Siegel family snags more Superman rights

In an expanded ruling, the heirs of Jerry Siegel have nabbed even more Superman rights in their lawsuit with DC Comics.  Judge Stephen Larson has ruled that the family

has successfully recaptured (and are co-owners of) the rights to the following works: (1) Action Comics No. 1 (subject to the limitations set forth in the Court’s previous Order); (2) Action Comics No. 4; (3) Superman No. 1, pages three through six, and (4) the initial two weeks’ worth of Superman daily newspaper strips. Ownership in the remainder of the Superman material at issue that was published from 1938 to 1943 remains solely with defendants.

All of this came about because of a post at Blog@Newsarama that had quotes from Denis Kitchen who said Russel Keaton had produced scripts far in advance of the release of Action Comics #1, which would make that work not for hire.

I’m going to have to check the entire ruling, because Action Comics #4 contains more than just the Superman Plays Football story.  My guess is His Honor means the Superman story in Action Comics #4 instead of the nine-other stories also included in that issue.

Here’s the link to the full 99-page ruling, for those who want to read it.  For the rest of you, the comments section below is open for your comments.  While it is great the Intardwebz can help in the discovery of further evidence in a case like this, I can just see the DC lawyers fuming over this new decision.

via ICv2 and Blog@