I search for story of superhero spanking

When it comes to trademark, copyright, and IP rights, it's often a case of "how much justice can you afford".

Many years ago, a company (Palladium Games) came out with a role playing game called "Night Spawn". They were hit with a trademark dispute by Shawn McFarlane who had a line of "Spawn" merchandise for his comic book character "Spawn". The people at Palladium sat down with a lawyer who informed them that McFarlane did not have a leg to stand on and would lose if it came to court.

Fighting it would cost X dollars and they wouldn't be able to publish more Night Spawn books while they were fighting - call it a couple of years. There were books in the pipeline at this point.

Changing the name of the game would cost Y dollars and they could continue with their publishing schedule and they could publish whatever they wanted because the dispute would be over.

Thus the game was renamed "Night Bane" and people went on with their lives.

Here's a link to another game designer talking about his copyright issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCaGIFr_Ss4&t=101s

There is a very good legal case that says Mickey Mouse is in the public domain. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse#Copyright_status for more, but basically there were mistakes back in the Steam Boat Willie days that means there was never a valid copyright - but it would take tens of millions to fight that lawsuit, so unless one of the tech company billionaires want to fight it, it will never be fought. In any case, 2024 is when the mouse enters public domain.

Which is a long way of saying that if the Library receives a "we own that property" type notice, the Library won't have the resources to fight. Maybe the notice would be valid, maybe it won't be, but it would cost $$$$ (or ££££ or €€€€) to defend itself.

It is a bit ironic when thinking of the entire reason for the US movie industry once upon a time being relocated to Californa was because that way they could escape copyright fees for the equipment...

I fully understand though the reason regarding the lack of resources to stand up for your right. Disney is famous for enforcing completely contradicting views on copyright, whichever suits their goal and they have unlimited resources to pound you. I'm a bit surprised though that they manage to get it through court time and time again, even when they promote a standpoint going directly against previous verdicts. Finally, I fully expect Congress to extend the Mickey Mouse law to a hundred years shortly. Anything else would surprise me.

There are many films from that era that are still under copyright, because people paid attention to the laws. Disney didn't bother to do that, at least not at first.

We all know the steps the Mouse takes to protect its property, but here are a few examples of them taking the other view.
Bambi: they never paid for the rights before adapting the book. The author's daughter eventually received a small sum after he died, but if the author had money in the late 30s he could have tried to flee Austria when the Nazis came.
Peter Pan: The copyright was donated to a children's hospital. There's a UK law that says that the copyright on Peter Pan will never run out because the money goes to a children's hospital. In the US there is a theory that the Peter Pan copyright was extended at the same time that Mickey Mouse's was. Disney disagrees and is no longer paying that hospital for their Peter Pan things. This link explains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Wendy#Copyright_status

Disney will crackdown on people legally using things that they claim ownership over, because people cannot afford to fight for their legal rights.

But those "extent the copyright" laws sometimes produce odd legal results. For example, the person who wrote the screenplay for "Nightmare on Elm St" recently reclaimed the copyright for that movie. Any new movie or Freddy merch, well, talk to the new owner. Some of the heirs of Marvel comic artists are suing to get back some Marvel characters (or money to compensate them for those rights).

As for the next ten years - who knows? But it more likely to happen in the USA rather than in the EU. Which will make for interesting times. If things enter the public domain in one country, but not in others, well look at what's happening with Peter Pan.

But the Mouse has learnt that attacking its fans will lead to negative PR. They rarely go after fan art and fan fic, even erotic ones. At least as long as no one is getting rich off them. Filing off the serial numbers (renaming the characters with slightly powers) is more than most fan sites bother to do.

To expand on the Owlman example, he works with the youth of the city. He could be a vigilante busting heads (as Batman does) but instead he focuses on diverting young people from a life of crime. He still battles the super villains because someone has to, but while Batman focuses on stopping muggers Owlman focuses on stopping people from becoming muggers. And Owlet is actually related to Owlman rather than being some random kid Batman brought home. And a few other things, all scrapping away at the "this is a Batman ripoff" and turning it into a "loosely inspired by Batman".

And damn it! I've half written a story when I have more than a score on the go. Yes, I might finish an Owlman story, but the concept is available for anyone else who wants to play with it.

I'm quite looking forward to your release. I can see it before me, where Buttman arrives in his Buttmobile, on his important mission to redden the criminal's butt... It's not exactly the same names, but I trust you to make something memorable of it

Yep, this is about what I was figuring all along, that while the Library would likely have a winning case if sued for copyright infringement over spanking-oriented 'fan fiction,' it doesn't have the financial wherewithal to defend itself in such a situation.

Which is something that 'Big Business' routinely counts on while legally bullying smaller enterprises, unfortunately... --C.K.

It's not quite going that way. So far I've introduced most of the characters and the plot revolves around a fundraiser that's being seeded with 5 million in cash. Only the bills are sequential and none of the organised types will touch it - because they'd have to fence the cash. That leaves amateurs and supervillains. Some are going to steal the cash, some are going to challenge the other villains, and the heroes are going to stop the villains.

I'm not sure when / if it will be finished, but it is started.