Public Domain Character: Difference between revisions
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Under U.S. law, works first published in 1922 or earlier are no longer subject to copyright. Before the 1970s, copyright was not automatic in the United States and most other countries, and it was possible for a copyright to lapse if not registered or renewed in a timely manner, so certain later works are public domain as well. In Europe, the rule is that the author has to have been dead for 70 years. Under the Berne Convention, work-for-hire has a copyright term of 100 years from the date of publication. Additionally, the holder of a copyright may choose to release it prematurely into the [[Public Domain]].
Thanks to the trend of various changes in legislation, copyright terms can sometimes be cynically described as lasting at least X+20 years, where X is the number of years since the release of ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'', the first Mickey Mouse cartoon (this is not strictly correct as it was actually the ''third'' Mickey Mouse cartoon, but it was the first talkie and the first to be widely released). It is generally agreed that the most recent extension of American copyright
Given Congress' willingness to extend copyright duration any time Hollywood demands it, it is entirely possible
A distinction should be made between public domain ''characters'' and public domain ''works''; [[Bugs Bunny]] is a trademarked character and ''not'' in public domain, but his earliest individual cartoons are.
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It should be noted that, in general, a trademark is forever. As long as the holder of the trademark is creating some kind of "product" (media counts), and that they fulfill certain requirements (protecting the trademark is generally required), they can demand that the courts enforce the trademark. This is another reason why trademarks have become more common.
One interesting side-note to keep in mind is that there is a difference between ''copyright'' (the legal right to control the reproduction of a particular expression of an idea or concept) and ''trademark'' (a symbol, character or design which is intended to be emblematic of a particular product or organization and used to identify them in a kind of visual shorthand). Public domain generally deals with copyright
In the USA, the Supreme Court decision [[wikipedia:Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox|Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox (2003)]] ruled that a public domain work doesn't violate the trademark of the underlying work. The specific ruling was a narrow one that dealt with "reverse passing off", rather than using a trademarked name. The ruling is generally believed to apply to using names as well, in which case it would indeed be legal to use a trademarked name on a public domain story, but no case that confirms this has reached the Supreme Court yet.
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Of course, even if a character isn't in the Public Domain, a good writer can [[Writing Around Trademarks|probably find a way]] to get that character in by creating a [[Captain Ersatz]] or an [[Alternate Company Equivalent]], or by utilizing a [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]. And if that writer can't even use ''a character he created'' thanks to the wonders of modern copyright law, then he can use an [[Expy]]. Sometimes, they can just graft that character onto a [[Historical Domain Character]] (see below). Of course, sometimes all this can just go too far, when a certain popular character becomes known as a [[Fountain of Expies]].
A character can also fall into the public domain if it doesn't meet threshold or
Compare [[Historical Domain Character]], which are people from [[Real Life]]; and [[Literary Mash Ups]], in which entire public domain works are <s>violated</s> improved. Also be wary of examples in general found in the wild as, despite all pretenses, many people don't know much of copyright law in general and those that do, certainly don't know the intricacies and legal interpretations of such. Further, copyright holders often give the impression that they have more extensive rights than they really do (for example, implying that an entire series is copyrighted, when some of it might be public domain). And indeed, for certain instances, people don't often realize the history of certain characters resulting in [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]. See Santa Claus.
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** Dynamite Entertainment has used about any public domain superhero they could get their hands on in the pages of ''[[Project Superpowers]]''.
** AC Comics made a habit of using public domain characters both in new series and reprints of original stories. Unlike the previous examples, which focused on a specific company, AC Comics used any character that was available, including minor Fawcett and Quality characters.
*** Oddly, Dynamic Man used in ''The Twelve'' is ''not'' a public domain
** At around the same time as [[Project Superpowers]], [[Image Comics]] started the Next Issue Project. Unlike most of the above-mentioned projects, which updated the characters for modern sensibilities, the Next Issue Project is more of a [[Retraux]] [[Affectionate Parody]], with [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]]-style stories, issues the size of Golden Age comics rather than modern comics, and even vintage ads.
** Many of the Nedor characters (and quite a few characters from other publishers) are also being used in ''Heroes Inc'', a webcomic created by Scott Austin. The story takes place in an alternate reality where the allies of WWII lost the war. The Nedor character American Crusader is an aging hero collecting DNA from various heroes in an attempt to revive the Golden Age. Many changes have been made to the characters origin stories and appearance.
** The original version of Blue Beetle (created for Fox Features Syndicate) is public domain, but subsequent [[Charlton Comics]] (and, later DC Comics') revamps are
** Centaur's John Aman, AKA Amazing-Man, recently joined the supporting cast of Marvel's ''[[Immortal Iron Fist]]'' as {{spoiler|The Prince of Orphans}}, which is fitting since, according to Roy Thomas, Iron Fist's co-creator, Iron Fist was based on the Amazing Man.
* The comic-book superheroine Octobriana may or may not have been created for anti-Soviet underground comics anonymously circulated in the USSR during the Cold War. Regardless of the truth of her origins, however, she is still in the public domain.
* [[Jenny Everywhere]], the comic-book character, was explicitly ''created'' to serve this purpose. She's as close to public domain as modern copyright law permits of modern creations.
* Dave Sim has stated that upon his death, his [[Graphic Novel]] ''[[Cerebus the Aardvark]]'' will enter the public domain.
* ''[[Out of Print]]'' is a [[Web Comic]] focusing [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Superhero|Super Heroes]] and the humor of being
* [[Little Nemo]] (At least the character itself and the comic, not the movie.)
* The site [http://pdsh.wikia.com pdsh.wikia.com] is a [[The Wiki Rule|wiki]] all about public domain superhero characters. There are a few open source characters, a la Jenny Everywhere, as well. The rest are all Golden Age heroes or Silver Age characters that had their publishers ''badly'' screw up the copyright registration.
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** Sherlock Holmes illustrates the differences in international copyright law. The first stories have never had copyright in the US. When ''[[Star Trek]]'' first included them, Paramount almost '''did''' get sued because they were [http://www.sherlockian.net/acd/copyright.html still under copyright in the UK].
** The Doyle estate tried to claim Sherlock Holmes anyway, on the grounds that any new Holmes story is a derivative of the character's whole set of appearances, and it is not possible to base a new story on just the public domain material. This went to court and their argument [http://free-sherlock.com was resoundingly rejected by the judge.]
* Many of the [[Arsène Lupin]] stories are in the public domain in the United States, including the famous "crossovers" with Sherlock Holmes. At the time they were written Doyle put and end to Leblanc's efforts and the detective was forced to match wits with the [[Gentleman Thief]] under the pseudonyms "Herlock Sholmes" and "Holmlock Shears." Now that both characters are freely available US publishers tend to publish the stories the way they were intended with the two great literary characters intersecting as [[Worthy Opponent
** In addition, the anime series ''[[Lupin III]]'', which focused on Lupin's grandson, can now be released under its original title outside of Japan; previously, the character was called "Rupan" or "The Wolf" in English-speaking countries.
* The first five books of [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' Mars series, where [[John Carter of Mars]] appeared, were published before 1923 and are out of copyright in the USA.
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** Moses
** King David
** Ahura
* [[The Grim Reaper]]
** [[Shinigami]]
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* [[Popeye]] entered the public domain in Europe as of 2009.
** And while it'll be quite a few years before he goes public domain in the US, all of the original Fleischer cartoon serials have entered the public domain, as well as some of the later Famous Studios shorts.
** In addition, Popeye is often the source of [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]
** Ironically, Disney could not clear the rights in time to have Popeye appear in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''. This, after they co-produced [[The Movie]] of [[Popeye]] with Paramount.
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