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Are Lovecraft's writings in public domain; Cthulu names free to use?
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<blockquote data-quote="nikolai" data-source="post: 1944431" data-attributes="member: 10130"><p><strong>Lovecraft and Public Domain</strong></p><p></p><p>Lovecraft is already public domain in countries with life + 50 years copyright (Canada, Austrialia). Good for them! You can publish anything you want in these countries and, in practice, people anywhere can buy your stuff and have it sent to them through Amazon (and other internet sites). There's a proviso with some of the stories though: some of Lovecraft's stuff was edited and the edited version is re-copyrighted, so the original stories can be in the public domain, but the edited versions most easily available in many books can still be in copyright.</p><p></p><p>Lots of stuff "created" by Lovecraft wasn't. He borrowed heavily from early stuff written by other people, which is public domain (or at least is public domain now, it likely wasn't then - oh, the irony...). You can freely use stuff from these sources (e.g. Hastur, the Yellow Sign). You just have to know the sources Lovecraft drew from well enough (e.g. Bierce, Chambers, etc.).</p><p></p><p>Lovecraft also becomes public domain soon (1st of January 2007) in countries with life + 70 years copyright. <strong>This means the EU. You can do what you want with Lovecraft's original stories in two years time.</strong> So far as the US goes. It's very complicated. Lovecraft's work published before January 1st, 1923 is certainly public domain in the US. This benefits other countries too. For instance: a work isn't under copyright in the UK if it isn't copyrighted in its nation of origin. A similar law very probably applies where you are.</p><p></p><p>It's certainly ambiguous as to whether the rest of Lovecraft's work is copyrighted in the US (and by extention in some other countries). Anything published from 1924 through 1977 could be under copyright, but the copyright had to be renewed. Arkham House "claim" to own this copyright, but others think it's public domain. The best summary is at Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft#Copyrights" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft#Copyrights</a></p><p></p><p>In the short version, there are two possible problems. (1) If the copyright was not renewed, Lovecraft is public domain and therefore Arkham can't own it. There are apparently reasons for supposing that the copyright wasn't renewed. (2) To own the copyright (if the work is in copyright) Arkham has to have the rights transfered to it from someone who owned the copyright. There are questions as to who owned the copyright (more than one person claimed to at the same time), so the current ownership may be dubious. So the 1924 to 1977 stuff could be in copyright, but also could not be. Only a good lawyer and a lot of money will find out for sure.</p><p></p><p>The best sites for more detail are here:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS15/ns15nf01.htm" target="_blank">http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS15/ns15nf01.htm</a></p><p><a href="http://phantasmal.sourceforge.net/Innsmouth/LovecraftCopyright.html" target="_blank">http://phantasmal.sourceforge.net/Innsmouth/LovecraftCopyright.html</a></p><p></p><p>There's the creepy possibility that certain companies (including those in our beloved RPG field) are behaving in morally dubious fashion over the Lovecraft rights in order to prevent competition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nikolai, post: 1944431, member: 10130"] [b]Lovecraft and Public Domain[/b] Lovecraft is already public domain in countries with life + 50 years copyright (Canada, Austrialia). Good for them! You can publish anything you want in these countries and, in practice, people anywhere can buy your stuff and have it sent to them through Amazon (and other internet sites). There's a proviso with some of the stories though: some of Lovecraft's stuff was edited and the edited version is re-copyrighted, so the original stories can be in the public domain, but the edited versions most easily available in many books can still be in copyright. Lots of stuff "created" by Lovecraft wasn't. He borrowed heavily from early stuff written by other people, which is public domain (or at least is public domain now, it likely wasn't then - oh, the irony...). You can freely use stuff from these sources (e.g. Hastur, the Yellow Sign). You just have to know the sources Lovecraft drew from well enough (e.g. Bierce, Chambers, etc.). Lovecraft also becomes public domain soon (1st of January 2007) in countries with life + 70 years copyright. [b]This means the EU. You can do what you want with Lovecraft's original stories in two years time.[/b] So far as the US goes. It's very complicated. Lovecraft's work published before January 1st, 1923 is certainly public domain in the US. This benefits other countries too. For instance: a work isn't under copyright in the UK if it isn't copyrighted in its nation of origin. A similar law very probably applies where you are. It's certainly ambiguous as to whether the rest of Lovecraft's work is copyrighted in the US (and by extention in some other countries). Anything published from 1924 through 1977 could be under copyright, but the copyright had to be renewed. Arkham House "claim" to own this copyright, but others think it's public domain. The best summary is at Wikipedia [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft#Copyrights[/url] In the short version, there are two possible problems. (1) If the copyright was not renewed, Lovecraft is public domain and therefore Arkham can't own it. There are apparently reasons for supposing that the copyright wasn't renewed. (2) To own the copyright (if the work is in copyright) Arkham has to have the rights transfered to it from someone who owned the copyright. There are questions as to who owned the copyright (more than one person claimed to at the same time), so the current ownership may be dubious. So the 1924 to 1977 stuff could be in copyright, but also could not be. Only a good lawyer and a lot of money will find out for sure. The best sites for more detail are here: [url]http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS15/ns15nf01.htm[/url] [url]http://phantasmal.sourceforge.net/Innsmouth/LovecraftCopyright.html[/url] There's the creepy possibility that certain companies (including those in our beloved RPG field) are behaving in morally dubious fashion over the Lovecraft rights in order to prevent competition. [/QUOTE]
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