switching accounts to avoid lawsuits

[Fishmancomics]

Hey guys,

I have a HUGE problem. Apparently, despite my research into this before starting my webcomic, it seems someone else has owned the copyright to a character named "Fishman" since 1995.

Our characters are nothing alike...Their names are even pronounced differently.

His is a scientist who, thanks to an experiment gone wrong, has the ability to transform at will into a part-human, part-fish superhero named Fishman (pronounced "fish-man", like "Batman").

Mine is an obnoxious 3-foot tall fish named Fishman (pronounced "fish-muhn", like the last name) who doesn't know how to swim and is just some guy's pet.

We both made our characters up independently in the same year (1995), which complicates matters further.

Long story short, this guy is prepared to sue me if I don't change things.

I haven't gotten a response from him yet concerning my proposed agreement, but if he accepts it, it will mean that I will have to change the name of my comic, and the URLs associated with it.

So, my question is this...

Is "taking everything from one account and switching it to a new account" allowed here (if not, could special consideration be taken concerning my situation), how hard would it be to switch everything over, and how long would it take to do all of that?

I guess that's technically four questions...but I'm not exactly thinking straight here...I've spent over half of my life working with this character and now he's possibly gone forever.

Anyway...thanks in advance, guys.

EDIT: Alternate question! I'm reading up on United States copyright laws, and they state:

"This protection does not extend to the title or general theme for a cartoon or comic strip, or to the general idea or name for the characters depicted."

Am I right in thinking that basically says that I can't be sued because of my character?

...my character is an original work, and has absolutely nothing in common with the character of the other guy, other than the fact that they are both fish...and even that isn't true all of the time, since his is a human sometimes.

[Black Sparrow]

This whole thing seems pretty ridiculous. Honestly, "fishman" isn't that creative of a name, so of COURSE other people are going to think of it.

I'm not well versed in copyright law... so I can't answer your alternate question.

But if you do decide to play it safe and just switch accounts, that's perfectly fine. HOWEVER, you'll have to get a new account, if you don't have a second one already. This means you'll have to go through the whole signup process again (application and all), which should take about a month. If you do have a second account, on which you're hosting a different comic... this one can be moved over, no problem.

[Fishmancomics]

After thinking this over more thoroughly, I have decided to fight for what is mine.

I came up with my character 5 years before my family got the internet (and one year before I knew what the internet even was), so there is no way I could have known about his...and our characters are completely different, so he has no grounds whatsoever on which to sue me.

And about the name "Fishman" not being very original...You're right

Sorry to take up forum space with my sillyness.

[Black Sparrow]

And about the name "Fishman" not being very original...You're right

What I said was more of a critique of him than of you. This guy was possessive enough to take out a copyright on it, when the name seems pretty simple. I suspect he's been waiting for something like this to happen.

[Fishmancomics]

Heh...I thought it was a jab at me as well.

I will be the first to admit that the characters I made up back in the day were not very imaginative in the names department...90% of them ended in "man"...Fishman, Candleman, Voltman, even Human Man

Anyway, there's a ton of stuff, from The Legend of Zelda to a Mexican wrestler from the 80's, that have used the name Fishman. I have nothing to worry about.

But, officially registering the copyrights for my comic is going to be the first thing I do Monday when I get paid...just to be safe from future problems.

Thanks for calming my fears, and helping me laugh at myself a little (even if it was unintentional).

[Kisai]

IF he doesn't have a trademark registered on it, you're in the clear. Copyright covers content. IE, there would be a problem if you physically were doing nearly the same thing as the otherguy that it would be considered copying.

I am Not a Lawyer, and this is not Legal advice.

[Fishmancomics]

Alright...I've decided this topic isn't over until all my questions are resolved.

But first...explanations are in order before I ask my new questions.

After talking it over with several people, and getting the same "you've got nothing to worry about" responses from 99% of them (one person was too concerned with her own problems to really care), I have decided to switch accounts and rename my comic.

Why? Because, as was stated earlier in this thread, "Fishman" isn't a very original name. Type in "fishman" on Wikipedia and you'll see what I mean.

Plus, I've only had my comic for a little over a year...it's still early enough in the game for it not to hurt.

If I want my webcomic to stand out, it needs a more original name. I'm prepared to fight this guy (or anyone else who messes with my babies!) till the end of time over my rights to continue calling the main character Fishman...but, as far as I can tell, changing the title of the comic can only result in good things.

This means I need a new account! So, finally, here are my questions:

1. When creating an account, you have to send in a sample comic. Is the fact that my comic is already on here going to mess up that process by making whoever is in charge of reviewing the comics think, "Hmmm this comic is already on Comic Genesis! ACCOUNT DENIED!"

2. Although my current account will become empty after the switch, would I be able to keep it active for a while with a page letting people know about the move?

3. If so, how long? I'm guessing I wouldn't need it up for very long (maybe a month or so) since I plan to do extensive advertising about the change.

4. Not exactly a CG-specific question, but how do I change SmartFTP to reflect the changed accounts? I'm sure it's pretty simple, but I want to make sure I don't mess anything up.

5. Didn't I have another question?

Thanks again, guys!

[Dr Neo Lao]

1: You don't have to send in a sample of the comic that you are going to do. You can just grab a sketch or make a new one. The main point of the 'submit a sample' is to weed out the bots. Nobody will delete your account if your sample varies from your final content.

2: Easy, don't leave it empty. Leave a few comics (three or more) and you account will remain active, as long as CG is around. If you have the time, you could even do a min-arc about the move and why, with a pointer to the new location on the index. If you remove all your files from the public_html/d or the public_html/comics folders then your account would be auto-deleted after 3 months.

3: As above: you can either leave it in perpetuity (it won't take a lot of space on the CG servers, especially if you just do a single, simple panel for each of the three days) or after you feel you don't need it anymore then delete the contents of the d and comics folders and it'll auto-delete.

4: Simply follow the SmartFTP tutorials on getting started, except that instead of filling in the blanks, you'd be changing it to the new information.

5: Yes, but you haven't asked it yet. You'll remember what it is after you reply to this message saying "no I didn't"...

[Fishmancomics]

1. My comic is going to be exactly the same...I'm just renaming it, and changing accounts so that my URL will match the name change. I would just keep the account I have, but "changing everything that uses the old name" seems like the best idea in this situation.

...so I'm going to just go ahead and assume I can submit one of my already existing comics from my current account.

2. Despite shying away from breaking the fourth wall so far, I am considering a transitional comic explaining the change. I'll just leave the rest of the comics up, too, until the move is complete and everything is okay again.

3. I thought it would be automatically gone once I deleted everything. Three months will be plenty of time.

4. Sounds easy enough.

5. Hmmm...always a step ahead, I see.

Thanks again for all the help!

[Dr Neo Lao]

3. I thought it would be automatically gone once I deleted everything.

Technically, yes - it is automatic. Just not instantaneous.

[Paul Escobar]

EDIT: Alternate question! I'm reading up on United States copyright laws, and they state:

"This protection does not extend to the title or general theme for a cartoon or comic strip, or to the general idea or name for the characters depicted."

Am I right in thinking that basically says that I can't be sued because of my character?

I'm a few days late, but you didn't really get a clear answer to this question. So: The answer is unequivocally yes - you can't be sued because of your character.

Copyright covers creative efforts fixed in tangible form - a book, a poem, a song, a comic, a painting, etc. It does not cover names - neither those of real people or companies nor of fictional entities like comic characters. A name cannot be copyrighted. Like Kisai said, it can be trademarked - but registering a trademark is a complex and expensive procedure, and it's a safe bet that "Fishman" is too generic a name to be able to get trademark protection.

So the other guy has the copyright to his comic, but not to the character's name. For you to violate his copyright, you'd have to have copied his entire set-up - and it seems your comic is quite different from his. So he has no case.

(Incidentally, what many people seem to forget is that copyright is about protecting the copyright holder's economic interests. If you want to sue someone over a copyright violation, you have to show that said violation has caused you to suffer an economic loss (e.g. by causing diminishing sales or somesuch). A copyright violation in itself is a technicality the courts don't give a toss about.)