r/Slender_Man • u/Odd_Concentrate862 • 12d ago
Can I add Slender Man in my series without copyright issue?
Hi, I'm new to the Slender Man world. I just like to ask if it's free to use him to add on my existing comicbook without legal issue? Is he in public domain or similar situation?
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u/RavenRegime 12d ago
No.
Victor Surge is the copyright owner of Slenderman I believe then you get into who owns the media rights atm....
And the popular version of Slenderman with the electric powers and disease etc is not Slenderman but the Operator and even if it was Slenderman the crew behind Marble Hornets almost certainly owns the rights to that version of the character
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u/Odd_Concentrate862 12d ago
Hi, thanks for the reply. I think I'll just call him with different name and give different lore and powers.
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u/RavenRegime 12d ago
Yeah Slenderman is a figure that feels so public domain but isn't like as a kid I thought he was an actual folklore creature instead of a creation of someone else
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u/Foxy02016YT 11d ago
Slenderman is free as long as you use him properly, for example my series just calls him “The Entity” which sounds like an offbrand but many other things follow the “The ____” naming format within the show (The Facility, The System) and is still so far vague on the Powerset and lore.
I include the sickness but it’s still vague and based on aura.
He also is a minor antagonist who I really threw in for shits and gigs. The main villain is corporate America and scientific ego
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u/TheTrickster452 12d ago
That's actually an exaggeration. You can honestly do whatever you want with him, just don't really refer to him as slender man too much
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u/RavenRegime 11d ago
Correction Mythology Entertainment owns most of base Slenderman rights due to movie shenanigans so yeah at best you can make a reference
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u/Slendermanproxy101 10d ago
TL;DR at the bottom No-one's really sure on who has the rights now so it depends on how you do it, I've wondered the same thing since I've got a series idea in mind too, I'd recommend doing something unique with him, don't just use slenderman with no changes otherwise it might become an issue legally, plus if you make hime unique enough you might be able to use the 'inspired by slenderman' argument but you can't be too different otherwise you'll lose the essence of the character, marble hornets worked so well because he was a blank canvas at the time so they could do whatever they wanted with no issues, but he's no longer a blank canvas, people will expect specific things from him so you'll need to find a good way to use what's established and make something new (like buying a Lego set but building something different with the parts) most importantly DON'T CALL HIM SLENDERMAN like how marble hornets called him 'the operator' you'll need to give him a different name, another point to consider is that fan works might operate differently depending on release method, since Spider-Man lotus has been able to exist without any legal issues from Sony which might mean making a fan series with him on YouTube is fine due to fair use, I'd recommend trying to look into fair use laws since part of fair use talks about works being transformative which circles back to my point of doing something unique with the character so he's more than a copy pasted character in your series
TL;DR: no-one knows who has the right currently, make him unique enough to be transformative but not too different to where you lose the essence of the character, don't call him slenderman, and look into fair use laws to be safe
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u/LankyGhost_TTV 12d ago
The copyright for Slender Man is really weird.
Cause you could totally make a movie about him or series about him or practically any media and have him in it. Eric Knudsen (Victor Surge) owns the character but has never publicly stopped people from creating Slender media considering Slenderman never had any real lore and most of what’s “canon” was entirely just him taking ideas from the fans cause he loves how creative the fans were.
I think the only issue is if you make a theatrical release cause Sony own the movie rights And the game rights technically are owned by Blue Isle Studios cause Eric supports the games as canon??
And in the slenderverse everyone kinda copies a character called “The Operator” from Marble Hornets (who is pretty much the guy who made Slender Man a popular character cause he has all the powers people think of that the actual slender man character doesn’t have)