226 replies to this topic

[RedSonja]

Hey all,

I'm just wondering, who owns the rights to the remainder of the Howard Catalogue? Does Conan Inc own the rights to all the characters?

Any chance of seeing other Howard Creations from Dark Horse?

[ugs]

Hold fire on that for the moment.

Patric (big cheese) is celebrating his birthday this weekend and will be lying under a table somewhere

We (the Mods) do not yet know all the ins and outs of Conan Inc yet. This Board has risen from no where and we were drafted in from the Paradox Entertainment Games Board.

I believe that its just the Conan name etc but wouldnt be sure on that.

[King]

I was able to glean this from the Paradox Web site.

From Here:

About Conan Sales Company.
CSC holds all intellectual property rights in and associated with the character Conan created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930?s and hailed as the greatest fantasy hero in the world. Millions of people worldwide have enjoyed the books, comics and movies about the life and adventures of Conan. Interest peaked in the eighties when Arnold Schwarzenegger played the hero?s part in two feature films.

[ugs]

So it looks like just the Conan Character.

[King]

So it seems, but maybe the Conan character includes a whole host of assocaited charactors, after all we do need someone to cry for the big man.

[Isaacson]

Hi .

I shouldn't think that there'd be a problem with mentioning the names / discussing the other REH characters here , either . Copyrights are used to protect the source works and the character names from being commercially used in print ( re-printed ) or copied in other manners for financial-gain ect , not from being casually discussed . After all , that's all "free publicity" for the owners / holders , LOL .

The other characters have been talked about for years on the other sites and groups , without a problem ( but if in doubt , look into it ! ) .

It'll be good to talk about more of the other Howard heroes / heroines anyway .


Cheers , Danny .

[RedSonja]

Until recently, I had believed the rights to all of Howard's characters were held by Conan Inc. Apparently, this isn't the case. Anyone know who owns the others? Is there a paper trail of who acquired them and when? Might make for some interesting reading.

[Dragon Girl]

Actually, it would probably make for boring reading. I'm sure it's all written in that ancient language, Legalese, which only the most adept of sorcerers can utter without going insane from the confusion.

[Ironhand]

What we really need here is one of those encyclopedic posts from Isaacson, or perhaps from Aguaman.

Anyway, from what little I know, and I could easily be wrong, the rights to Conan belong to Conan Properties, Inc. (CPI), while all other rights currently reside with Wandering Star or some other British company.

How 'bout it, Danny?

[Isaacson]

Hi Ironhand and all .

.... Ironhand wrote :

>What we really need here is one of those encyclopedic posts from Isaacson, or perhaps from Aguaman.

>Anyway, from what little I know, and I could easily be wrong, the rights to Conan belong to Conan Properties, Inc. (CPI), while all other rights currently reside with Wandering Star or some other British company.

>How 'bout it, Danny?

- Thanks for the vote of confidence here Steve , but I'm upto my neck in something at the moment , so I'll have to leave this for others to answer , for the time being . Ed. , Larry , or possibly other REH-enthusiasts here , could give much more substantial and accurate replies on this than I could anyway !

Sorry Sir .
All the best ... Danny .

[aguaman]

What we really need here is one of those encyclopedic posts from Isaacson, or perhaps from Aguaman.

Anyway, from what little I know, and I could easily be wrong, the rights to Conan belong to Conan Properties, Inc. (CPI), while all other rights currently reside with Wandering Star or some other British company.

Well, you're mostly correct. I'm not going to write too much, but the short of it is that REH's copyrights transferred to his father, Dr. Isaac M. Howard, upon Robert's death in 1936. His father willed all of his property, including REH's copyrights, to a friend, Dr. Kuykendall, who let him move in and work, in a fashion, during the last year or two of Dr. Howard's life which ended in 1944. Dr. Kuykendall died in the late 1950s, the Robert E. Howard properties passed on to his wife, Alla Ray, and his daughter, Alla Ray Morris. Mrs. Kuykendall passed away in the mid-1980s, Mrs. Morris in the mid '90s. When Mrs. Morris died, she made her good friend (and a relative by marriage) Zora Mae Bryant executrix of her will, and left her estate -- or at least the Robert E. Howard related properties -- to Mrs. Bryant and her children, who had been her closest family for many years. Mrs. Bryant's son, Jack Baum, now administers the Howard properties which has been incorporated as Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC.

Wandering Star Publishers does not "own" the rights to Howard's work, but rather have licensed the rights from the Howard's heirs. They have also licensed the rights to the copyrights of the original Conan tales.

Now, there are some more coplex details to consider... namely, the fact that many of Howard's literary characters have been incorporated as seperate corporations who each own the rights to that character and anything related to it. Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, Red Sonja, and Howard Properties. Conan Properties, Inc. was created in 1979 I think, to settle conflicts of ownership (de Camp claimed he had an ownership stake and threatened to sue unless he was given a cut of the upcoming Conan movie), and the corporation was subsequently controlled by L. Sprague de Camp and his attorney, Arthur Lieberman. The other properties were controlled primarily by the Howard heirs. In 2002 Conan Properties, Inc. was apparently sold and formed into a company named Conan Sales Corporation, which is in turn owned, to the best of my knowledge, by Paradox Entertainment -- a corporation based in Sweden.

[Isaacson]

Hi .

Thanks Aquaman for replying to Ironhand's query , and saving me a job in the process , appreciated .
I was right though , as I wouldn't have been so thorough with the info. as you have there Sir .

One small point brought up by Steve , that you didn't tackle though , was the other recent case of REH Conan licensing , this time by Victor Gollancz ( Millennium ) UK , for their two REH Conan vols. in the "Fantasy Masterworks" pb series ( No's 8 + 16 . "The People of the Black Circle" , and "The Hour of the Dragon" . First published UK 2000 and 2001 respectively ) .

Cheers , Danny .

[Freebooter]

Hello all,
Sometime back I posted, or thought I had posted, all of REH's Conan descriptions that I had gleaned from "Hour of the Dragon", from a story or two by REH in a paperback with other pastiches in it (the descriptions only came from REH, not the pastiches), and from "The Comming of Conan the Cimmerian". Wonodering if I posted it here on one of the Conan forums, I just searched for it on the "Search" button here and could not find it. Did I not post it on one of these forums originally or was it deleted or what?

But as to my question, I remember some chatter about whether or not Conan wore this or that or what sort of sword he toted, etc., etc., so I had thought of reposting my original post with the descriptions, as I figured some might be interested in those descriptions from Howard. But my question is would I be breaking any copyright laws by copying and posting those descriptions from the books or stories.
Take care,
Freebooter

[Crom]

Do you remember which Forum it may have been posted in? Did you use the 'drop down' boxes at the bottom of each forum to call up threads that are older than 90 days?

As for copyright infringement, you can quote passages under the 'fair use' rule. Normally you require the author's permission (kinda hard in the case of REH), or at least acknowledge which author you are quoting. If you Google 'fair use' + internet you'll come up with quite a slew of responses.

[Buxom Sorceress]

- REH's Conan descriptions - ?

please post them?
i cant remember them here, + i always read all your posts.

+ it will save me having to type em all in sometime.

vividly descriptive kisses from me * * *
+ many thanks

[Freebooter]

Hello Buxom Sorceress,
You were asking me to post the descriptions. I shall do so in the Conan in Literature Forum.
Freebooter

[Freebooter]

Hey Buxom Sorceress,
I checked the forum rules and guiedlines and it said thusly in Rule # 7:
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7. Copyrighted materials: You may not post any material to which either you or Conan Properties Inc. do not own the copyright. When quoting other people or sources always include an attribution and, if possible, a link to the original source.
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So I decided against posting the descriptions. I have a Robt. E. Howard folder I created in which is a file I created with the quotes or descriptions from several of his works and/or stories describing Conan's dress, armor, weapons, etc., in the different stories and scenes. I copied it all down and created the file for my own enjoyment and for future reference. I would love to share it with y'all but looking at Rule # 7 I reckon I had better not unless the moderators tell me its ok.
Take care,
Freebooter

[Freebooter]

Hello all,
I was wondering, if you were to write some stories for publishing with the setting in the Hyborean world, and the main charactor is also a Cimmerian and in fact kin to Conan, and of course you mentioned Conan a time or two, would any of that be a violation of any copyright laws? Just curious.
Thanks,
Freebooter

[Merlin]

Copyright only applies to actual works, such as text, not ideas. But you might be violating trademarks. For an accurate answer, try the Ask CPI thread or the rehinnercircle Yahoo group.

[Chrysagon]

Informations posted in another tread shows that very few Conan stories are copyrighted. Does that mean that anyone can use it for a movie or an animated cartoon? Without having to pay, or have to wait until 2006? It is not very clear. Thanks for helping,
Chrysagon