European copyright strong to the finish? Entertainment industry copyright news update

A feature about Popeye's European copyright expiration appeared on Time Magazine online yesterday. (I'm not so brash as to say that I scooped Time, but...)

I was hoping that the story appeared because the new year saw a lawsuit testing the extent of King Features' assertion that Popeye, while no longer protected by European copyright laws, still is under trademark protection. However, not enough time has elapsed for anything to play out in the courts; the story was more of an encapsulation of the whole issue of European copyright expiration and the various factions pushing and pulling the EU to address the issue.

The author seemed to be looking forward to European publishers taking a crack at using Popeye without permission, though I note that Chicago-based Time made sure to get permission to use an image of everyone's favorite sailor for the story caption.

In other comic-copyright (not to be confused with copyright-comic) news, the highly anticipated, at least by this patent librarian, film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' classic graphic novel The Watchmen, the release of which was threatened by a copyright dispute, will be released this spring, following a settlement between Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox.

Warner Brothers spent well over $100 million producing the movie -- Fox claimed that it had owned the movie rights since 1986. A judge agreed, so the two entertainment giants hashed out a deal outside of the courts.

I know I'm supposed to remain objective, but Watchmen is a seriously awesome book.