Writing About Comics and Copyright

44 Pages·2014·10.27 MB·English

CREATe Working Paper 2013/9 (December 2013)
Writing About Comics and
Copyright

Authors
Ronan Deazley Jason Mathis
University of Glasgow www.jasonmathis.ca
[email protected] [email protected]
Initially released as a pre-publication edition privately printed for the authors, limited to a print run of 200
copies.
CREATe Working Paper Series DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8379.
This release was supported by the RCUK funded Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the
Creative Economy (CREATe), AHRC Grant Number AH/K000179/1.

1
WRITING ABOUT COMICS
AND COPYRIGHT
Ronan Deazley and Jason Mathis
Copyright © 2013 Ronan Deazley and Jason Mathis
[ii]
For Moira and Ruby
[iii]
[iv]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Comics scholarship and clearing rights 3
What is a ‘work’? 6
Insubstantial copying 12
Criticism and review 16
Current proposals for reform 20
Conclusion 23
Afterword / Manifesto 28
Notes 30
[v]

[1]
[2]
COMICS SCHOLARSHIP AND CLEARING RIGHTS
Academics who research and write about the visual world often
complain about the way in which copyright law can hinder their
scholarly endeavours, and with good reason. Writing about visual
work without reproducing that work is an impoverished exercise,
for both writer and reader. But, reproducing visual material can
trigger concerns on the part of the conscientious author or – more
often – demands on the part of the publisher about the need to
secure copyright permission. In this respect, comics scholarship is
no different from any other field of visual or cultural studies. Clear-
ing rights for publication can be frustrating and time-consuming,
and academic publishers often manage the business of copyright
clearance by mak-
ing their authors
rEeusrpoopnesainb lCe omfoirc Asert-
curing permissions.

provides a good ex-
ample. When an ar-
ticle is accepted for
publication, authors
are ‘required to sub-
mit copyright agree-
ments and all nec-
essary permission
letters for reprinting
or modifying copy-
righted materials,
both textual and
graphic’, and are
‘responsible for ob-
taining all permis-
sions and clearing
any associated fees.’
[3]