Thread:Shadzane/@comment-246292-20160523192222/@comment-918732-20180913172023

UPDATE: Looks like there have been some new Fawcett developments. According to this Facebook post, Fawcett did renew copyrights on their comics, but didn't start until 1977 (when they came under new ownership). So that means that the comics Fawcett published between 1951 and 1953 (when they quit comics) were still under copyright in 1991, when Fawcett sold all their comics properties to DC (and the copyrights are still in force today).

So what does this mean? Here's some examples:


 * Does DC really own Bill Battle, a character who appeared in Fawcett Comics in 1952-1953? Yes, they do.
 * Does DC really own the Hunchback, a character who appeared Fawcett Comics in 1941-42? No. Fawcett never renewed the copyright on those comics, so the Huncback fell into the public domain well before 1991.
 * Does DC really own Golden Arrow, a character who appeared in Fawcett Comics in 1940-1953? Well, it depends. They definitely own those last three years worth of stories. But anyone can reprint the earlier stories, and could theoretically do new Golden Arrow stories based on just the pre-1951 stories -- but that's hard to do and if they mess up and include material from the later stories DC can step in and sue them, so it's probably not worth doing new Golden Arrow if you're not DC.