I recall reading the lawyer admitted in the mid-1980s that no renewals existed for the stories signed over to Derleth and Wandrei in 1947 and that a bunch of the stories were not only not renewed, but could not have been renewed by the estate. All that testimony should be available somewhere.
The court cases around Arkham House revealing they did not, in fact, have all the rights they claimed to control effectively threw the core material into the public domain in 1986 or so, correct?
From the law firm's statement. “For over 100 years, New York law has prohibited companies from using a person’s name for commercial purposes without their consent. The law does not provide an exception for technology companies or AI.”
From the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chris Quinn, who is apparently a cousin. This is a sharp piece of writing and a timely political statement I certainly endorse. Francis Lowder is my second great-grandfather, and the picture includes my grandfather and uncle. I have Francis's GAR medal.
Highest recommendation for Raymond Biesinger's 2025 book, 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off. It's a chatty, narrative-based primer for artists and writers on the various ways your work can be stolen and options for responding. The emphasis on creative community is especially welcome right now.
Wide black and white illustration by Morelock aka @morelockarts.bsky.social. It shows a sequence of events from left to write, stretched over many years, where authors write stories which children then read, then when they're older they bring their own interpretation of what they read into their games, then one of their players takes their interpretation of that into writing a book of their own, and then a whole new generation reads that book and so on...
⚔️Ah, the long conversation between S&S fiction and gaming!🎲
Read James Lowder's fascinating history, illustrated by @morelockarts.bsky.social, in issue five of New Edge Sword & Sorcery: newedgeswordandsorcery.com/product-cate...
More about the unintended release here: www.axios.com/2025/12/22/6...
On Betty Boop and Nancy Drew--as with Mickey Mouse and other characters, it's important to note what is and is not Public Domain and how trademark can complicate things.
Betty Boop, Nancy Drew, The Maltese Falcon, Eliot's "Ash Wednesday," L'Age d'Or, Animal Crackers, Der blaue Engel, several Gershwin compositions, "The St. Louis Blues" as recorded by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong--all these and more entering the Public Domain in the US January 1, 2026.
My 16th annual Games to Gift segment ran this morning on the Public Radio show "Lake Effect" here in Milwaukee. Link to the segment archive, which includes my PDF notes. Over the years I've covered 200 to 300 tabletop games in the segments, with well over 50,000 words of associated text in my notes.
"The platform admits it is fighting against a ceaseless torrent of AI slop. Spotify says it has removed 75 million 'spammy' tracks from the platform just in the past year."
Calling all writers, SFWA or not! You might be eligible to join a class action lawsuit. Deadline: September 1, 2025.
Also--
Writers, unite! You do not need to be SFWA to be eligible for a lawsuit under the LibGen & PiLiMi Pirated Books Class - but you do need to act soon!
Deadline: September 1, 2025.
Read more about it here, and spread the word widely: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
"Everybody who uses AI is going to get exponentially stupider, and the stupider they get, the more they’ll need to use AI to be able to do stuff that they were previously able to do with their minds."
The Reich can't have the USPTO getting in the way of the AI company intellectual property smash and grab.
Well, so far the only tabletop gaming professional I've seen defending the tariffs is someone whose most notable accomplishment in the industry is being the subject of a Rascal News article where their former employees and clients accused them of various predatory abuses. That scans.
The techbro smash and grab AI campaign continues, with the latest push a tacit admission they have been stealing work all along.
The Reich and its supporters cannot tolerate empathy. It gets in the way of their aspirations for atrocities.
Author photo of James Lowder at a gaming convention.
WELCOME JAMES LOWDER!
@jameslowder.bsky.social will have a brand new article in one of this year's issues. See other contributors, cool art, exclusives and more: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...
Of course they are.
If you're putting together your Gary Con schedule, I'll be presenting An Insider History of D&D Fiction on Saturday at 3. It's a free event. Tickets here: tabletop.events/conventions/...
This includes use in the "walled" official roleplaying game GM aides and art assistants being hawked by some companies in tabletop circles right now. Be sure your contracts and IP licenses strictly preclude any generative AI use, even in programs a publishing partner promises will remain "limited."
