DC Fables comic and all characters now public domain!

[gaastra]

Oops wb.

Bill Willingham has just issued a press release declaring that "As of now, 15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain. What was once wholly owned by Bill Willingham is now owned by everyone, for all time. It's done, and as most experts will tell you, once done it cannot be undone. Take-backs are neither contemplated nor possible." And he gives a series of question and answer statements. This release was originally planned for yesterday, but has been moved forward to today after it was published elsewhere.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/bill-wi ... dc-do-now/

[Ben]

¡Ay, caramba!

This is, potentially, a huge deal…

[Randall]

Meanwhile, legal experts aren't so sure that he has done what he thinks he has done. He is basically saying, though, that he will not seek to protect his rights. That alone does not necessarliy technically put the works in the public domain, though the effect may be the same.

Still, there is still the separate issue of trademark, and DC may still hold some rights depending on the contract. After all, the basis of his complaint is that DC did not share funds earned from licensing. How did DC license Fables, unless they held some rights? Perhaps the author allowed DC to act as a sales agent. It's all quite interesting, legally.

[Randall]

The response!

https://www.cbr.com/fables-dc-statement ... ic-domain/

Gonna get interesting!

[Ben]

Yes. There are two levels at play here: the underlying creation of the property — his — and the exploitation of that property — DC's.

So while he can probably quite legitimately "give away" his rights to benefit from said creation, the fact remains that the works produced so far have been under contract to or with DC, which will have invested finance into, at the very least, publishing and marketing costs.

What he has essentially said is that he has given up his right to benefit from that exploitation so that anyone can use the characters. Yes, he "owns" them and has the right to do that (Lionel Bart famously sold his rights to Oliver! for a very low figure and died near penniless having not being able to enjoy the ongoing success of that version on stage or screen), but this would yet only be akin to fan fiction, since no-one else can actually legitimately publish or film them since Warners have the rights to do that.

He has, in effect, given up his rights *in* exploitation, but is not able to do anything about the rights *to* exploiting those characters. Like fan fiction, anyone can basically write what they like, but one can’t actually do anything with that as WBD has that sewn up and will, as their statement says, protect those aspects.

Interesting, but by no means cut and dried…

[Dan]

Having been a Fables fan since nearly the beginning (I got in right before the March of the Wooden Soldiers arc, which started as issue 19), this was just absolutely wild all things considered. It sucks that things have gotten this bad and at a time that has not been very good for comic books in general. This is, unfortunately, another cut of the industry just crumbling as the attempts by the higher ups to scramble have not been beneficial at all by trying to block out every and all indications that this sucker could self-implode at a moment's notice. It sucks that the remaining three issues are just sitting in limbo because DC is not bothering at the moment.

[Ben]

Doubtful that those final three come out at all now. Not much of an incentive for DC to issue them, is there?

[Dan]

Probably not this year. Maybe if Wolf Among Us 2 does well next year, but that's pretty doubtful as well. Not with the way seemingly both DC and Marvel are just doubling-down on doing things that are just not working out creatively.