[SciFiWire] Smallville Faces Lawsuit

[Cassie Hughes]

A federal judge in Los Angeles has found that Smallville may be infringing on the copyrights held by the widow and daughter of Jerome Siegel, who created the Superboy character for DC Comics, Variety reported.

Read the Full Article (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=35291)

[prydain]

These lawsuits are so retarded, I can't even stand it.

[goldenboy]

Comics have always been nutty that way. The struggle for Siegel and Shuster to regain credit for having created Superman was epic, spanning several decades.

Comic book artists and writers got screwed, and screwed themselves out of of royalties and rights over the years because of their own naivete and also cos of the way the industry operated since...forever...

The revised Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1, June 1938. Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the company for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material. The Saturday Evening Post reported in 1941 that the pair was being paid still a fraction of DC's Superman profits. In 1946, when Siegel and Shuster sued for more money, DC fired them, prompting a legal battle that ended in 1948, when they signed away any further claim to Superman or any character created from him. DC soon took their names off the byline. Following the huge financial success of Superman: The Movie in 1978 and news reports of their pauper-like existences, Warner Communications gave Siegel and Shuster lifetime pensions of $35,000 per year and health care benefits. In addition, any media production which includes the Superman character must include the credit, "Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman

[Angels baby101]

I dunno i think the law suit is bull but whatever hopefully it never becomes enough to cancel the show

[Kathryn Merteuil]

That law suit case sounds way too stupid, I don't know to me, its not really a big deal. Thats just me, though.

[Gollanth]

What is it with you Americans? You never seem to be happy unless you're suing someone about something. Do you all secretly want to be judges or lawyers? Was it all those eps of Ironside and Murder She Wrote? :D

[prydain]

I think it's just greed, lol.

[Gollanth]

I think it's just greed, lol.
No? Really? :D

[prydain]

Yes. Really really.

:)