Something that I often ask the artists and writers I work with is if they have insurance. In particular, I ask if they have media liability insurance. Most don’t, but it is a type of insurance coverage more artists and writers should consider obtaining.                 In most publishing contracts, you are guaranteeing the publisher that your work will not infringe upon another’s intellectual property nor will it cause harm to a third par ..read more

                  Recently, the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries’ Entertainment & Sports Lawyer periodical published a new article of mine. The article is titled “Heroes for Hire No More: Rethinking the Presumption That Comic Books Qualify As A Work-Made-For-Hire Under the Copyright Act of 1976.” You can read the article in its entirety via the link, but I will provide a brief summary below.               ..read more

                  Following up on a post from two years ago detailing the the lawsuit filed by colorist William Crabtree against Robert Kirkman over Invincible , the case has now settled. The two sides reached a confidential settlement, and the case was dismissed.                 In November, the judge overseeing the case issued a declaratory judgment ruling that denied some of Crabtree’s claims and allowed some to proceed. In particular, th ..read more

                Recently, a few decisions were issued involving an unauthorized sequel to The Lord of the Rings (“LOTR”). In one, a court found that Amazon and the Tolkien Estate did not infringe upon the author’s book. In the second, the court found that the author’s book infringed upon the rights of the Tolkien Estate.                 Demetrious Polychron filed a lawsuit in April against Amazon, the Tolkien Estate and many others. In the filing, Polychron claimed that he wrote a ..read more

            It’s the end of another year, and it’s time to recommend some of the comic books I read this year. As I mentioned in previous years, I tend to primarily focus my recommendations on creator-owned titles, these will mostly be graphic novels/trade paperbacks, and they may not all have been released this year. As always, I’ve provided links where I can. Links to Amazon will be affiliate links. Anywhere else is not. Even so, if you’re intrigued by these books, try to buy them from your local comic shop or book store. You can find previous y ..read more

  This is the second post discussing Bill Willingham’s announcement that Fables is now in the public domain. You can find the first post here. Previously, I discussed the problems surrounding the actual act of dedicating a work to the public domain before its copyright term has expired. Today, I will discuss some of the other problems arising from Willingham’s announcement. The second problem we encounter when discussing Willingham’s statement is that you have to be the owner of the works in order to dedicate them to the public domain. Willingham claims that Fables is a creator-owned work ..read more

                  Bill Willingham threw a curveball at the comic book industry when he recently announced that he was dedicating his Fables comics to the public domain.   In his blog post, he stated that he was doing so because of disputes with DC Comics, the publisher of the Fables comics. This announcement has brought up numerous interesting issues, and I will try to address them below. The first issue that comes up is whether he can dedicate his works to the public domain. This is a tricky question for ..read more

                  A federal court recently issued a ruling stating that works created by AI are not eligible for copyright protection. There was much rejoicing. Unfortunately, this question is far from being settled, and there are still ways for AI-generated works to receive protection.                 The case[1] involved a piece of art generated by an AI program. The plaintiff, Stephen Thaler, argued that the AI program should be listed as the author of the work, and Thaler ..read more

                  A few weeks ago the #comicsbrokeme hashtag was trending on social media. I, like so many others, was both saddened and unsurprised by the stories I read. The comics industry is notorious for low pay, bad hours, and poor treatment, and the stories shared recently only show that things have not improved.                 As an attorney who works with comic book creators, seeing these stories frustrates me and, to some extent, breaks me too ..read more

  Editor’s Note: The full text of the case can be found here. I will not be providing citations in my discussion below.                 The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued its decision in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith. The case concerned a screen print of Prince by Andy Warhol, which was based upon a photograph taken by Goldsmith. In the case, which the Court expressly limited to the Warhol Foundation’s licensing of the work to a magazine following Prince’s death, the Court found ..read more