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Court rules that co-creator Jerry Siegel's heirs signed over their rights to the character in 2001.
In its never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way, Warner Bros. has scored another legal win today against the heirs of Superman's co-creators.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has ruled that the heirs of co-creator Jerry Siegel made a binding agreement in 2001 which gave Warners the full rights to the character. This follows last fall's ruling in favor of the studio over the estate of co-creator Joe Shuster.
In effect, this means that Man of Steel, Justice League, and many, many sequels can now be released by Warner Bros., as well as other media like comics, games and so on… though surely that was never in doubt anyway.
This all raises an interesting, if not new, question. Where does legal right clash with moral right? Do the families of Siegel and Shuster have the right to continue to make money off of Superman, regardless of agreements signed years or decades ago? Could Siegel and Shuster have truly understood what they were agreeing to all those years ago?
