All points duly noted and well presented.

“Moral” does not equal “legal”. Read those contracts closely, boys and girls.

If it were up to me, I would certainly bestow all rights to Watchmen on Alan and Dave.

But it’s not up to me; in the real world, DC has a valid claim to those rights.

Is it morally correct? Again, not to me. But it seems to be legally valid. If it isn’t, I’d hope an attorney would advise Moore and Gibbons accordingly so they could proceed with their claim.

Were they cheated? Was there really a strong expectation that the book would go out of print and they would then be entitled to ownership? If that was the case, it might have made sense to eliminate that clause, though I have the benefit of hindsight, I know.

I don’t think there’s any question, by the way, that Watchmen’s “heroes” were based on the Charlton characters that DC owned. The reason their names were changed is probably well known to most of those discerning fans you cite.

Wish it were otherwise but that’s where it’s at. If not, maybe they can find a lawyer who can make a case for them.

Richard Pachter:

While Rorschach may have been “inspired” (”derived” is your term) by the Question, I think any discerning comics fan would see Rorschach is his own character. A character created by Gibbons and Moore.

I would extend that argument to the rest of the Watchmen.

Circumstances changed. Moore tried to renegotiate with DC, DC refused, Moore left.

Later DC Comics decided that they would renegotiate with Gaiman over Sandman to prevent a similar situation, but declined to revisit previous decisions.

It’s a similar situation to the Writers Strike in the USA of late. Contracts signed in previous times become dated when they don’t take into account a changing marketplace - in that case, DVDs and the internet. In Watchmen’s case, trade paperbacks that stay in print.

Maybe someone else can explain how this is “back door” as I don’t see any subterfuge here.

I’m certainly no fan of corporatism or work-for-hire, but jeez, the “DC ripped off Watchmen from Alan Moore” trope seems patently specious.

“DC would go through a back door play on his contract and keep the book in print so long they’d get all the money.”

As it turns out, they’re only changing the entire conclusion.

The times they are a changin’.