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Complete BATMAN (1940) collection + many others...questions
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29 posts in this topic

So recently I was fortunate enough to come across several long comic book boxes. In these boxes are high quality colour photocopies of comic book series. Each photocopied comic is full colour, copied on both sides of what appears to be standard 8-1/2 x 11" paper and cut to size of a regular comic book with a paper cutter of some sort with three staples along the spine to secure the book. The only pages that appears to be missing are non-comic-book-related ads. They are quite nice but obviously done by an amateur with a really good printer.

Looking in some of these boxes, I found the following comic book photocopies...

  • Complete BATMAN collection from #1 to #713.
  • Complete BATMAN (2011) #1 to #52
  • AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 to #500
  • ACTION COMICS #340 TO #600
  • DETECTIVE COMICS #225 to #650
  • Complete PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1 to #263
  • Complete MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 to #150
  • Complete BRAVE AND BOLD #1 to #200
  • Complete FLASH #105 to #350
  • Complete JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 to #261

See attached pictures of a few. There are so many others I haven't gone through yet...here are my questions.

Am I even allowed to possess these? Is there some sort of copyright infringement here? What if I wanted to sell them? Is this legal? What if I wanted to give them away, say, to a Children's hospital or something? Is this legal?

Any thoughts?

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Edited by CAMPER49
forgot one line
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It’s interesting to see how other people collect. 

My father-in-law copies movies from cable tv and VHS onto DVDs via his computer. He literally has thousands of movies. 

He also has an elaborate cataloging system - big 3-ring binders with reams of spreadsheet printouts with the movie title, director, stars, date, special release info and his own catalog number that corresponds to a number he has stickered to the disc to keep it all organized. 

He does the same with music too. 

I can’t even begin to calculate how much he’s spent on blank DVDs, paper, binders and ink to put this all together. 

Aside from the entertainment value, it’s all worthless. But he genuinely considers himself an avid movie and music collector. 

It’s hard sometimes because I collect movies too. Sometimes when talking to him to about movies I’ll make the mistake of mentioning a title I’m interested in (usually waiting for a release or for it to go on sale) and he want’s to run off and burn me a copy. 

It’s hard because owning the actual release, picture quality, not engaging in piracy, etc. are all important to me, but he thinks he’s being helpful and offering me something that’s ‘just as good’. 

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Interesting. The cost to do that is far more expensive than just obtaining the later common issues of Marvel Team-Up, Peter Parker, Brave & Bold, etc. 

None of those books are in the public domain, meaning they would all infringe on copyrights. The likelihood of that infringement being pursued is very low, however. 

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So I'm thinking of unloading all these printed photocopies by selling them...taking up way too much room in our house.

They are pretty neat....well copied, easy to read, complete runs.

Before I even go down that road, any idea if I am even allowed to do this?

Is there a copyright issue if I do?

 

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On 4/2/2019 at 3:15 PM, CAMPER49 said:

Before I even go down that road, any idea if I am even allowed to do this?

Is there a copyright issue if I do?

 

Copyright currently extends for works published after 1923. There are some exceptions through the 1960s, but none of those books would be within those public domain exceptions because both Marvel and DC renewed the copyrights on all of these books. It will be around 2035 before that Batman #1 falls into public domain. Selling these would be no different than selling a USB stick with a bunch of digital comic books on them, and you may face a violation for each individual comic book. I think the fine is around $250,000 per copyrighted work. You could even receive a charge for giving away the books and not selling them. That being said, it is extremely unlikely you would actually be charged for selling them since comic book copyrights are not enforced as strictly as things like movies. I think it is likely that eBay would remove the auction though and might terminate your account if you tried to sell there. I do not believe it is illegal for you to possess them. 

Disclosure: I am not a lawyer and only work for one. 

Edited by SBRobin
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3 hours ago, GeneticNinja said:

I thought this was going to be about a complete original collection.

it is! Just not a complete original collection of comic books but rather of comic book photocopies!

Would CGC create a Kinkos pedigree for them? 

lol

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On 4/2/2019 at 3:15 PM, CAMPER49 said:

So I'm thinking of unloading all these printed photocopies by selling them...taking up way too much room in our house.

They are pretty neat....well copied, easy to read, complete runs.

Before I even go down that road, any idea if I am even allowed to do this?

Is there a copyright issue if I do?

 

So technically, copyright law also covers unauthorized DISTRIBUTION, which includes selling or even giving something away.  And since some/many of these stories are available to buy from DC in one form or another, you would be circumventing a sale.

That said, I can’t imagine anyone at DC caring about a donation of these copies.  Sale on eBay might be a different matter.

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12 hours ago, SBRobin said:

Copyright currently extends for works published after 1923. There are some exceptions through the 1960s, but none of those books would be within those public domain exceptions because both Marvel and DC renewed the copyrights on all of these books. It will be around 2035 before that Batman #1 falls into public domain. Selling these would be no different than selling a USB stick with a bunch of digital comic books on them, and you may face a violation for each individual comic book. I think the fine is around $250,000 per copyrighted work. You could even receive a charge for giving away the books and not selling them. That being said, it is extremely unlikely you would actually be charged for selling them since comic book copyrights are not enforced as strictly as things like movies. I think it is likely that eBay would remove the auction though and might terminate your account if you tried to sell there. I do not believe it is illegal for you to possess them. 

Disclosure: I am not a lawyer and only work for one. 

Umm... not going into detail but my friend's husband just settled for $30,000 for illegally transmitting digital comics.  She is livid. The original claim was far greater but he settled for $30,000... 

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