>>36616
Not putting the series into public domain when all the major characters the series is built around are versions of public domain characters would've been hypocritical even if he hadn't changed his stance on copyright, yes. But the declaration does make a difference. Like Willingham said, copyright is one giant tangled mess of unclear laws where tons of separate things can be copyright even if other parts of them are not. This declaration means anyone is free to write a story about not just Snow White or the Big Bad Wolf, but specifically Fables' version of them, fully referencing the events and relationships from the comics and building on them.
For regular people this doesn't mean much (yet) because like he said, DC can just sue you into submission. But for other companies who also have fuck you money, the short term gain of making adaptations of the popular Fables property could outweigh the potential erosion of copyright law that works in their favour. And if it ever comes to a lawsuit (which DC will have to do if a Fables adaptation becomes successful enough because copyright also depends on there being a claimant trying to defend their property), it could lead to precedent allowing regular Joe small-time writers to also make their own Fables.