Bill Willingham, the creator of the Fables comic book series that served as the basis for the game The Wolf Among Us from Telltale Games, made the franchise available to the public – DC, in turn, said that only it owns the rights and is determined to resolve the dispute through the courts.
DC had been publishing Willingham’s comics since 2002, and their contract stipulated that the rights to the works would remain with the author. However, the leaders with whom the creator of Fables negotiated for more than 20 years have now left, and he was unable to reach an agreement with the new ones.
On his Substack page, Willingham writes that now “every aspect of the contract is interpreted only to benefit DC Comics and the companies that own it,” and also complains about problems with royalty payments. According to the artist, they recently wanted to take away the ownership of Fables from him, and since he does not have the money to resolve the dispute through the courts, he decided to make his work public domain
The public domain includes all works and intellectual property whose copyright has expired with the consent of the author or some time after his death.
“You have the right to make your own Fables movies and cartoons, publish your own Fables books, make your own Fables toys, and do whatever you want with it, because it is your property,” he writes.
DC, in turn, disagrees with Willingham and his interpretation of the contract and copyright law.
“The Fables comic books and graphic novels published by DC, and the storylines, characters and elements therein, are owned by DC and are protected by U.S. and worldwide copyright laws to the extent applicable and are not in the public domain,” the statement said. companies.
DC notes that it reserves its rights and is committed to taking legal action if necessary.
It’s unclear whether this technology will affect Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us 2, which is scheduled for release in 2024. The game was supposed to be released this year, but the developer delayed its launch due to the transition from Unreal Engine 4 to 5, which entailed changes in the team and the development process.
Source: Engadget
