The Conan Public Domain Paradox
Are the original Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard in public domain? Are they public domain in some countries but not others? And if you have public-domain Conan material on a website — like Project Gutenberg — is that illegal because somebody from another country where Howard’s works are not in public domain might read it?
A Stockholm-based group called Conan Properties International is bullying a not-for-profit fan group in New Zealand that makes and distributes audio dramas based on Conan stories. As I understand it, at first CPI had just an objection to the group using the Conan logo on their site — which said site then removed. Then, in a seemingly conciliatory move, CPI offered a license of sorts to Broken Sea, the fan group in question, to continue offering the audio readings of Conan stories.
But then CPI turned around and said that because of the possibility of people in other countries where Conan is not in public domain accessing Broken Sea’s site, Broken Sea had to take the audio recordings down. Which they did. But was CPI in the right?
Further — does anybody know definitively whether Conan the Barbarian is public domain in the US? Or are the original stories public domain, but not the “Conan” that we know from the movies and comic books?
Could I make a comic book called “Conan?” If it didn’t follow the standard Conan “look,” would that be okay? ut if I followed the physical description of Conan in the public domain stories…
Also, there is a law in New Zealand set for implementation on March 27th where websites even accused of copyright infringement are subject to sudden pulldowns. So whether it was legal to ask Broken Sea to take down the stuff or not — this law would endager their site regardless, at least for the short-term.
Broken Sea also offers audio dramas based on The Prisoner, Doctor Who, X-Files, and Jonny Quest, among others.
References:
SFFaudio: “Conan Attacks Fans”
BoingBoing: “Conan copyright trolls censor fan-readings of public domain stories”
Wikipedia: Conan the Barbarian
“The Copyright and Ownership Status of the Works of Robert E. Howard”
Answers to some of your questions. First, I believe there are Conan comics on the market and whoever is selling those comics owns or is licensed to the trademark. If that is correct, you could not make a comic book called Conan the Barbarian or have that name anywhere prominently on the cover. If the copyright has expired in the US, then you could certainly use Conan in a story inside, but not on the cover.
As far as the bullying of Broken Sea, Broken Sea could have blocked visitors from unauthorized countries from viewing the site. Yes, savvy people may figure out a way around the block, but media companies do that now. Many times trailers or online television is not available to people whose IP address indicates they are in non-US countries. If Broken Sea had taken that action, then they certainly could have ignored CPI’s request to take down the material.
Whether Broken Sea can post without taking any measures, I am not sure. I always thought they could, but I could be worng. That’s why we have off-shore gambling.