A Letter from DC Comics (The Batman & Superman:TAS Affair) The following is a letter Gedeon received on wednesday, March 12th, 1997 in regards to the creation and distribution of the Batman:TAS & Superman:TAS icons. Although the issues talked about in both this and the Farworks letter are considered by all of us "ancient history", we provide them here for you to read and ponder. This exchange gives an understanding of both sides of a valid argument. It should be noted that since this initial contact between Gedeon and Mr. Kogan, a healthy dialog has opened up between the Iconfactory and DC Comics. This dialog does not resolve the issue, but it does mean that there are possibilities to resolve it in the future. Until the legal issues are settled with DC Comics, we feel obligated to honor their request to not distribute the Batman or Superman icons. We're sorry to say that if you write to request these sets, we won't be able to send them to you. Dear Gedeon Maheux, As you may know, DC Comics is the owner of all rights, including copyright and trademark rights in the BATMAN and SUPERMAN characters and related characters and properties. We license rights to others to use our characters and properties in respect of a wide variety of goods and services, including online and in multimedia. While DC Comics appreciates your admiration for our characters and properties and your desire to share our properties with others for use as icons, I must advise you that your reproduction, uploading to your web site, distribution and transmission of icons based on BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES constitutes a violation of our rights, including without limitation our copyright and trademark rights. This is so even if you do not intend to commit copyright infringement and even if you do not charge any fees - which, by the way, we do appreciate. Accordingly, without waiving any of our rights, we request that you: (1) immediately remove from your web sites all icons based on our characters and properties; (2) stop developing and uploading any other icons based on our properties; (3) stop offering the icons for third party use; and (4) confirm by e-mail that you have complied with the foregoing requests. In view of mthe seriousness of this matter, we expect to receive confirmation in the immediate future. Please understand that although we regret that you may be disappointed by our demand, as the owners of the BATMAN and SUPERMAN franchises, we must exercise full control over the exploitation of our properties. This is necessary to protect the goodwill in our characters and properties and at the same time, maximize their value to us. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, Jay Kogan Director of Legal Affairs DC Comics Gedeon's Reply: Dear Jay Kogan, I received your letter regarding my creation of the Batman & Superman icons and I wanted to let you know that I will be removing them from my web site by the end of the week. I would also like to say however, that I think your decision is quite shortsighted. While I understand the need of DC to protect their creations, I think you (and other companies) have underestimated the the positive effect that distributing free, quality third-party software brings to fans. Over the past year I have received hundreds of letters from fans of the Batman:TAS expressing how thankful they were that I had designed and created these icons and distributed them free of charge. Parties who hold copyrights on popular characters should examine each situation individually instead of taking a blanket approach. The Superman icons have only been released for less than a month and now I am being forced to remove them. I would like you to think carefully about your decision asking me to remove them from my web site and would instead ask you if these icons could be used instead in an official manner by DC or WB. At the very least this would keep my creations from becoming locked away forever. I would be interested in reaching an agreement with either of them that will keep the icons in the public domain. I would like to also ask, that if DC Comics or the Warner Bros. network decides they would like to use the icons, they do not post or distribute either of these icon sets without my permission. You should also be aware that in order to be fair to the people who have previously downloaded my sets, and to those who were intending to download the sets, I will be posting your letter to my web page for an explanation. I've been a fan of Batman:TAS since it began, and I enjoy the new Superman:TAS very much. I am sorry to learn of your decision in regards to my icons and I hope you and other parties involved will reconsider. Yours, Gedeon Maheux Digital Media Designer		Fill out our Feedback Form! Back to the Mailroom! Letter from FarWorks, Inc. The Iconfactory gets lots of mail everyday, and the workers thought it would be nice to see what's being said about them. Both good and bad comments are welcome, and if the foreman likes your letter enough, he'll post it here! People write in all the time with requests and we're happy to get them. Subjects that are often requested are comic or funny book characters. We tend to shy away from these topics now, partly because of the two letters we've received on the subject. You can read them below and judge our decision for yourself.