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Customers and critics and competitors can't avoid those tripwires, and which confer upon the lawyer's client the right to sue for anything that displeases them.

When Willingham says he's releasing *Fables* into the public domain, it's not clear what he's releasing - and what is his to release. In the colloquial, business sense of "IP," saying you're "releasing the IP" means something like, "Feel free to create adaptations from this."

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Cory Doctorow 2y ago

But these adaptations probably can't draw too closely on the artwork, or the logos. You can probably make novelizations of the comics. Maybe you can make new comics that use the same scripts but different art. You can probably make sequels to, or spinoffs of, the existing comics, provided you come up with your own character designs.

But it's murky. Very murky.

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Cory Doctorow 2y ago

Remember, this all started because Willingham didn't have the resources or patience to tangle with the rabid attack-lawyers Warners keeps kenneled on its Burbank lot. Warners can (and may) release those same lawyers on *you*, even if you are likely to prevail in court, betting that you - like Willingham - won't have the resources to defend yourself.

The strange reality of "IP" rights is that they can be secured without any affirmative step on your part.

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