This is incorrect. Simply being non-commercial isn’t enough to qualify the use of copyrighted material as fair use, it’s just one element that is to be considered when deciding whether it’s fair use or not. If a fanfiction author isn’t making any money off their fanfiction then the copyright holder is a lot less likely to bother taking them to court and it would help the fanfiction author’s case if they do go to court, but it’s not a surefire legal “out”.
Non-commercial entertainment is also not necessarily going to be looked upon as favorably as non-commercial educational or critical material. The US Copyright Act of 1976 specifically contrasts use “of a commercial nature” with “nonprofit educational purposes”, not ALL non-commercial purposes.
Funnily enough, that’s exactly what gun makers do. Almost every arms manufacturer on the planet makes a Colt Peacemaker and Colt M1911 reproduction, despite the fact that Colt are still in business and manufacturing guns today (including the Peacemaker and 1911, FWIW). You can’t copyright or trademark gun designs, apparently, but you can patent technical innovations within the mechanism or operating system of the gun itself.
But with regards to what you were getting at with your hypothetical: Honestly, I think it depends how commercially successful the design was during my life. If it made bucketloads of cash for me and my descendants, then I would likely feel that, with the money properly invested, that trying to stop people from making the rifle 100 years later was being more than a bit selfish, unless they were still innovating and tinkering with the design. Then I’d be OK with it, but not indefinitely.
The only reason many shooters nowadays can own a Single Action Army pistol, a Winchester '73 rifle, or an M1911 is because the patent expired and now anyone is free to make them- revolver design was slightly derailed for a while at one point in the 19th century because Smith & Wesson had the exclusive licence to the patent patent on bored-through revolver cylinders for centrefire cartridges (ie, the type used in all modern revolvers), so everyone in the US had to wait until the patent expired before they could start making “modern” revolvers, which is why they were still making cap & ball revolvers in the 1870s.
So as you may have gathered, I’m not a fan of “exclusive rights” to commercial products lasting for stupidly long periods of time.
By the way, Exapno, I wanted to say thanks for your replies so far- they’ve been very interesting and educational!
Not open at all. There is no possibility they are the same character. Happy Days was set in the 50’s and 60’s, Charles In Charge was set in the 80’s and 90’s. The only similarity is the character’s first name, the character’s actor, and the actress playing the character’s mother.
There may have been an occasional in-joke (I recall a time where Charles was incredulous at someone using a Chachi catch phrase) but that was all it was, an in-joke.
If I recall correctly, this was more or less the explanation given in the show. James Jr. was Uncle James’ favorite nephew, and to distinguish between the two, James Jr. was named James Jr.
It was my understanding that, despite some claims by Arkham House, nearly all of Lovecraft’s work was now public domain. It was also my understanding that Cthulhu, Nyarlhotep, Great Old Ones, etc were all trademarks of Chaosium and can’t be used without their permission. Is this correct?
They don’t seem to be registered in the US. But “CALL OF CTHULHU” is a registered TM for game manuals in the US.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use it. Just means that you can’t make game manuals or similar kinds of goods with a “CALL OF CTHULHU” (or something similar) mark attached.
That was my understanding- you can’t make “Call of Cthulhu” RPG stuff without permission from Chaoisium, but if you wanted to write another addition to the Cthulhu Mythos then you are free to do so and there’s not a lot anyone can do about it.
Incorrect. So rumors that the original Deities and Demigods book for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had to remove the Cthulhu stuff because it was under copyright/trademark before the next reprinting are false. See also Cthulhu Rising, a game about Cthulhu without Chaosium’s license or blessing because it’s not needed.
Why don’t Michael Mignola(Creator of HellBoy and huge Lovecraft fan) and others use the names then? In The Doom That Came To Gotham (Batman meets Cthulhu- much, much better than it sounds) he uses Iogg Sotha instead of Yog Sothoth. In GURPS Horror, it says ‘We dare not speak of Cthulhu and others for fear of the I Shoodn’ta Khopi Rites’. What gives?
Some people don’t want to use the actual names for whatever reason, and many people don’t (or didn’t at the time they published) understand copyright or trademark laws very well so take precautions that they did not have to.
