Last week a federal judge made asignificant ruling in favor of the Siegel estate, allowing the family to share the copyright of Superman with Time Warner.  This rights a very huge wrong that happened 70 years ago when Jerome Siegel sold his rights for…$130!
Now, Superman as a media entity is entering murky territory. What will happen to future movies? Is George Miller’s forthcoming Justice League of America movie screwed? What does it all mean? There are no definitive answers yet, but Empire Online is weighing in on the matter with a thought-provoking article.

In the past, when a similar judgment was awarded regarding Superboy, DC simply stopped using him (a case questioning whether Superboy was a basis for Smallville remains in motion) – but they can hardly do the same with the Big Blue Boy Scout himself. Or can they? Superman Returns cost a bomb and didn’t give the kind of mega-profits the studio hoped for, and Justice League of America is already looking like a bad idea, although at least that should be cheaper.

This is going to get a lot uglier as time goes by and is yet one more historical example of the comics industry shafting creators.