But then are was Superman Returns and Smallville able to get made?
Here is a run down;
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman and sold the rights to National Comics/Detective Comics, Inc (now known as DC Comics). This was not a problem for a very long time until copyright law was changed to heavily favor creators rather than holders of a copyright (this affects works prior to 1978). Essentially, if you transfer copyright ownership to an other individual or entity, you can wait 56 years after the transfer and then call for revenue from the last 36 years of profit from the license. This of course excludes "work-for-hire" material that is acknowledged as being created for an entity and not for yourself.
Superman falls into that pre-1978 category. Even though Siegel and Shuster were paid when they sold the character, and again paid (I believe $30,000 per year starting in the mid to late 1960s) on an annual basis for their work on Superman, the Siegel family has once again stepped in and decided that they want to claim lost revenue on the copyright (and part of the law of terminating a copyright transfer, allows heirs of an estate to lay claim as well).
DC does own the majority of the trademarks and copyrights associated with Superman. For instance, the S Shield, Metropolis, the Daily Planet. These are all trademarks that DC owns (as those ideas and names came long after Siegel and Shuster, who had a different S design, an unnamed metropolitan city and an unnamed, major metropolitan newspaper). DC even owns all of the noteworthy Superman rogues, including Lex Luthor. What they do not own is Superman's origin story. A court order has determined that the Siegel family are the co-owners. So for DC to use the origin, means they have to share profits with the Siegel family.
Superboy is the most recent victim of this litigation. Siegel went off to serve in World War II. Prior to this, he had proposed a Superboy backstory, which DC declined at the time. Upon returning from service, Siegel discovered that DC went ahead and used the Superboy back-story anyways. Now there are those who argue that Superboy is already Superman and thus, should not count as a separate idea that can be copyrighted. The current courts disagree however. So using the name Superboy has pretty much been monkey wrenched (which is why the recent animated series was called Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes, even though it should have been Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes).
Currently, DC is required to create a Superman movie by 2011, or else they will have to pay the Siegel family damages and lose the entire Superman copyright to the Siegel family. As for Smallville and Superman Returns, they are mostly unaffected because they were created prior to any of this legal mess, much like the on-going books that involve Superman. We will see how things pan out over the next two years or so.
He'd be perfect.
