Quote:
Originally Posted by Atgxtg
Journey to the West
Are the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in the Public Domain now?
Captain Nemo and MArtian Invasions never go out of style.
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Jules Verne's works are definitely public domain, as he died in 1905, and his last work looks to have been published in 1910. It looks like the majority of H.G. Wells works are public domain, though a lot aren't. Still it looks like the best known H.G. Wells works are all public domain.
Captain Nemo and the Martian Invasion are both in "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2", so who knows issues there could be with including both in the same book.
Where things get really tricky are with settings such as those based on "Edgar Rice Burroughs" works. While many of his works are in the public domain, you can bet you'll have ERB's family lawyers and the Di$ney lawyers on you so fast it will make your head spin if you do something based on them. I believe this is do to Trademarks rather than copywrites.
One interesting approach to the issue of Campaign Settings / Worlds with copywrites and Trademarks, is this. Pick a genre, find a group of like minded people, and hash something out, and put it under a "Creative Commons" type license. Of course then you just might have someone like Di$ney come along and be able to freely make a movie that makes them tons of money without having to pay any royalties.