DC Comics Loses Copyright to Superboy

According to a recent article in Comic Book Resources, Judge Harold S.W. Lew of the Ninth Circuit District Court ruled that the heirs to the creator of Superboy (Jerry Siegel's wife and daughter) recaptured the Superboy copyright as of November 17, 2004.

"The ruling was based upon changes made in 1976 to the Copyright Act, where the length of copyright renewal was extended from 28 years to 47 years, and allowed that any copyright transfers could be terminated so that the original copyright owner (or his/her heirs) could gain the benefit of those extra 19 years of protection (with the presumption being that it would be unfair to the original copyright owners, as any deals they made before the change were based upon the 28 year duration, not 47)."