Aron Tarbuck and J Kovach are Kickstarting an original comic book mashing up Shakespeare’s The Tempest with the Cthulhu Mythos. They are now the subject of a DMCA takedown request by D.R. O’Brien, a young writer who self-published a comedic novel that likewise combined The Tempest and the Cthulhu Mythos.
It’s obvious how these two projects could happen independently. The Tempest is by far Shakespeare’s most occult play, with magic, spirits, a sorcerer, a monstrous slave, etc.
D.R. O’Brien is incapable of imagining that anyone would think to combine The Tempest and Cthulhu and indeed, he claims to own all intellectual property rights to that idea, which is a farcical notion.
His takedown notice breathlessly points out that Aron & J’s project uses main characters from the Tempest, and that indeed the cover to their comic book depicts a storm, which his book also prominently features!
Of course, the fucking play is called THE TEMPEST and is about a storm. But in D.R. O’Brien’s world, that is part of his IP and is evidence that Aron and J read his book and ripped it off.
Over the years Lovecraft has been mashed up with Sherlock Holmes, P.G. Wodehouse, Jack the Ripper, the Ghostbusters, the Salem Witch Trials, various superheroes, cyberpunk, Where the Wild Things Are, Dungeons & Dragons, and just about anything else you can name. The idea that D.R. O’Brien could possibly own the mashup of Cthulhu and The Tempest, or that no one but him could possibly conceive of watching Shakespeare’s most arcane play and imagine giving it a Lovecraft twist, is deeply ridiculous.
Amateur writers often believe that their ideas are theirs alone, and that no one in all of human history has ever thought them before. The reality is that similar ideas occur to writers all the time.
Kickstarter should refute this DMCA takedown notice and restore Aron & J’s project to its course.
Link to D.R. O’Brien’s takedown notice: https://www.kickstarter.com/dmca/prosperos-price-a-lovecraft-and-shakespeare-tale-submitted-by-pr
Kickstarter
Date: Feb 19, 2014Sender [Private] Sent via online formRecipient Kickstarter, Inc. 58 Kent StreetBrooklyn, NY 11222 USA Re:Prospero's Price; A Lovecraft and Shakespeare TaleDescription of copyrighted material: Shakespeare v Lovecraft, a horror comedy novel, was originally published in 2012 by Amazon…
