<
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/18/bill-willingham-says-fables-is-released-to-the-public-domain-dc-comics-says-it-most-certainly-is-not/>
"I don’t think I’ve ever had a story sent in to me more than Bill Willingham’s
Substack/press release announcing that he was putting the
Fables comic book
property into the public domain, as part of a dispute he’s having with DC
Comics.
As of now, 15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables,
including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the
public domain. What was once wholly owned by Bill Willingham is now owned by
everyone, for all time. It’s done, and as most experts will tell you, once
done it cannot be undone. Take-backs are neither contemplated nor possible.
If you know
Techdirt, you know that we’ve always encouraged people to put
works into the public domain (and to use the public domain). Every year we run
a public domain game jam. We’ve long noted that anything of our own that we
publish on
Techdirt should be considered in the public domain, and you are
free to do with it what you will. The reports we’ve published are generally in
the public domain as well. When I published two short sci-fi stories in our
larger collection of sci-fi stories about the future of work, I put them into
the public domain as well (a few other stories in that collection are also
public domain).
Willingham’s reasons for doing so are a bit more complex than ours, but he
admits that he’s become disillusioned by our copyright and trademark laws
recently, recognizing (as we’ve long pointed out), that they seem mostly
designed to empower gatekeepers in ways that harm the creators themselves,
rather than help them. From that he even has his own idea on how copyright
should be reformed:
In the past decade or so, my thoughts on how to reform the trademark and
copyright laws in this country (and others, I suppose) have undergone
something of a radical transformation. The current laws are a mishmash of
unethical backroom deals to keep trademarks and copyrights in the hands of
large corporations, who can largely afford to buy the outcomes they want.
In my template for radical reform of those laws I would like it if any IP is
owned by its original creator for up to twenty years from the point of first
publication, and then goes into the public domain for any and all to use.
However, at any time before that twenty year span bleeds out, you the IP
owner can sell it to another person or corporate entity, who can have
exclusive use of it for up to a maximum of ten years. That’s it. Then it
cannot be resold. It goes into the public domain. So then, at the most, any
intellectual property can be kept for exclusive use for up to about thirty
years, and no longer, without exception.
And thus, he decided to practice what he’s preaching:
Of course, if I’m going to believe such radical ideas, what kind of
hypocrite would I be if I didn’t practice them? Fables has been my baby
for about twenty years now. It’s time to let it go. This is my first test of
this process. If it works, and I see no legal reason why it won’t, look for
other properties to follow in the future. Since DC, or any other corporate
entity, doesn’t actually own the property, they don’t get a say in this
decision."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
