Holy Blurring of Core Copyright Principles, Batmobile!

Citation

Barker K (2015) Holy Blurring of Core Copyright Principles, Batmobile!. In: Giddens T (ed.) Graphic Justice: Intersections of Law and Comics. London: Routledge, pp. 19-35. https://www.routledge.com/Graphic-Justice-Intersections-of-Comics-and-Law/Giddens/p/book/9781138787995

Abstract
This work discusses these issues in light of a recent decision protecting the Batmobile as a character in its own right, before evaluating the extent to which ‘character’ receives copyright protection. Indeed, this chapter argues that granting copyright protection to the Batmobile as a character is absurd—an absurdity that can be seen in the fact that using ‘Batmobile’ as one would any other character’s name does not sit happily in a sentence: see the title of this chapter for an example.

Keywords
Law; comics; culture; copyright