Barsoom d20 --- something is not right here

[JPL]

All this talk about Iron Lords of Jupiter prompted me to learn more about this d20 Barsoom.

Look at this link and share my confusion:

http://www.wishlistgames.com/barsoom/main.htm

This looks like it was drawn by a child. What is this company? Why isn't Sean K. Reynolds or somebody else producing a decent Barsoom product [since apparently some of the stories are public domain]?

 

[trancejeremy]

Fast Forward also has a d20 Mars setting. Not quite Barsoom, but...

 

[JPL]

I hadn't heard about that one.

GURPS Mars has a "Dying Mars" setting that's along those lines, too.

Man, that's the dark side of copyright law, right there. It'll be interesting in the next few decades as so many other popular 20th-century characters become public domain...

 

[Hawkshere]

Not if the Washington D.C. division of Disney Corp. has anything to say about it.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Hawkshere is right on.

I seem to recall some stat about this, that no copyright material has made it into public domain for decades because Congress keeps extending copyright terms. Something like, not since WWII has any copyright material made it into Public Domain because of its copyright expiring.

What is it now, life-of-the-artist + 95 years? Obscene is what it is. But hey, the Constitution is a "living" document now, ain't it?


But back to the subject. GURPS' Mars is pretty nifty. I don't use GURPS rules ever, but I bought this book just to have the stuff on Dying Mars. Fast Forward's Sundered Reaches d20 is sort of a blend of Dark Sun and Barsoom. It also uses a throwback to Original D&D gaming themes of a character's race IS the character's class.


Eric Anondson (Barsoom-o-phile)

 

[bwgwl]

Re: Hawkshere is right on.

Something like, not since WWII has any copyright material made it into Public Domain because of its copyright expiring.

not true. Frank Baum's Oz books went out of copyright and into public domain sometime in the 1950s (1956 or 1959, can't specifically recall).

i think the "cut-off" date is a bit later than that.

 

[Lizard]

There are several kinds of IP laws -- copyright and trademark are two of them.

The book "A Princess of Mars", and several others, are in the public domain. You can get them legally on the net in many places.

"Barsoom", "John Carter of Mars", "Dejah Thoris", and the like, are all *trademarked*, and are actively defended. The Burroughs estate is virulently tenacious in protecting their turf.

The original "Tarzan" novel is out of copyright, too. Don't expect to see a Tarzan RPG anytime soon, either.

 

[JPL]

There are several kinds of IP laws -- copyright and trademark are two of them.

The book "A Princess of Mars", and several others, are in the public domain. You can get them legally on the net in many places.

"Barsoom", "John Carter of Mars", "Dejah Thoris", and the like, are all *trademarked*, and are actively defended. The Burroughs estate is virulently tenacious in protecting their turf.

The original "Tarzan" novel is out of copyright, too. Don't expect to see a Tarzan RPG anytime soon, either.

I'm a lawyer and I should know this stuff...but I never took an IP class.

If Barsoom is trademarked...I'm guessing Wish List Games is setting themselves up for a lawsuit. With a John Carter movie in the works, there's just no way ERB Co. has sold game rights to a production like this, and there's no way they'll let it pass.

 

[Lizard]

Barsoom is trademarked.

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfiel...h&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query

(Sorry if that's illegible...you can go to the USPTO and do the search yourself, it's pretty easy..)

The term is trademarked for comic books, but the 'dilution' rules of the 1996 extenstions to the Lanham act mean that a 'Barsoom' RPG is going to be in violation. Unless Wishlist games is run by a quixotic millionaire, the inevitable lawsuit will kill them once ERB Estates gets word of it. (Even if it IS run by a quixotic millionaire, they'll still lose the lawsuit.)

 

[bwgwl]

i hate to be mean, but should someone contact ERB's estate?

in the long run, it'd probably save Wishlist Games some money if they get a cease & desist order now as opposed to actually getting the game into distribution and then having to pulp it.