What information do we collect?
We collect information from you when you register on our site or place an order.
When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address or mailing address.
What do we use your information for?
Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:
To personalize your experience
(your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)
To improve our website
(we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you)
To improve customer service
(your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs)
To process transactions
Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested.
To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature
To send periodic emails
The email address you provide for order processing, will only be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order.
How do we protect your information?
We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information.
We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to?keep the information confidential.
After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be kept on file for more than 60 days.
Do we use cookies?
Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information
We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart, understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.
If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders by contacting customer service.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics on our sites for anonymous reporting of site usage and for advertising on the site. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behaviour on our sites please use this link (
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/)
Do we disclose any information to outside parties?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Registration
The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions.
We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you.
To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section.
After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’.
Logging in using social networking credentials
If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information.
If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information.
If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.
Updating your personal information
We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.
Online Privacy Policy Only
This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.
Your Consent
By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
I still think a settlement would be the best course for the family to pursue. I just don’t trust the lawyer they have. Kirby indeed didn’t get his due, but I can’t help look at the situation and not see the industry devastated if the Kirby family wins. Yes, Marvel might be allowed to still make comics by paying royalties — but comics are less profitable than ever, with 2.99 and 3.99 price tags only keeping things going. If the Kirby family did win, I can’t see Marvel continuing to make comics like they did, if at all. That’s going to mean a lot of writers and artists out of work. That’s only assuming the family wins unconditionally. It could be even worse trying to figure out what actually would belong to the family, versus the 40 to 50 years of stories made since then. That much legal tape would also lead to a change in Marvel comics, and weather they are made at all.
I sort of look at this situation, how massively complex it will be if they win, versus how much time has passed – and can’t see why a settlement wouldn’t let everyone walk away happy. I know settlements aren’t the emotional climax many would want, to see Kirby’s rights finally enforced – but I can’t imagine the prolonged litigation Marvel will throw the family’s way will be worth it in the end, either financially or emotionally.
I could be very wrong in my opinion, though. I can only look at the situation from afar and see all the legal wrangling. But I just don’t see why a settlement wouldn’t be the best course of action. All I see is the lawyer at the middle of both this case and the Superboy case getting rich off of this. And Kirby’s case seems like a better case – and I know we all hate corporations, and I know they are indeed often unwilling to settle cases – but the entire foundation of the industry is at stake. I don’t see how a settlement wouldn’t have been offered in these circumstances — except for that all-poisoning element of the lawyer, who suddenly has two prolonged and high-profile comic-rights cases to live off of.
I really don’t mean any offense. I really do sympathize with how Kirby was treated. I keep looking at my opinion of this case, and how it’s contrary to my love of the man’s art. Both cases have really good points — even the Superboy case, where I was positive Superboy couldn’t be interpreted any other way than as being derivative of Superman, that issue turned out not to be as black and white as I thought. It was over-reaching to include the likes of Spider-Man in the Kirby case, but looking at things I can’t dismiss the fact that Kirby did get shafted at every single point during his carrier. YET – untangling the mess of 40 to 50 year’s worth of rights is a daunting task, even if you’re in the right. Add to that Marvel will unsurprisingly fight this case every step of the way… Settling would just solve everything.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe building this case is all leading to just that; a settlement. But I still see that suspicious lawyer at the center of it.
(expletive) the industry, I’m kind of devastated that the Kirby family gets no redress at all. As I understand it, they see NO money from the lavish reprints of the comics themselves that surface almost weekly (although DC Warner *may* have a better track record on this than Marvel Disney, i don’t know). As I understand it, the family sees NO money from the multi-million dollar movies based around those same concepts, which surely originated with Jack. Am I wrong? (I take as my understanding comments made during a Tribute Panel a few years back, and as reported in the JKCollector magazine). Even a cent in every dollar would make the world of difference and recognise his contribution – but if Marvel and its assigns and associates admitted to even one cent, I guess they would have to admit the whole, their entire indebtedness to Kirby’s pencil.
This summary judgement was based on the letter of the law, in protection of corporate wealth, when basic moral decency tells us Marvel owes Kirby (and his heirs) – we all know the evidence and see the truth of that around us every day. I remember reading how Jack couldn’t bear to go into a toy store and see his characters everywhere, knowing that he had no share in the enormous profits they generated. How would he feel today, walking down almost any street, past any movie-house? So I thrash around the internet looking for some kind of direction on the ramifications of this, pondering how I can respond as a consumer. This is like the Red Skull wins the day for all eternity. This is like Loki wins. The Abomination… – It goes against every grain of the comics I grew up on (at least the Lee and Kirby stories. Kirby solo saw the bigger picture, reality’s hardbitten, hardbiting true face). So now what I do with them, with my hobby, my job in comics? How should I feel? Evil and corruption wins and has the law on its side. Heroism and innovation counts for nothing. Creators rights are null and void in the comics industry, and it appears always will be until the current model – entirely corrupt – finally withers and dies. That, surely, is what devastates the industry. Even should it stagger on, it is dead inside.
You are exactly right Rand, Marvel’s case is very weak, so weak that Stan Lee has become the nexus of their case. It can’t be a comfortable feeling for Lee, and if the case goes to trial it’s not going to get any more comfortable.
I don’t think the industry will be devastated if either the Kirby or the Siegel/Shuster families get their due, whether through a settlement or a court decision, but what do I know?
Additionally, Erik, I’m encouraged that the Kirby family has one of the leading copyright and entertainment lawyers working on their behalf.
– Rand
it seems very transparent, the gross liberties that have been taken by Marvel of Jacks’ creations. New films are so far removed from the original concepts.. they are nearly moribund of his style. Jack, you were my fathers’ hero before being my own- he has passed on as well but truth be told we only knew KIRBY and never cared whom published what. I have not bought a single DC or Marvel comic book in nearly 20 years, they are too slick and too predictable. Not to mention uninspiring.
Best & kind regards to the Kirby family, Jack continues to inspire!