Buck Rogers' Movie and Copyright Troubles

Superhero blockbusters seem like the surest thing in movies these days with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justicetaking in almost $450 million from the worldwide box office in its first weekend. So it makes sense that Sony and Warner Bros. have shown preliminary interest in financing filmmaker’s Don Murphy’s attempt to create a Buck Rogers movie. But Murphy is not sure the Rogers story has entered the public domain, and a federal court recently held that it cannot tell him whether it has until he has already started making the movie.

In what year was the first novella referencing Rogers released? Read more about Copyright Law and the movies.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas.  He also co-founded Project K, a charity devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time.  Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.