K.T Simpson
On Friday, Marvel filed five lawsuits attempting to block the heirs of comic book creators from reclaiming copyrights to characters like Spider-Man, Thor, Black Widow, and Doctor Strange.
Per Variety, “the move comes after heirs of five Marvel authors filed dozens of termination notices with the U.S. Copyright Office. If the notices were to succeed, they would not prevent Marvel from using the disputed characters, which were created by multiple collaborators. But they would require the studio to make payments to the heirs.
The termination notices were filed by Marc Toberoff, a veteran copyright attorney who fought similar battles on behalf of the heirs of Jack Kirby, a co-creator of several Marvel heroes, and of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of Superman. Toberoff argues that the Marvel authors’ work led to multi-billion dollar franchises, and that their heirs should be allowed to share in the wealth.”
“This is the deep dark secret of the comic book industry, if not now the entire entertainment industry, due to the explosion of these superhero franchises,” Toberoff told the trade. “It’s about artists’ rights. It’s literally about injustice.”
The lawsuit argues that these characters were created under “work for hire” arrangements and the heirs don’t have a valid claim to copyright.
“Since these were works made for hire and thus owned by Marvel, we filed these lawsuits to confirm that the termination notices are invalid and of no legal effect,” Lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said in a statement.
Toberoff doesn’t believe these comics were done on a “work for hire” basis at all. He says the authors were freelancers and independent contractors and that they assigned their copyrighted work in exchange for payment. Can the authors then reclaim the copyrights?
“At the core of these cases is an anachronistic and highly criticized interpretation of ‘work-made-for-hire’ under the 1909 Copyright Act that needs to be rectified,” Toberoff said in a statement.
