I was always interested in entertainment through TV and cinema, especially sitcoms and comedy movies. Since I don't originally come from North America, it was always fascinating to see how certain characters like Batman and Superman, especially cartoon characters, penetrate through all the social barriers of a foreign country and become popular outside English-speaking regions. Frank's book explores more of the issues I've pondered upon, and has introduced me to many more interesting ideas.
Franks starts off with some general ideas, such as that it is really hard to define what exactly a character is. The relationship between the audience and the character and the stories told by the character are also introduced. The book goes into the details of creating characters, especially legally. It turns out that the law is limited when it comes to exactly defining what a character is, and catering to the needs of the audience. Chapter 2 explores everything that has to do with legal issues to do with characters in Canada and USA. Chapter 3 talks about the conflict between the creators of intellectual property (ownership of characters by authors) and the users of the property (in this case appropriation of character by audiences). In Chapter 4 proposes a unique solution to the problem.
What I liked about this book is that most of the ideas are very original and well-developed. Furthermore, there are many references to other books on the subject, so I knew that the research was done properly, and leaves space for more exploration. I would recommend this book to any student doing research on the media, as well as anyone like me, who is interested in the subject matter on characters and/or legal issues in relation to them. -Ivan

I might not embrace them wholeheartedly, but it is a start, and through an author/audience collaboration, a new balance may be struck that will bring the Cultural Bargain into equilibrium. In his fourth chapter, Kermit offers his solution to the current imbalance, which consists of extending ownership copyrights and fair use rights to their maximum possible degree. Though I disagree with the solution offered, I will say that I predict that this is eventually what will happen if current trends continue. The authors will push for more and more control, and, barring some 1984-ish reality, audiences will find a way to appropriate art, stories and characters, forcing legislation to ease up on what is considered fair use. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to make a living creating culture and characters, or to anyone considering a career in media and entertainment in general. The appendices provide invaluable info regarding different classifications of character and a checklist of defining character traits. For those that would like to acquaint themselves with copyright law past and present, this book might be for you too. It is well researched and documented, well written and articulate, and surprisingly, the information is very accessible. – George M. in Canada

When I set out to read Character Culture: The Cultural Bargain Between Ownership and Appropriation for the purposes of writing this review, I imagined it’d be a dry, boring, perhaps tedious lingo-jargon-laden read. How exciting could copyright law be? I was pleased to discover, however, that I was wrong about my initial assumption; Character Culture turned out to be an illuminating and fascinating read. In the first of the book’s four chapters, the author attempts to define what a character is. A daunting task, as a character is a nebulous concept. Not only that, but a character can mean different things to different people depending on their relationship with said character. An author, a performer, a lawyer, and an audience member will all have a different relationship with a specific character, and subsequently the concept of “character” in general. This opening chapter explores the aforementioned relationships and the defining characteristics that ensue from each of them, and also opens up the argument of cultural bargain (the relationship between those that create cultural works and those that embrace them and integrate them into the culture), which is the main crux of the book, specifically as to how it applies to characters. The next chapter is a condensed “Everything you ever wanted to know about copyright law but were afraid to ask.” Though it’s focused on how the law relates to copyrighting characters, the information within applies to all forms of art-related copyrights. This chapter also includes a section on parody and how US and Canadian laws differ on the matter, and a brief history of copyright law. Ironically enough, it turns out that originally copyrights were put in place to protect the audience from an author’s monopoly on his work. The third chapter explores this unbalancing of the cultural bargain, where the author of a given work is increasingly gaining more rights over his/her work at the expense of a stagnating, ever diminished public domain. Herein, Kermit argues for both the authors’ ownership and the audience’s appropriation of cultural works, most fairly I will add, and again the arguments touch upon the ownership and appropriation of characters as well. I will inform the reader at this point that I am generally not in favor of copyrights. I am writing mainly from the point of view of a writer/performer trying to make a living entertaining people and making them re-evaluate the world around them, that they helped construct. The general malaise around copyrighting not only stems from the daunting nature of the laws that surround it, in some ways even shroud it, but also from a sense that but limiting access to culture the cultural make-up of a society will inevitably suffer. In both these cases Character Culture has given me a new perspective and frame of reference to draw from. In the former, I now have a working understanding of how copyright law works. I am not about to defend anyone in court, mind you, but I am no longer befuddled as to the why’s and how’s. In the latter, I am glad to see that this problem is shared by those practicing copyright law, and that they have alternative solutions to it. – George M. in Canada