I'm Back! It's been two years since my last blog post here -
why so long?...I've been busy!
Over the past two years, I've
- Taught two semesters as a visiting professor at William Boyd School of Law, at the University of Nevada - Los Vegas (teaching property law and cyberlaw); and
- Joined a newly formed law firm, Sycamore Legal, P.C., based in San Francisco, as an attorney of counsel. This gives me a great new platform to work with clients on matters dealing with both transactions and litigation in high-tech, business start-ups, content licensing, entertainment, copyright, trademark and real estate law. To find out more about the firm, check out www.sycamorelegal.com; and to contact me there, email marc@sycamorelegal.com; and
- I've written a book! My book, Comic Art, Creativity and the Law, has just been published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, a U.K. based textbook publisher. The book, which features original cover art by noted graphic artist Darick Robertson, examines the impact of contract law, copyright law, tax law and obscenity law on the creative process as applied to comic art. It discusses a variety of cases involving comic art, ranging from the copyright termination rights battles over Superman and many of the characters in the Marvel Universe (the Siegel and Shuster v. D.C. cases, and the Kirby v. Marvel case), to the parody cases involving the Winter Brothers and the Air Pirates comic books.
The
hard copy version will be released in the U.S. in August. The European version
is available on the Elgar website at http://www.e-elgar.com/bookentry_main.lasso?id=15187.At
slightly over $100, the hardback is targeted primarily to the library and other
institutions market. A much more reasonably priced version ($40), as an ebook,
is available at http://www.ebooks.com/searchapp/searchresults.net?term=comic+art%2C+creativity+and+the+law.
My thanks to everyone who helped with the book, particularly series editors
Shubha Ghosh and Robin Malloy, and endorsement writers Justin Hughes, Mark
Lemley, Peter Yu and Rob Salkowitz.
With all of this work done, it's time to
return to blogging! And there is much to write about, with new SCOTUS decisions
in copyright and related fields, and much more. I am also getting ready to
return to San Diego for the International Comic-Con, where I'll be speaking on
two panels - a Comic Arts Conference panel with Rob Salkowitz on Thursday morning;
and a return to the Comic Book Law School panel on Saturday morning. Blog posts to follow - stay tuned!
