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Stan Lee Media and Disney Battle For Ownership of Marvel Characters

Posted by samzenpus on from the mine-now-I-take-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Stan Lee Media and The Walt Disney Co. have taken their arguments to the U.S. Court of Appeals over who owns the rights (and profits) to Marvel characters. Though Disney bought Marvel in 2009, Stan Lee Media (no longer associated with Stan Lee, himself) still claims copyright of the characters."

7 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Skimpiest article ever by halivar · · Score: 4, Informative

    No details, nothing about transfer of copyrights, proof of who is successor of interest, nothing. I RTFA and found the summary is pretty much all there is to know. Anyone got a more informative link?

    1. Re:Skimpiest article ever by Compholio · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not a lot better, but some: http://www.denverpost.com/news...

  2. We can be certain of one thing by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Informative

    The actual people who came up with the characters definitely don't own them.

    Thanks, pro-corporate copyright laws and contracts!

    1. Re:We can be certain of one thing by Russ1642 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The actual people who came up with the characters sold them for money.

    2. Re:We can be certain of one thing by tomhath · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's quite common today for the photographer to assign the copyright to the couple and give them all of the photographs in digital format. The days of "pay me for every print" are thankfully over.

  3. Background material: by bmajik · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

    Short Version: Stan Lee has had nothing to do with SLM for over a decade - since his former friend and co-founder fled to South America to avoid federal securities fraud prosecution.

    SLM is currently a few leeches who have nothing to do with the comics industry are trying to sink their claws into the profits of the creative class.

    I understand that creative people need money to work, and the entities that front that money are due a return on their investment.

    That's not what's going on here.

    --
    My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
    1. Re:Background material: by tazan · · Score: 4, Informative

      If I read the wiki correctly. The company went bankrupt, new owners took over and sued Marvel for a piece of the pie. Kind of like a lottery ticket: not much chance of winning, but the payoff is huge. They lost. Second group did the same thing, The third group which apparently is some kind of hedge fund did the same thing. This is their appeal. So not really related to Stan Lee or anyone originally at Stan Lee Media.