Editing Superman (section)

===Captain Marvel===
{{See also|National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications}}
Superman's success immediately begat a wave of imitations. The most successful from this period was [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]], first published by [[Fawcett Comics]] in December 1939. Captain Marvel had many similarities to Superman: Herculean strength, invulnerability, the ability to fly, a cape, a secret identity, and a job as a journalist. DC Comics filed a lawsuit against Fawcett Comics for copyright infringement.<ref>[https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/191/191.F2d.594.197.21832.html 191 F.2d 594 NATIONAL COMICS PUBLICATIONS, Inc. v. FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS, Inc. et al.]</ref>

The trial began in March 1948 after seven years of [[Discovery (law)|discovery]]. The judge ruled that Fawcett had indeed infringed on Superman. However, the judge also found that the copyright notices that appeared with the Superman newspaper strips did not meet the technical standards of the [[Copyright Act of 1909]] and were therefore invalid. Furthermore, since the newspaper strips carried stories adapted from ''Action Comics'', the judge ruled that DC Comics had effectively abandoned the copyright to the ''Action Comics'' stories and Superman, and therefore forfeited its right to sue Fawcett for copyright infringement.<ref name="Sergi2015"/>

DC Comics appealed this decision. The appeals court ruled that unintentional mistakes in the copyright notices of the newspaper strips did not invalidate the copyrights. Furthermore, Fawcett knew that DC Comics never intended to abandon the copyrights, and therefore Fawcett's infringement was not an innocent misunderstanding, and therefore Fawcett owed damages to DC Comics.{{efn|See [https://www.copyright.gov/history/1909act.pdf Copyright Act of 1909] § 20}} The appeals court remanded the case back to the lower court to determine how much Fawcett owed in damages.<ref name="Sergi2015"/>

At that point, Fawcett Comics decided to settle out of court with DC Comics. Fawcett paid DC Comics {{US$|400000|1953|round=-3|long=no}} and agreed to stop publishing Captain Marvel. The last Captain Marvel story from Fawcett Comics was published in September 1953.<ref>''The Marvel Family'' #89. Copyright date registered as September 25, 1953. <br />See [https://archive.org/stream/catalogofcopyrig372libr#page/268/mode/2up/search/marvel+family ''Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Volume 7, Part 2, Number 1: Periodicals, Jan–Jun 1953'']. United States Library of Congress. 1954. p. 268.</ref>

DC Comics licensed Captain Marvel in 1972 and published crossover stories with Superman. By 1991, DC Comics had purchased Fawcett Comics and with it the full rights to Captain Marvel. DC eventually renamed the character "Shazam" to prevent disputes with [[Marvel Comics]], who had created [[Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics)|a character of their own named "Captain Marvel"]] back when the Fawcett character had been out of print.<ref name="AlterEgo9Article">{{cite journal |last1 = Thomas |first1 = Roy |author-link1=Roy Thomas|first2= Jerry|last2= Ordway|author-link2=Jerry Ordway|title = Not Your Father's Captain Marvel! An Artist-by-Artist Account of a Doomed Quest for a 1980s Shazam! Series |journal =Alter Ego |volume = 3 |issue = 9 |pages = 9–17 |publisher = Two Morrows Publishing|location = Raleigh, North Carolina |date = July 2001}}</ref>