They’re being jackasses over trademark, apparently.
Short version: John Allison was doing a Conan comic book, based on the Robert Howard books. Robert Howard’s stuff happens to be public domain in the United Kingdom, where John resides – but he got a C&D letter from Conan Properties International anyway over trademarks. As I understand it, they’re wrong – but John doesn’t have the money to fight this out, which CPI is undoubtedly counting on.
Why am I ticked off at Conan Exiles, then? Two reasons: one, they’re owned by the same company (FunCom) that owns CPI. Two, and this is the important one: I know for a fact that FunCom utterly ignores equivalent use of the Conan IP, in the form of unauthorized mods for Conan Exiles. I know this because until last night I had a game full of those mods on my hard drive. I could forgive a consistent IP strategy. I don’t feel like rewarding an inconsistent one.
Not that FunCom cares. I’m aware of that. It’s a free country, and they can choose to (legally) follow whatever policies they like. And I can choose to stop giving them my money, too.
Moe Lane
Comments on OP suggest FunCom/CPI is partly owned by TenCent, i.e. the ChiComs. Maybe a good riddance anyhow.