Continue Reading
Copyright now lasts longer than most nation-states. As a practical matter there is no longer a public domain for material created in our lifetimes – it remains under the control of the creator.
This article has an interesting take on the use of the Public Domain to create a new work (The League of Extraordinairy Gentlemen) and how the loss of the public domain deprives us of other creative endeavors. Continue Reading
A post on our forums alerted us to this thread on TWC about a program called ComicReaper which is designed to take only the images of several webcomic websites and display them on the user’s computer. These types of programs come and go but frankly, this is the first time I’ve heard of one aimed squarely at webcomics.
Just for the record, these programs (1) might be illegal and (2) are very uncool to the artists who give the comic away and rely on advertising to help pay for bandwidth costs.
Why are they illegal? Publication of a website means the website is copyrighted. Use of a selected part of that is arguably a “derivative work” which one cannot create without the permission of the copyright holder. So a program that “rips” the images out a website without the ‘toonist’s permission is arguably violating the copyright. Continue Reading
Bill Duncan points out that despite the current freedom we have to create comics (and any other form of speech) comics have been singled out unfairly before. Stuff like this Congressional report is why we have a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and why Free Comic Book Day is important.
Read on for some of the “excerpts” from comics that got Congress’ blood boiling: Continue Reading
Over at SlashDot, folks are talking about a very recent Penny Arcade parody and the fact that American Greetings took issue with it:
Penny Arcade’s American Mcgee/Strawberry Shortcake spoof posted last Monday was pulled because someone at American Greetings got wind of it and set their lawyers on them. PA’s forums are abuzz with activity. I’m pro-funny, myself.
Journalista! has a long entry today on Marvel Comics’ new Epic line which Marvel has been touting as a place for riskier work. It’s also making noise about creators’ rights or as it puts it “creative control.” Unfortunately, Marvel is sounding a little like Microsoft would if it were pitching “open source” software. Continue Reading
A recent article in Econtent covers the case of a Dilbert fan who created an unofficial Dilbert webpage using official Dilbert strips.
“Wallach, an avid fan of the Dilbert comic strips, found the layout of United Media’s Official Dilbert Web site ‘really lame’. And so, taking it upon himself to offer the world a better layout, he linked—the better to skirt the copyright issue—directly to United Media’s Web server. He called his creation The Dilbert Hack Page.
“‘It didn’t take long for UM’s lawyers to come knocking. ‘Thank you for your enthusiasm,’ they wrote. “However, this material is copyrighted by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.'” Continue Reading
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website recently posted a short article about the latest developments in the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) debate — a bill that would essentially set itself up as a major censor of Internet content, complete with excessive fines ($150,000 daily!) and jailtime.
The federal appeals court has turned down the government appeal, however, defending the original Third Circuit verdict that such a law would be unconstitutionally restrictive for adults.
The government still has 90 days to reappeal the decision.
You can find the CBLDF blurb here, which also links to a full story on the American Civil Liberties Union website.
Continue Reading
From the audio archives of the The Comics Journal comes a discussion between Gary Groth, Steve Bissette and Scott McCloud on the subject of Creator’s rights.
The interview, conducted by Groth, is from the out-of-print TCJ #137 from 1990. The conversation is offered on MP3 format for download until March 21st. It’s a very interesting conversation, especially when contrasted by today’s creator owned webcomics.
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