Comments on: Betty Boop Public Domain — Are Early Looney Tunes Next?

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:23:33 +0000

This is good news. Trademark shouldn’t be an end-around copyright expiration. Nothing prevents people from selling high quality Betty Boop DVDs. If people want them, they will buy them. If people would prefer the $1 poor quality DVDs, they can choose those. These trademarks should be void with the expiration of copyright – copyright was important enough to include in the Constitution, after all. To allow any entity to control works forever simply leads to stagnation. But even if you consider these trademarks valid, having the content widely enough distributed that people still remember it can only extend the value of your trademark.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:23:56 +0000

I was surprised to find out that there’s no good copy available, although based on the Cartoon Brew thread, there’s interest in one.

By: Diana Green

Diana Green — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:48:10 +0000

In purely aesthetic terms, this is very bad for the Boops, as it opens the door for yet another wave of bad 4th generation dupes on DVD. The Fleischer Bettys haven’t had a proper reissue since the beautiful Republic VHS tapes (!) of 1996 (!!).

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:42:42 +0000

“Yay for a court supporting the idea of public domain over perpetual intellectual property ownership.”

Well, it is the 9th circuit after all. Aren’t they overturned like every other decision? ;)