Category talk:Nedor Comics superheroes

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I hate to say it, folks, but the Nedor characters are NOT Public Domain (at least not entirely). Source: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/firstperiod.html

This reference lists the FIRST issue of periodicals renewed between 1950 and 1977, covering the period originally covered from 1923 to @ 1951, and selected ones thereafter -- the others can be accessed through the LOC copyright renewal registrations.

Of the Nedor titles listed in the 19th Comc Book Price Guide published between between 1933 and 1943, the following books were all renewed beginning with their first issue:

Best; Thrilling; Exciting; Startling; Real Life

The following titles were renewed beginning with their second issues, the first were not renewed according to teh above reference (and I'm NOT going to the library to check these...):

America's Best; Fighting Yank

Only the following books have no record at all on the above cited list:

Black Terror; Major Hoople; Real Funnies; Funny Funnies; Goofy; Happy

And the following book, published by them later in teh '40's, is also not listed in the reference:

Wonder Comics

Any characters that debuted in the ones that were copyrighted are NOT Public Domain, even if there are many articles claiming this. Americomics was WRONG. Rights on each of these characters would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on where they first appeared.

There are some claims that the original copyrights were never filed. This is quite possible, I don't have access to records that far back. But I guarantee, at least SOME of the renewals mentioned here DID happen. Western Michigan University happens to have at least a partial set of renewal registrations in their library, and I've spent years poring over them.

According to most interpretations of the law, if an original registration for copyright was never filed, the owners had the entire 28 years of teh initial copyright period to file. A renewal would then count as a registration, EVEN IF THERE WAS NO ORIGINAL FILING. One of Harlan Ellison's works falls in this category.

Apologies if my caps here violate some kind of format procedural that I haven't run across yet, but this is a VERY important issue! I don't want to see anyone get burned on this -- the corporate merger records show that the company that originally published these eventually became a part of Warner Books, so unless the rights were sold, or transferred to a different division of Time-Warner, that's where they are now. ----

• Interesting development. This means that Terra Obscura characters are in the clear, at least. This definitely warrents further investigation --Strannik 03:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Oh, another thing. When discussing this matter, we should mindful of the fact that the pagge you sighted mentioned that (and I quote): "Artwork, photographs, dramas, music, and other types of works appearing in periodicals, as well as material that originally appeared elsewhere, may also have been registered separately, and are not represented here." The reason why I bring this up is because the copyright for characters may not be the same thing as copyright for periodicals in which they appeared, since the characters in question were not usually confined to the periodicals in which they originaly appeared. I mean, in case of DC, for example, Batman and Superman appeared in several different periodicles, often simultaniously (spelling?). As cursory research indicates, simular things happened in Nedor titles. Thus, I have to wonder if the character copyrights and periodical copyright are, indeed, a diffrent thing, which could alter the situation yet again--Strannik 03:20, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Character copyright is a relatively new interpretation of copyright law, and certainly is a factor to consider. I don't believe that anyone has tried to renew the copyright on just a character without the work it's imbedded in, however. That's why copyright lawyers get paid so much... Icarus 23 06:58, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

By my understanding of Copyright Law, the Nedor Comics characters are in the public domain. All of the Nedor characters have been used for decades as public domain characters by several companies (since the original copyright holder never claimed copyright infringement and allowed the names and likenesses of their characters to be used freely by everyone, the characters fell into the public domain), with Marvel, DC Comics, AC Comics among others creating their own versions. Also it should be noted that Copyright law before 1976 says that a works copyright lasts no longer than 56 years (an initial 28 years, then renewal for another 28 years). A comic first published in 1940 would require renewal by 1968, one published in 1941 would need copyright extension by 1969 ect. If some of the comics had their copyrights extended for 28 more years in 1967 & 1968, that would entend the copyright til 1995 or 1996 at which point the works would fall into the public domain. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998—alternatively known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Under the 1998 act, any works still copyrighted in 1998 would not enter the public domain until 2019, unless the owner of the copyright releases them into the public domain prior to that. So any comics published before 1942 would have had their 56 year copyrights expire before the new law adding 20 years took effect. Or would otherwise be in the public domain if nobody protected the copyrights. All this simply means that any comic book character that first appeared in a comic prior to 1942 should be in the public domain. That includes the original versions of Superman, Batman ect. But just because the original versions are now public domain, there are still trademarks and copyrights on newer versions that are protected by the new 1998 copyright extensions. Which basically means one still can't publish works based on Superman, Mickey Mouse, or other trademarked characters without permission from the current owners of the characters that are defending their copyrights and trademarks. But again the ownership of Nedor characters have never been disputed, with all comic book publishers for decades agreeing that they are free to be used by anyone, so long as they are based on the original creations and not copyrighted versions such as Marvel's Doctor Strange or DC Comics Wildstorm imprint Tom Strong & Tom Strange versions of Doc Strange that are copyright protected.Powergirl 00:41, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I am no expert, but an importante thing to keep in mind is that trademark and copyright are not the same thing. You can copyright a story that a character appears in, but not a character. You trademark a character. A registered trademark is something else again. Roygbiv666 19:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Just a thought - if the original trademark or copyright holder is no longer in existance, doesn't the property become public domain by default? Roygbiv666 13:09, 29 March 2007 (UTC)