Rather than fight Warner, Willingham has embarked on what nostr:npub1eyszugs46q4ngd8tgeysnkwve20n9wewj42lac9cp7s2jrk52u2qce6x02 calls an act of "absolute table-flip badassery" - he has announced that *Fables* will hereafter be in the public domain, available for anyone to adapt commercially, in works that compete with whatever DC might be offering.
Now, this is *huge*, and it's also *shrewd*.
24/
It's the kind of thing that will bring lots of attention on Warner's fraudulent dealings with its creative workforce, at a moment where the company is losing a public relations battle to the workers picketing in front of its gates. It constitutes a poison pill that is eminently satisfying to contemplate. It's delicious.
But it's also *muddy*. Willingham has since clarified that his public domain dedication means that the public can reproduce the existing comics.
25/
That's not surprising; while Willingham doesn't say so, it's vanishingly unlikely that he owns the copyrights to the artwork created by other artists (Willingham is a talented illustrator, but collaborated with a who's-who of comics greats for *Fables*). He may or may not have control over trademarks, from the Fables wordmark to any trademark interests in the character designs. He certainly doesn't have control over the trademarked logos for Warner and DC that adorn the books.
26/
