I’m joining such august company as John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, and Popehat, so I feel included in the wave of righteous anger spilling over the internet right now. This stands to get me in more trouble, but I feel so strongly about it that I must post. I simply must.
To that end:
Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine!
And furthermore: Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine Space Marine
Shame on you, G4mes Workshop. We get it. You want to defend your W4rhammer properties against knockoffs. You make lovely games and figures (if hideously overpriced), and The Bl4ck Library looks like a great publisher. That doesn’t mean you should claim ‘common law copyright’ or whatever on an independent, self-published American author by using a British law…after deciding that since you are now in the e-book trade, you can roll over anyone else who is using the term ‘Space Marine’. Which has existed in speculative fiction since, oh, sometime in the 1930s.
And shame on Amazon for instantly obeying a hinky takedown notice, just because they decided their chances of getting sued by a poor author were less than by GW.
There is a story behind my insanity. Interested readers can find it start here.
Ha! Scalzi and Gaiman are on it now–those guys are going down! Beside, they can’t own the trademark, it’s already in use.
Should be fun to watch the storm hit, though.