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Jack Kirby Heirs Reclaim Marvel/Disney Rights
lbalbalba writes "Heirs to comic book legend Jack Kirby sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel Entertainment, prospective Marvel buyer Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and others studios that that hold licensed media rights to Marvel characters. Some rights could revert to the heirs as soon as 2014, for characters that are among the hottest in Hollywood: The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Avengers, and others. Among other things the heirs' demand could cause problems for Disney's as yet unconsummated purchase of Marvel."
The scary thing about Stan Lee is that he believes his own bullshit, and he never fucking shuts up about how great he and "his" creations are.
I would contend something different. Inheritance is garbage IMNSOH - these kids did nothing to create this work, their father did. Why should they benefit from it? In fact, why should anyone receive many millions in inheritance?
Enough inheritance to go to a great school, start a business, get married, etc, etc - sure. But to recover enough to never have to work a day in your life? I don't think so. This work should be in the public domain because the author is dead. As a capitalist, I believe the most productive members of society deserve to be rich (i.e. those that can make the money, can keep it, so they can efficiently create the businesses that employ people), but once they're dead, it goes back to the society that enabled them to become rich, and helps set the stage for a new generation of entrepreneurs.
To paraphrase Buffett, the children of the rich deserve to be rich as much as the children of Olympic athletes deserve to be gold medalists.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Heaven forbid Mickey fall into the public domain where anyone could use him to create fresh new stories. The horror. The horror.
The character design is trade-marked.
When Steamboat Willie comes into the public domain you get to write and publish derivatives based on the characters and story of Steamboat Willie
and only Steamboat Willie.
You do not get the Mouse of the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
You do not get The Phantom Blot.
Heaven forbid that the geek should be encouraged to contribute new stories based on his own characters and settings. To throw away the crutch of fan fiction.