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THE LAW IS A ASS for 07/25/2000
DOCKET ENTRY
"The Law is a Ass" Installment # 53
Originally written as installment # 42 and published in Comics Buyer's Guide issue # 574, November 16, 1984 issue
Let me get something straight right up front. Later in this column, I answer somebody's question about how to attain a copyright. Answering questions about real world concerns isn't something I do often. Why? Well, here I was asked a question about copyright, and I am not a copyright lawyer. Were I to give an answer in an area outside of my expertise and get the answer wrong, I could inadvertently screw up someone's life.
I don't want to do that.
So I don't generally answer questions with real-world consequences, especially those outside my area of expertise, so don't ask them.
Why did I answer this one? Because it was a very general question about a very general topic, which I could research easily, so as to provide the correct answer. So I decided to answer it.
But it's not something I don't do often.
******
"The Law is a Ass"
Installment # 53
by
Bob Ingersoll
And I thought he was bad in issue one!
Surge, I mean. I thought his various law breaking actions in issue one of the Surge mini-series were excessive. Well, as the poet said, I hadn't seen nuttin yet.
You've read Surge # 2 by now, haven't you? Then you know what I mean. If not, here's the short form of the comic in questionone that isn't anywhere near as unpleasant as those IRS short forms.
Surge is looking for Luger, a hired assassin who killed Surge's girlfriend. Surge has hijacked a prop plane in his effort to pursue Luger. I don't care, if he took it to its intended destination, Surge's forcing the pilot to fly the plane or be fried was an act of hijacking. It just happens to be one that's a bit more user friendly than most and one that proves Surge can't even read his own ticket.. (Incidentally, about that plane... What antiquated airline flies prop planes between London and New York, Air Obsolete?) Then Surge tracks Luger down to Luger's New Rochelle house and destroys the house and leaving behind enough charred remains of a man for a Hefty Bag. Or five.
That's first-degree murder!
Cold blooded, premeditated murder in the first degree. A death penalty crime.
And this is our
I don't quite know how they plan to extricate Surge from this predicament. Perhaps they doesn't. Maybe the Surge mini-series is meant to end with Surge being executed. Or, maybe Luger killed some rummy, and left him in the house to fry and substitute for him, so that Surge would think he had killed Luger. Which means that Surge didn't commit murder. But he still committed attempted murder, because he thought Luger was in the house, when he blasted it. Either way Surge is guilty of a major league felony here.
Still, there are some interesting legal questions regarding Surge's accountability in this affair. First, can Surge be brought to trial? Is he, in fact, a man subject to American laws? Remember, Surge is an artificially created and grown sentient being, I'm not sure that the American courts have jurisdiction over his person, as I'm not sure Surge is a person in the eyes of the law.
And if Surge is a person, how old is he? Chronologically he's less than one year old. Under American law a person less than seven years old is conclusively presumed to be incapable of forming a criminal intent, so cannot be guilty of a crime. Chronologically, Surge is less than seven, so is he presumptively not guilty of murder?
Mentally Surge is older than seven, he's in his teens. So, will the courts conclude that Surge is capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong, so is criminally liable for his actions? I don't know. See, to do this, we must know how old Surge is mentally, as the court would use his mental age to determine how old he is, because Surge's age still plays an important factor in how he's treated by the court.
For example: is he over eighteen year of age? If not, then he's still a minor, a youngster subject to the juvenile court system, where offenders are not judged to be guilty of a crime but adjudged to be delinquent and would be the first super hero to go to reform school.
I don't know the answers to these questions. Surprisingly enough the question of an artificial life form's legal accountability for its illegal acts has never been decided in the American court system. (Damned short sighted of those Americans! Didn't they see this problem coming years ago? The Attorney General should have put out an advisory opinion.) Thus, the case is one of first impression, and I don't want to hazard a guess as to what impression it might make first.
These are questions that will have to answered for us in upcoming issues. I, for one, look forward to them.
******
I don't have any more new comics to write about for now, so I guess I'll answer some mail. (The proceeding was lesson one in the Bob Ingersoll School For Smooth Transitions: when you don't have one, just change the subject.)
Edward M. Kmitt of North Royalton, Ohio has asked me a question that I've been asked before, but which I've never answered in print. Yet, it is a question that I know several people would like to know the answer to. The question? "I am currently developing a comic series that will hopefully be picked up by an independent publisher. I would like to copyright the series title and major characters, before I send plot samples and art xeroxes all over the place. So how do I go about getting copyrights?"
I quote briefly from The Concise Guide to Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, Solomon J. Schepps, Ed. (Bell, 1980) "Anything that is an original work may be copyrighted... It only has to be something that the author made up, and did not copy from something else... The originality can be minimalthe Copyright Office is not a judge of artistic merit. Written words, visual art, dramatic works, clothing and jewelry design, and much more can be copyrighted. The only requirement other than originality is that the work be in a fixed form of some kind, such as paper, tape, film, canvas, or in solid form (pps. 111-112)."
Okay, so maybe I quoted at length. What did you want, brevity or an answer to the question?
A copyright secured after 1978, when the most recent revision of the copyright law occurred, will last for fifty years after the copyright holder's death. Copyrights held by a company or held anonymously lapse seventy-five years after publication or one hundred years after creation, whichever is earlier. Unlike the old law, a copyright secured after 1978 is not renewable. (At least that's how I interpret the law. Is there someone out there who can correct me, if I'm wrong?)
Now, you may say, that's all very well and good, Bob, but it doesn't answer the question of how to get a copyright. Well, that's easy. All you have to do is put the copyright symbol on the work in a prominent place. Seriously, you can copyright your work yourself, simply by putting the copyright symbol on it.
What's the copyright symbol? It's a lower case letter C enclosed inside a circle. It looks like this: . (I assume that the Krause typesetters have a copyright symbol among all their type so something printed back there. If they don't, this is going to look kind of silly, because a blank space isn't the copyright symbol.)
This is because, under the new copyright law, as soon as an original work is finished, it is automatically copyrighted. You don't have to do anything to copyright it, it is copyrighted upon completion. Putting the symbol on the work is your announcement to the world that you intend to defend your copyright, so that some court won't deem that you didn't intend to copyright the work and refuse to uphold it.
ATTENTION: DON'T STOP READING YET!!! I know I said that you can copyright your stuff yourself, by putting the symbol on the work. But in order to get the most protection you have to do something more. You have to register the copyright with the Copyright Office in Washington D.C. A work not registered is still copyrighted, but if the work isn't registered, the copyright office cannot protect the copyright holder in case of an infringement of that copyright. In other words, don't stop at simply slapping the copyright symbol on your work and thinking it's fully protected. Register it!
Registration is accomplished by filing an application with the Copyright office accompanied by a $10.00 filing fee. Get an application form (the address is just below), fill it out, then send it in with your filing fee to: REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON D.C. 20559.
You usually have to submit two copies of your work for the Copyright office to keep on file in case of an infringement claim. After all, how can they tell if there's an infringement, if they don't have a registered copy of the original on hand to compare the copy to? (Yes, I know one should be sufficient, but you know bureaucracy. You should be grateful they didn't want the submission in triplicate.) In addition all copyrighted works must carry an official notice of copyright. The Copyright office supplies specific instructions on how to get the proper notice for your work. If your work doesn't carry the proper notice, you forfeit your copyright. So send for the notice instructions as well! The copyright you save may be your own.
******
I don't have much space left, so I'll only answer a couple more. To L. G. Dugais of Woodside, New York, thank you for the nice letter. I'm glad you like the column. (L. G. didn't actually ask a question. But I always like to acknowledge a compliment.)
To Robert Hagiwara of Bellevue, Washington and Gerry Conway of Los Angeles, California, my objections to Justice League of America Annual #2 had nothing to do with my being opposed to change. I am a great fan of change, when it is needed. And JLA needed change. The book had stagnated for years.
However, JLA Annual #2 did not, to my mind, represent much in the way of change. All that happened is that one well-established formatthat of having the mainline heroes of a company appear as a team in one title and hoping that their collective drawing power will sell the book regardless of qualitywas traded in for another well-established formatthat of having young neophyte heroes living with, training with, and fighting with more experienced heroes.
We swapped the JLA for The X-Men. Moreover, as I said last time we visited these waters, the reasons given for the change, that is the reasons given in the comic book, were ridiculous, dependant on a stupid by-law that had no reason for existing in the JLA charter other than to give someone the ability to change the line up.
As I said, not really much of a change, and not really very creative.
Moreover, the new characters are grating. Granted I haven't really seen them in action yet, but I have seen enough to realize that the new kids wear about the most garish and ugly costumes I've ever encountered, have powers that leave me cold, and have two of the most offensive racial stereotypes ever shoehorned into a story. Gypsy is a gypsy, so naturally she's a thief. Aren't all gypsies? Vibe is Puerto Rican, so he talks like Carmen Miranda. (Check that, Carmen Miranda never talked so poorly in her life.) And it's a fake accent to boot one that Vibe puts on because it's expected that he will talk that way. That means that Vibe is acquiescing tono perpetuatingthe stereotype intentionally.
I had hoped for better, I just don't know why. As for those of you who are saying give them a change, they may grow on me; based on what I've seen so far, I doubt it. After all, my waistline is growing on me, and I don't much like that, either.
BOB INGERSOLL
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