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On Wednesday a Federal Court found that some of the earlier Superman works were not "work made for hire" under the copyright act.

This translated in Judge Stephen Larson determining that the family of Superman's co-creator, Jerry Seigel, have "successfully recaptured" the rights to some of these works. They include the first couple of weeks of the daily Superman newspaper comic-strips, portions of early Action Comics as well as some Superman comic-books.

Quoting Variety: "This means the Siegels -- repped by Marc Toberoff of Toberoff & Associates -- now control depictions of Superman's origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash."

In 1938 Jerry Siegel and co-creator Joel Schuster, for $130, signed a release in favor of DC's predecessor, Detective Comics. In 1939 the first Superman story was published as Action Comics No. 1, which is now listed at one of world's most valuable comic books, estimated to be worth $210,000.00.

In 2008, despite a 1974 court decision that ruled they signed away their copyrights forever, the same court order ruled on summary judgment that the Siegels had successfully recaptured (as of 1999) Jerry Siegel's copyright in Action Comics No. 1, giving them rights to the Superman character, including his costume, his alter-ego as reporter Clark Kent, reporter Lois Lane, their jobs at the Daily Planet newspaper working for a gruff editor, and the love triangle among Clark/Superman and Lois.

Although a victory for the Siegels, many points of Superman are still divided up. DC comics still own key elements in the Superman story such as his ablility to fly, the Lex Luthor and the Jimmy Olsen characters, the term kryptonite, Superman's powers and extended origins.

In a statement Warner Bros. and DC said: "Warner and DC Comics are pleased that the court has affirmed that the vast majority of key elements associated with the Superman character that were developed after Action Comics No. 1 are not part of the copyrights that the plaintiffs have recaptured and therefore remain solely owned by DC Comics."

The Siegels, in addition to the estate of Superman's other co-creator Joe Shuster which also won a rule of recapture, will be given the full rights to the Superman Action Comic no. 1 in 2013.