Why didn’t any of you assholes tell me The Phantom is in the public domain?https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Phantom
>>150895914No one here reads the Phantom. There's also a belief held by some anons that "It's Public Domain why bother"
>>150895937>No one here reads the Phantom.Well, at least he still has that African tribe.
>>150896128Southeast Asian, actually.And yes, you have to be a Finn or some weird Germanic that doesn't speak English to have ever read any of it during your formative years.
>>150895914It is like the Charlton heroes or captain marvel (Billy), it is fairly obscure
>>150895914Oh, that probably explains how they are able to sell beer under his name and image here. (The Phantom is called Mustanaamio in Finnish, literally "The Black Mask".)
>>150895914Cause people are still waiting on it to be fully confirmed. Nobody knew this until Duke University looked into whether some Popeye comics past 1929 were copyright renewed and found out they weren't (leading people to find out Popeye getting his strength from spinach is probably public domain), which prompted other people to look into if other comic strips got copyright renewed. If the research holds it means most of Phantom's comics from 1936 are PD, along with the first two years of Mandrake, and first two years of Flash Gordon.
No one knew until you brought it up. Thanks for telling us!
>>150897425Talking about it, I think it is funny how Krypton and the Kryptonian parents are already public domain
>>15089591499.9% of the time people who use public domain characters are making hot trash. Sherlock is like the one exception in that sometimes he gets used in good stuff (still a lot of shit)
>>150897455Yeah I noticed the possibility a few years ago when I was reading Action #1 never really went into detail about the origin, but the comic strip did (and before the comic book could), and then it turned out the comic strip wasn't properly copyrighted when released.
Dick Tracey might be in the Public Domain too. It's crazy how many characters are going to be pd over the next 10 to 15 yrs.
>>150897581They would have entered earlier, if wasn't for the constant extensions.All works of George Orwell is in the public domain over Europe.
>>150895914Does anyone know if there’s a way to access some kind of online archive of at least one major newspaper and just read every comics page from like 1920 onward? I feel like this has to be possible.
>>150897667Did you check Wikimedia? They have a lot of archives
>>150895914Nobody does anything valuable with public domain characters anyway. Might as well do something new instead.
>>150897734Wikisource does, it makes the works far easier to access, I read a lot of weird tales issues.
>>150897734Isn't 2/3 of Dinsey's catalog interpretations of public domain characters?
>>150895937I do. New stories are still being produced in Australia and Sweden. There's also a new series in the US.
>>150897425>If the research holdsWhat does this mean? Who's going to check? When will we know? Thanks.
>>150897499There's also a lot of fan fiction based the 13 or so books of the Land of Oz.
>>150895914Probably because nobody wants to poke the bear until we can be certain? He's probably public domain because they can't find evidence of copyright renewal, but a lawyer could argue retroactive renewal due to changes in legislation (something like that happened with the movie Metropolis), which is why it's a bad idea to just use the character as if he's in the public domin for sure. And depending on whether it's the comic strip syndicate or the Lee Falk estate who owns the copyright if he's not PD, it's either until 2032 or 2070 when we can be absolutely sure.
>>150899411Metropolis was a special case because it was a movie made in Germany. It only got re-copyrighted because Clinton signed a bill in the mid-90s to reinstate copyright on foreign works that accidentally fell in the PD in the US.
Mad Cave just launched a new volume
>>150898470An example of how people rush through things is that there was someone on reddit who looked through the copyright renewals and thought Lil Folks and the first five years of Peanuts were public domain because he couldn't find evidence of copyright renewal. It turned out there was evidence that Peanuts got copyright renewed but appears Lil Folks wasn't.But for like nearly a month based on the previous info the PD wiki listed Peanuts comic strips from 1950s as public domain till it was finally removed
>>150899209I think all 14 books of the original author + a few others are already in the public domain
>>150895914Because no one actually cares about Public Domain characters, most people would rather just make their own original stuff.
>>150899209>>150902980It's all 14 Baum books14 out of 21 stories/books by Ruth Thompson2 books by Jack SNow
>>150895914Because trademark laws are still a whore.
>>150896873>beer>not milkOne job, Finns
>public domainMake your own stories. Create your own IP.
>>150897716I tried signing up for newspapers.com but it seems like the dedicated daily comics pages aren’t always included in scans of the Chicago Tribune. There are dailies scattered through the paper but the debut of Dick Tracy isn’t in the issue it’s supposed to be in.
>>150907597What's the big sin of using characters you didn’t create? Many great works have been made with public domain characters.
>>150908142Never said it was a sin.
>>150908152Well, the tone of your post did come across as if it was criticizing the public domain.
bump >>150897667because I want know as well
>>150895914Because no one cares about the Phantom. And what hurts him as a character is his costume. He looks silly even by Super Hero standards. Even The Shadow looks better and he doesn't even use a proper mask to hide his identity.Not to mention that being public domain doesn't mean anything. You can't do anything with a character unless you essentially make a parody of the character. A genuine attempt to adapt something only gets you sued by leech estates. This is why Zorro, Tarzan, etc are all doomed to obscurity.
>>150896667I remember getting Phantom showbags in Australia back in the early 2000s.
>>150908833Sherlock Holmes or Dracula are not obscure
>>150908833Zorro is not obscure
>>150908887Dracula is an exception. Dracula never belonged to a long running series only a novel. And from that novel being public domain we got many radical different adaptations of the character. Sherlock Holmes on the other hand needed to have all his main books free of copyright before anyone could freely adapt the character through the public domain. That's the principle that right now is strangling the public domain. You need to wait far too long.
>>150908833>He looks silly even by Super Hero standardsBullshit how is the Phantom's outfit any worse than Superman's
>>150897581Alot of big names are already PD due to renewal errors. Tracy, Charlie Brown, the Mars Attacks martians, and a handful of Marvel characters like Foom or Namor come to mind.
>>150899411This. That's why Oswald's lapse was such a big deal despite many in the biz believing he'd lapsed decades earlier.
>>150902193I'm pretty interested in Mad Cave's projects. I get the sense they're trying to do some sort of shared universe thing without the baggage of capeshit perse. They're keeping things small for now and it really works. Part of me hopes we can see them integrate Popeye and Gigantor next.
>>150895914I'm still waiting on phantom 2040 to become public domain though
>>150908833Why do normies rag on the zebra stripe trunks? Get some better material. Most capes pre 1960 wore undies on the outside.>Not to mention that being public domain doesn't mean anything. You can't do anything with a character unless you essentially make a parody of the character. A genuine attempt to adapt something only gets you sued by leech estates. This is why Zorro, Tarzan, etc are all doomed to obscurityYou literally can. It's been done before. The only caveat is you cant use their names in the title because of trademark faggotry. People have been using Mickey nonstop all year.
>>150909003The last of the classic Holmes canon lapsed this year. Believe it or not, shit's changing fast right now.
>>150908833Who the fuck calls Zorro obscure?
>>150908833I care about Phantom 2040. A LOT. And that's made me respect the earlier series. The Power of Ten Tigers. So you can keep his name out of your goddamn mouth.
>>150909270Probably people who are born after the 2000s.
How did The Phantom get a beat 'em up before Popeye did?
>>150898457Pic rel was a good issue.One of the first I read. The art on the back of the man holding the skull stuck with me
>>150909647is it any good?
>>150895914Try using him and see if King Features Syndicate doesn't sue you for copyright or trademark infringement.
>>150909647Popeye is a notorious case of the IP holders sitting on it, they don't even let nintendo re-release the old games
>>150895914About this deal with the public domain any word on reducing copyright? Heard that there are attempts which is good because with the way things are only evil corporations benefit as the creators are long dead.
>>150909905It has mixed reviews. It's likely one of those things; if you’re a fan, you’ll like it. If not, it’s just slop. Sorta like the Asterix beat 'em ups
>>150897425You can't "renew" a copyright. It's automatic and lasts a specific time (lifetime of original creator + 95 years) and that's it. You're thinking of trademark, which is a separate thing.
>>150910287>(lifetime of original creator + 95 years)Correction: life + 70 years95 years is for anonymous works and doesn't include the creator's lifespan
>>150910287Today, copyright is automatic. Back then, you had to renew it or lose it.
>>150910287>>150910335I can't believe there are still people who think today's copyright laws were always there a century ago. It was embarrassing to see some big Youtuber and his followers make this mistake.Lifetime + 70 years and 95 years for WFH was not the rule in the US until 1999. And it was only applied for anything that was still in copyright in 1999, not for anything that fell out of copyright decades ago (though there are exceptions)Up until maybe 1976 you had to renew within 28 years or it goes public domain. After 1976 anything made from 1978 onwards was automatically renewed. But for stuff made before 1978, you still had to renew it until 1992 when they finally removed the renewal requirement across the board for anything that was still copyrighted at that time.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_copyright_law_of_the_United_States
>>150895914Public domain characters don't usually get respect to be honest.
>>150909647Would Bluto be player 2 or a boss
>>150912704Unless they are monstrous like Moby Dick and Dracula
What’s holding up the Phantom is its an active Trademark with new (if bad) comics being made.
This could have been the big three of /co/ in another universe. Upgrade or downgrade?
>>150915895Upgrade
>>150913947Both
>>150895937For me, it's that there's so much, the scans are bad, and old comics are generally less good.
>>150895914sorry I forgot :-(
>>150915895Popeye memes are really stale and boring.
>>150915895Major upgrade
>>150895937>No one here reads the Phantom
>>150921435What are talking about?
