Heirs of Joe Shuster lose appeal
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling giving WB the copyright to Superman and setting aside a 1998 copyright...
US looking to extend copyright to life plus 95 years
Oh WikiLeaks, the gift that keeps on giving. Yet another fascinating finding from the papers is the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, which covers...
Court tells Stan Lee Media to get the hell away from Conan
Stan Lee Media—the creeping zombie of a company that no longer has anything to do with Stan Lee, but loves to say they have...
More legal woes at Archie as employees file lawsuit against co-owner Nancy Silberkleit
I've lost count on who is suing who in the brutal ground war between Archie Comics, and their controversial co-owner Nancy Silberkleit, but it...
Internet Meme Shocker: Did Grumpy Cat Rip off Kate Beaton?
In a story on how Grumpy Cat—the dwarf cat that people (including The Beat) will line up for hours just to see—is worth $1 million, it's revealed that one of her signature catch phrases first appeared in a cartoon by Kate Beaton. Which wouldn't be so odd except that Grumpy's manager, who is a "meme manager", is very litigious about other people stealing his own memes. Beaton, who hasn't received any money from the cat or her manager, is philosophical about the whole thing, writing:
Ed Kramer is staying in jail until his trial
Bucking the trend of over a decade, a Gwinnett County judge has ruled that Dragon*Con co-founder Ed Kramer will have to stay in jail...
13 years later, Ed Kramer is finally going to trial this December
After delays, house arrest and an endless sucession of lawsuits, former Dragon Con co-founder Ed Kramer is finally going to trial After a hearing,...
Must Read: Jeff Trexler’s Taking Back the Kirby Case
I'm late linking to this, but it took a while to get through it since it's full of legal reasoning. Frequent Beat legal contributor...
Good site: PD56, copyrights that should have lapsed but didn’t
In one of his comments, frequent Beat commenter Jason A. Quest linked to his websitePD56 | works that should have become Public Domain after 56...
Marvel wins appeal in lawsuit brought by Jack Kirby’s heirs
Another chapter in the long battle over Marvel's characters ended today when a three-person New York appeals court upheld Marvel's victory in a lawsuit...
Marvel is free from paying web shooter toy inventor royalties
Chalk up another legal win for Marvel Enterprises. Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Courts of Appeals ruled that Marvel no longer has to pay...
Nancy Collins calls off the Dragon*Con boycott
Author Nancy Collins has been relentless in publicizing the connection between Dragon-Con and Ed Kramer -- in fact it's undoubtedly due to her efforts...
