The Court ruled that just because an agreement barred further exercise of the termination right, it did not run afoul of the statute which does not permit an initial agreement that prospectively eliminates the termination right.

FORBES: Fighting For The Right To Superman's Copyright: More Brutal Than Anything Lex Luthor Could Have Imagined

The judge determined that the Shusters were aware of their termination right and presumably used it as leverage in the 1992 negotiation.

FORBES: Fighting For The Right To Superman's Copyright: More Brutal Than Anything Lex Luthor Could Have Imagined

Although they may have made what now looks like a bad deal, it did not entitle them to termination under the Copyright Act because that bad deal was made with the knowledge and power of the termination right as it stood in 1992.

FORBES: Fighting For The Right To Superman's Copyright: More Brutal Than Anything Lex Luthor Could Have Imagined