Licensing Lawlessness and the Public Domain Wild, Wild West: How Can Corporate Licensing Protections Evolve as Copyrightable Characters go into the Public Domain?

Authors

• Sikudhani Foster McCray

Page Number

21

Abstract

This Comment will explore the contours of corporate accountability to consumer stakeholders in the entertainment industry and how corporations may improve their market effectiveness through open notice communications. This Comment will then examine how corporations develop their copyright holdings in works containing popular characters. Further, this Comment will analyze how corporate copyright holdings in works containing characters become more complex as works enter the public domain. This inquiry will investigate issues about whether information regarding the shifting of protections of works containing copyrightable characters is properly and clearly disseminated to the public and potential users. Additionally, this Comment will analyze how corporations play a role in utilizing the complicated and everchanging states of copyright protections to allow for uses of copyrighted characters existing in the public domain, in crafting newer works. Finally, this Comment will examine whether notice from corporate rightsholders, both seeking to protect and to use copyrightable characters, may aid authors, en masse, in avoiding licensing disputes, as preemptive information and warnings would be widely available.

Recommended Citation

McCray, Sikudhani Foster (2024) "Licensing Lawlessness and the Public Domain Wild, Wild West: How Can Corporate Licensing Protections Evolve as Copyrightable Characters go into the Public Domain?," Denver Sports & Entertainment Law Journal: Vol. 29: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/selj/vol29/iss1/5