Conan 2006 - a summary

[Padre]

Was it a good year for Mongoose Conan? Let's summarize

Things I liked:

• Ruins of Hyboria - one of the best Conan sourcebooks. Other hardbacks were also excellent, but Ruins crushed pretty much everything under it's sandaled feet. The ultimate sourcebook for going Indiana Jones in Hyboria.
• The announcement of the second edition - no major changes, just tweaks here and there. I'm also hoping for some new interior (and maybe cover) artwork
• Extending the Conan license - speaks for itself.

Stuff I didn't like:
"The long cold wait" - ok, we can catch up with the sourcebooks, but half a year is a long time to wait. It would be great to throw us a campaign, maybe a series of connected adventures, published monthly, with the final chapter released just before the second ed.?

What I hope for in 2007:
A great 2ed, excellent big campaign and more pleasant surprises like the Ruins of Hyboria.

 

[MGBM]

Things I liked:

-The quality of the sourcebooks. Just bloody excellent! Especially Ruins and Faith&Fervour.
-Extension of the Conan license. This is great news and I hope Mongoose will use it to further improve the quantity and quality of the RPG.

Things I didn't like:
-The long cold wait. Like Padre said, at least publish some adventures to ease off the impatience of waiting until summer.
-Regional sourcebooks being only 96 pages long. I wish all regional sourcebooks had as much pages as Stygia, not to mention having as much pages as Aquilonia. 96 pages is not enough for all the details Vincent manages to write about.
-Vincent not having a direct part in the writing of 2nd edition. Vincent knows the RPG better than anyone, I would guess. He deserves to at least have an important say in the creative process of the 2nd edition.

Things I expect:
-An excellent 2nd edition. This speaks for itself.
-A lot of sourcebooks being released after 2nd edition. At least I hope they release one sourcebook every two months after 2nd edition. But then again, I love having lots of sourcebooks.
-Vincent being still the main writer of the sourcebooks.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Extending the Conan license - speaks for itself.

REH's been dead 70 years now. Doesn't that mean that the copyright on Conan is expired? If I got that right, the REH stories may now be distributed freely (like, over the net). I'm not sure what it means for products like the Conan game -- my guess would be Mongoose doesn't have to pay licensing fees anymore.

 

[VincentDarlage]

REH's been dead 70 years now. Doesn't that mean that the copyright on Conan is expired? If I got that right, the REH stories may now be distributed freely (like, over the net). I'm not sure what it means for products like the Conan game -- my guess would be Mongoose doesn't have to pay licensing fees anymore.

While some of the stories are in the public domain, virtually all of the character and place names have been trademarked - making the use of those names illegal without permission. It is a matter of trademarks, not copyrights.

 

[Spectator]

If I am correct, I should be, since I studied it in law school, however I do not practice this area of law, the standard for the copyright expiration on REH expires 75 years after his death, in the USA. Essentially we got another 5 years to wait before we can start seling our Conan novels to publishing houses and on the web for profit. Conan Properties Inc. has this last bit of hold on us until then.

In Europe and the USA, the standard was 25 yrs. post mortem, however Walt Disney's lawyers successfully changed the law here in the USA.

 

[VincentDarlage]

If I am correct, I should be, since I studied it in law school, however I do not practice this area of law, the standard for the copyright expiration on REH expires 75 years after his death, in the USA. Essentially we got another 5 years to wait before we can start seling our Conan novels to publishing houses and on the web for profit. Conan Properties Inc. has this last bit of hold on us until then.

Not quite correct. Here is a link that lists the public domain and copyright status of Robert E. Howard's works. http://www.robert-e-howard.org/AnotherThought4ws02.html

To quote from that source, "Under US law, all of the REH works first published prior to 1964 were subject to the registration, renewal and notice requirements of the 1909 Copyright Act (“the 1909 Act”)."

However, Mongoose is not in the business of reprinting Howard's stories, so they are dealing with trademarks, not copyrights. And if you want to start selling your own Conan works, you will also be dealing with the trademark issue... Since you have studied law, I am sure you know trademark protection has no expiration. As long as the mark is continually used (ie. not abandoned), it can be protected from infringement indefinitely.

 

[Spectator]

THanks Vincent, I learned something new!
Like I said I don't practice that area of law, I only shoot my mouth off about it when needed :lol:

 

[slaughterj]

If I am correct, I should be, since I studied it in law school, however I do not practice this area of law, the standard for the copyright expiration on REH expires 75 years after his death, in the USA. Essentially we got another 5 years to wait before we can start seling our Conan novels to publishing houses and on the web for profit. Conan Properties Inc. has this last bit of hold on us until then.

In Europe and the USA, the standard was 25 yrs. post mortem, however Walt Disney's lawyers successfully changed the law here in the USA.

A couple of corrections:
1. The standard is 70 years from death (or other amounts for anonymous works, etc.), not 75 years.
2. The extension in the U.S. by Disney lobbying was from 50 years to 70, not 25.

Some copyrights for Howard are probably still applicable, others may have been restored (some copyright laws have retroactively restored copyright status to some works), and others may not, but Vincent's link probably provides some specificity on this.