Comment by glimshe
6 days ago
Please correct me if I'm wrong... Tintin is in the public domain, so I can create a Tintin story where the character looks exactly like Tintin and I can call it Tintin.
But most of Herge's Tintin stories remain out of the public domain and still protected by copyright. Correct?
In Europe Copyright is the death of the author + 70 years, so until 2053. There is an exception to allow for copyright to lapse earlier if the copyright would run out in the original creator's country of origin first, to handle situations where American copyright for American authors will expire before European.
But Tintin will run out in 2053 in Europe because Herge is European.
In U.S however Tintin is public domain. You can use Tintin for things in U.S just don't try to go to Europe with it.
on edit: this applies of course to Tintin in the land of the Soviets.
I would imagine so. Hergé died in 1983, and the last finished story (Tintin and the Picaros) was published in 1973. I can't imagine its out of copyright.
The first story (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, a real stinker, this is before Tintin became Tintin) was published in 1930, in Le Petit Vingtième which was the children's edition of the newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. The newspaper presumably had copyright to the character, but it was shut down in 1940 by the Nazis. After that, Tintin was published in Le Soir (still exists), but I have no idea how the rights transferred. From 1950 onwards, it was published by Hergé's own company.