There is a fair amount of PF material (and even 3.5 material like RotRL) that makes direct reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos and how it interacts with the world of Golarion. I was curious how this is possible. Back in the day the 1st edition Deities & Demigods was yanked from the shelves for publishing the Cthulu mythology without permission. Has Lovecraft`s stuff become fair game since then, did Paizo have to pay a licensing fee or is it something else? Just curious.
You might find this section interesting, but basically a lot of his early stuff, at least, is now in the public domain.
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It's my understanding (and I've done a fair amount of research into it) that Lovecraft's writings are, if not in the public domain, unsupported by any documents to the contrary (as summarized in the wikipedia page cited above).
That's also why in the last several years, there's been a large number of Lovecraft compilations out there. And why there's many sites online that host his writings for free.
And Lovecraft not only permitted but actively encouraged other writers to borrow and expand on his creations, noting that the more people write about them, the more real they seem to be.
Also, the 1st ed. Deities and Demigods wasn't pulled because of they published Lovecraft's material without permission (they didn't need it).
Printing was voluntarily suspended for a little while because another game company (Chaosium) had a contract with Arkham House (a publisher of Lovecraft anthologies) and with Michael Moorcock for the use of the Melnibone setting (which was also included in Deities and Demigods).
Chaosium threatened legal action. TSR voluntarily stopped printing even though the lawsuit had no teeth because they were tight on money and couldn't afford any kind of legal battle. They didn't recall any books. It just wasn't a very big print run before it was halted.
A few months later the printing resumed with one line added crediting Chaosium for the Elric and Cthulhu pantheons. That is literally the only difference between the first print run and the rest.
Interesting and thank you for the responses. I never realized Chaosium had used the Melnibone setting as well. Moorcock's stuff isn't public domain, is it?
Moorcock's stuff isn't public domain, is it?
Um, no. Moorcock is still alive, after all. His earliest works are from the 1960s, and he's still writing (and is quite prolific).
Under current US copyright law, if Moorcock were to kick off this afternoon, his works wouldn't enter the public domain until the year 2107.
Me and a buddy were debating this other day and he even mentioned how one of Lovecrafts friends claimed he owned the rights to Lovecrafts writings, Lovecraft had no such statement in his last will and final testament and Lovecraft did indeed encourage people to expand onto what he had begun and thats why you see so many connections of the Cthulhu Mythos with Conan and Krulls worlds. People mention the old Dieties&Demigods issue a lot when debating Lovecraft and as mentioned above the printing was ceased until the problem was solved.Moorcock is still kicking, he isn't that old to be truthful.
