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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Jacobs" data-source="post: 4413272" data-attributes="member: 23937">The status of Lovecraft's writing as regards copyright are indeed pretty muddled, but as far as I've been able to tell... most everything he wrote seems to be in the public domain. At least... until someone comes along with a legitimate claim to that copyright... and while all indications are that no such claim exists (at least... no paperwork to prove it seems to still exist), that doesn't mean that it's a closed case.For the Lovecraftian elements we've included in Pathfinder (and those elements have also drawn from the writings of other authors involved in that scene, like Frank Belknap Long and Algernon Blackwood), we have been in contact with Chaosium and make sure to point our readers back at them if they're looking for more info about Cthulhu in gaming... as is only right and proper, to be honest, because Chaosium REALLY understands this stuff and their work with Call of Cthulhu is up there with the best in the industry. In some cases it IS the best in the industry.Certainly Lovecraft himself would approve; he encouraged other writers to use his creations in their stories (which is why you'll see familiar names pop up now and then in stories by Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, etc.). Furthermore, the tradition of building on the mythos continues to this day, with writers like Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lulmley, Colin Wilson, Neil Gaiman, and countless others building on the mythos and expanding it further with their own inventions. All of this is a huge part of why the Lovecraft Mythos has gained such a powerful foothold; it's really become its own myth cycle, to be honest, which is a big part of the reason why certain monsters that tie into the mythos seem to be more "legit" than ones that don't.Anyway... it IS a relatively tangled legal mess, and I've found that even when utilizing elements that are 99.999% likely in the public domain, it's best to secure the blessing of those who have gone before you.And as for the original Deities & Demigods snafu... that wasn't actually legal trouble that got the Cthulhu and Elric stuff taken out, but certain members of TSR management who didn't want what they felt was a free advertisement for the competition in one of their products.</blockquote>

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