tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post5173114463320737360..comments2024-03-26T10:41:35.852+00:00Comments on The 1709 Blog: Life after death on Mars: a reader asks ...Marie-Andree Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17125973798789498436noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-73704055980653365182011-08-03T17:23:08.240+01:002011-08-03T17:23:08.240+01:00Jeremy – there is a comic book written by Alan Moo...Jeremy – there is a comic book written by Alan Moore called The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This comic, originally published by DC Comics (a subsidiary of Time Warner), was made into a movie. Both the comic and the movie are based on the premise of the interaction between late 19th century and early 20th century fictional characters, such as the Invisible Man, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis Professor Moriarty, and others. <br /><br />The comic draws upon far more fictional references than just those which appear in the movie. One of the scenes in the comic is set on Mars. A Confederate army officer named “John”, leading a band of multi-armed Martians, fights the creatures from HG Wells’ War of the Worlds. At one stage another fictional character shares a moment of poignancy with “John” over the apparent death of “the Princess”. It is clear, to those familiar with Burrough’s books, that “John” is “John Carter of Mars”, “the Princess” is John Carter’s wife, Dejah Thoris, and the Martians are identical in description to those in Burrough’s books. <br /><br />But at no stage are the character’s names mentioned in full, nor are there any other obvious references to the concepts in Burrough’s novels. It is clear that the publisher’s legal department has had involvement on the use of the characters so as to avoid starkly obvious references which might raise intellectual property issues. The writing is done is an exceedingly clever fashion in being highly suggestive but not – barely - passing off the goodwill in the concepts in the novels. <br /><br />(The Wikipedia commentary on the comic is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen)David Stewarthttp://www.wrays.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-51783825925123864482011-07-23T13:17:08.170+01:002011-07-23T13:17:08.170+01:00@Eric H. Interestingly, a quick check of the UKIPO...@Eric H. Interestingly, a quick check of the UKIPO website shows 7 extant (plus 2 withdrawn and 2 refused) entries containing the text 'Sherlock Holmes' and they are registered to a variety of companies, several of which are not based in the UK. Only one (Rollerteam Limited) seems to have registered another Sherlock Holmes related mark, '221b Baker Street'. The span of classes is also wide (only 3 are in class 16 for printed matter, while there are also 3 in class 34 - tobacco and smokers' materials).AndyJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-52232047080639249952011-07-23T09:53:58.494+01:002011-07-23T09:53:58.494+01:00Looks like this is possible, as long as the author...Looks like this is possible, as long as the author steers clear of the trademarked words of John Carter and Dejah Thoris in the actual title. Here's a collection coming out soon called "Under the Moons of Mars":<br /><br />http://jcomreader.blogspot.com/2011/07/john-carter-anthology-gets-new-title.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-67237143073994495742011-07-22T17:28:14.588+01:002011-07-22T17:28:14.588+01:00Petemaskreplica: actually, it's anything publi...Petemaskreplica: actually, it's anything published prior to Jan. 1 1923 (e.g. anything from 1922 or earlier) that is in the public domain. The Copyright Term Extension Act increase the renewal terms from 47 years to 67 years, but only for existing copyrights. In 1998, when the law went into effect, anything published in 1923 could still have been under copyright, since copyright terms expire on Jan. 1 of the year after their the term ends: anything from 1923 would have been in the last year of its term. The Burroughs books, assuming compliance with formalities, would have their terms expire 95 years after publication.<br /><br />To the reader's question, the Arthur Conan Doyle estate maybe a good example of the use of trademarks to prevent new works for characters which, from a copyright point of view, are in the public domain. The ACD estate maintains that its trademarks (which are perpetual as long as they're enforced) are sufficient to protect the characters. It seems dicey to me, and I don't know of any cases where they have successfully sued, but I haven't looked either.Eric Hnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-3369794230388013922011-07-22T10:07:25.669+01:002011-07-22T10:07:25.669+01:00US copyright law is incredibly complicated! But th...US copyright law is incredibly complicated! But the three main points are: if it was published before 1924 it's public domain; if it was written after 1978 it's copyright for the life of the creator plus 70 years; and if it was published between 1924 and 1977 it may be copyright for up to 95 years from publication, depending on a whole heap of things ( e.g. whether and when copyright was renewed). Broadly nothing currently protected will become public domain there until 2019.<br /><br />Caveat: this is a gross over-simplification of things!petemaskreplicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14036868898583976333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-63039509131081950322011-07-22T09:12:07.752+01:002011-07-22T09:12:07.752+01:00Isn't the copyright term in the US 100 years a...Isn't the copyright term in the US 100 years and not 70? Need to check carefully on this - remember the recent Salinger and Watcher in the Rye case.<br />Graham, PlymouthAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com