Bill Willingham sends Fables into the public domain

When I first signed my creator-owned publishing contract with DC Comics, the company was run by honest men and women of integrity, who (for the most part) interpreted the details of that agreement fairly and above-board. When problems inevitably came up we worked it out, like reasonable men and women. Since then, over the span of twenty years or so, those people have left or been fired, to be replaced by a revolving door of strangers, of no measurable integrity, who now choose to interpret every facet of our contract in ways that only benefit DC Comics and its owner companies. At one time the Fables properties were in good hands, and now, by virtue of attrition and employee replacement, the Fables properties have fallen into bad hands.

This is such a sad and such a frustrating statement to read. I got into Fables from The Wolf Among Us, and ended up buying the whole compilation to read through when they released it this year. I guess it's not only tech companies that are doing enshittification...

That was a beautiful read of a tragic situation. I, probably like many others, first heard about the series from Telltale's game and I'm sad to hear that he wasn't consulted or fairly compensated for it.

Wish there was a way to get a hold of that complete compilation without giving DC any of that money...

Cory Doctorow has a good article about this: https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/15/fairy-use-tales/#sampling-license

• Corporate mergers lead to huge corporations with internal chaos, that the corporations then exploit in ways that are always favourable to the corporation

DC – like so many other corporations – participated in an orgy of mergers as its sector devoured itself. The collapse of comics into a duopoly owned by studios from an oligopoly had profound implications for the entire sector

This performance of seriousness is belied by the behind-the-scenes chaos that these corporate shifts entail – think of the way that the banks that bought and sold our mortgages in the run-up to the 2008 crisis eventually lost the deeds to our houses, and then just pretended they were legally entitled to collect money from us every month

• Fables / Willingham was intentionally or unintentionally affected by this at DC

Willingham's hard-fought, unique deal with the publisher was atypical. A giant publisher realizes its efficiencies through standardized processes. Willingham's books didn't fit into that standard process, and so, repeatedly, the publisher broke its promises to him.

The company repeatedly – and conveniently – forgot that Willingham had the final say over the destiny of his books.

• And the public-domainification of Fables is a bad-ass, but muddy, response. It doesn't give the rights that most people might expect it to.

Willingham has since clarified that his public domain dedication means that the public can't reproduce the existing comics ... it's vanishingly unlikely that he owns the copyrights to the artwork created by other artists ... he may or may not have control over trademarks, from the Fables wordmark to any trademark interests in the character designs

When Willingham says he's releasing Fables into the public domain, it's not clear what he's releasing – and what is his to release.

Warners can (and may) release [their rabid attack lawyers] on you, even if you are likely to prevail in court, betting that you – like Willingham – won't have the resources to defend yourself.

• And some discussion about Creative Commons licensing, and how it might apply to Fables (the existing ones not well, but maybe a new one could be created)

It's a good article - I recommend reading all of it.

Response from DC Comics:

"The Fables comic books and graphic novels published by DC, and the storylines, characters, and elements therein, are owned by DC and protected under the copyright laws of the United States and throughout the world in accordance with applicable law and are not in the public domain," the statement reads. "DC reserves all rights and will take such action as DC deems necessary or appropriate to protect its intellectual property rights."