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<blockquote data-quote="CountPopeula" data-source="post: 4413146" data-attributes="member: 27250">As has been mentioned, it's a big, muddled mess. Since Call of Cthulhu is in the public domain pretty much everywhere on earth, you could reprint the story or use any aspect of it in pretty much any way you'd like. But since &quot;The Call of Cthulhu&quot; is trademarked, you couldn't call it &quot;The Call of Cthulhu.&quot; At least not externally.Arkham and Chaosium are very likely exerting rights over Lovecraft's work they don't actually own. Since The Call of Cthulhu (the story) is in the public domain, that means exactly that. It doesn't mean &quot;public domain, except for RPGs.&quot; Public domain makes no exceptions.However, much like the Wizard of Oz, only the earlier and not the later parts of Lovecraft's mythos writings are in the public domain. So if you used something from a later book, that would still be (and will all ways be) under copyright (in the United States). So while I don't think anyone could claim a copyright to Cthulhu or his likeness, if you included things from later works of Lovecraft, that would be infringing.Also, since trademarks don't expire, a lot of companies will trademark things that should be in the public domain to keep them out. Like when Disney's movies go into the public domain, they've trademarked the likenesses of their characters to keep people from using them. It's much more costly and time-consuming than creating new intellectual properties, but that's what it takes to live off the creativity of others rather than your own.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CountPopeula, post: 4413146, member: 27250"] As has been mentioned, it's a big, muddled mess. Since Call of Cthulhu is in the public domain pretty much everywhere on earth, you could reprint the story or use any aspect of it in pretty much any way you'd like. But since "The Call of Cthulhu" is trademarked, you couldn't call it "The Call of Cthulhu." At least not externally. Arkham and Chaosium are very likely exerting rights over Lovecraft's work they don't actually own. Since The Call of Cthulhu (the story) is in the public domain, that means exactly that. It doesn't mean "public domain, except for RPGs." Public domain makes no exceptions. However, much like the Wizard of Oz, only the earlier and not the later parts of Lovecraft's mythos writings are in the public domain. So if you used something from a later book, that would still be (and will all ways be) under copyright (in the United States). So while I don't think anyone could claim a copyright to Cthulhu or his likeness, if you included things from later works of Lovecraft, that would be infringing. Also, since trademarks don't expire, a lot of companies will trademark things that should be in the public domain to keep them out. Like when Disney's movies go into the public domain, they've trademarked the likenesses of their characters to keep people from using them. It's much more costly and time-consuming than creating new intellectual properties, but that's what it takes to live off the creativity of others rather than your own. [/QUOTE]

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