Disney is suing the heirs of a number of comic book authors in an attempt to retain complete ownership of Marvel characters.
Disney has sued numerous Marvel characters, including Spider-Man, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, and Captain Marvel, in an effort to maintain complete control over them.
Marvel is battling for complete ownership of The Avengers characters
The studio has chosen to sue a number of authors and artists who are attempting to recover the copyrights to the characters from the “Avengers.”
Marvel Entertainment, which is owned by Disney, has filed the cases.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the lawsuits are in response to several copyright termination notices filed at the beginning of 2021, requesting that the rights of these characters be returned to their respective authors or heirs.
Marvel filed multiple lawsuits today that will decide ownership of Marvel’s Avengers characters.
Disney’s Marvel unit is suing to hold on to full control of Avengers characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Thor and more.
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This is as required by US copyright law, which states that authors or heirs may seek to reclaim the rights from publishers after a certain amount of time has passed.
The earlier notifications would enable Marvel to continue utilizing the characters in their ventures, but they would have to split ownership and earnings with the original authors.
Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, and Don Heck, co-creator of Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, are among others seeking copyright termination.
Stan Lee’s younger brother, Larry Lieber, is the co-creator of Iron Man, Thor, and Ant-Man. Gene Colan, co-creator of Falcon, Captain Marvel, and Blade, and Don Rico, co-creator of Black Widow
Here are the Disney’s claims
According to Entertainment Weekly, Disney’s claims state that the characters were produced as “work made for hire” for which the Copyright Act’s termination clauses do not apply.
Disney claimed in Steve Ditko’s case that Ditko was “assigned” by Marvel and “had the authority to exercise creative control over his contributions, and [Marvel] paid him a per-page fee for his efforts,” according to the complaint. Any contributions provided by Ditko or other creators “were at Marvel’s instance and cost,” according to the complaint.
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