Back in September, we reported that the heirs of Jack Kirby, had filed 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Sony Pictures (which owns movie rights to Spider-Man), 20th Century Fox (owner of movie rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men), Paramount Pictures (which has a film distribution deal for four upcoming Marvel-produced films) and Universal Pictures (which has distribution rights to Hulk movies) and others who have been making films and other forms of entertainment based on characters created by Kirby.

Then on Friday, we reported that Marvel Entertainment had filed a countersuit against Kirby’s heirs, seeking to invalidate their claims, based on the fact that “all of Kirby’s contributions to Marvel’s publications, like those of other comic book writers and artists of the same period, were works made for hire, making Marvel the sole owner of the copyrights”. (Click here to see more details)

Now, the Kirby heirs’ attorney Marc Toberoff, has responded to Marvel’s countersuit, issuing a statement saying that the heirs were merely trying to take advantage of change to copyright law that allows artists to recapture rights to their work.

The statement claims that “It is a standard claim predictably made by comic book companies to deprive artists, writers, and other talent of all rights in their work,” and that “The Kirby children intend to vigorously defend against Marvel’s claims in the hope of finally vindicating their father’s work.”

The statement goes on to say that Jack Kirby was never properly compensated for his contributions to Marvel’s universe of superheroes and that “Sadly, Jack died without proper compensation, credit or recognition for his lasting creative contributions”

(Source: Yahoo news)

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