Greg Stanton said:
What I HEARD (don't know if it's true) is that the OTO sued several publishers, including US Games, claiming that the Thoth tarot images were their intellectual property. This is why the deck has not been available for some time.
If it's true, I will have lost what very little respect I had left for that organization. Both authors of that deck are dead -- it was their property. So is the OTO exactly like the Church of Scientology now? Run by bullies with spurious claims on the legacy of its guru? I hope the OTO lost and that US Games and other publishers are not paying them for the "rights".
My understanding is that the deck has been hard to get not because USG were sued, but because the OTO won. Crowley left his work to the OTO in his will, and it has now been determined to be their property. Crowley was an undischarged bankrupt at the time of his death, so likely this is the reason why people got away with freely using his material for so long before now.
It's no different to any other intellectual property that falls into someones estate and is passed to their nominated heirs, until such time as it falls into the public domain. Folks who were paying or prepared to pay royalties are still selling the deck without any problems, and its rare in the west only because the market is monopolized by USG. I think we should remember before jumping to defend the poor people at USG, that they are a company that is renowned for vigilantly enforcing their own dubious copyright on the RWS deck, whose creators died somewhat before the Thoth's did. Wonderful that they've got a taste of their own medicine back, a lovely bit of Adjustment for them I say
Maybe the extra few dollars will help the OTO publish more of Crowley's work rather than fund the creation of a "Cats and Puppies hugging Bunnnies" deck to make more dollars for USG. I'm not a fan of the OTO's publishing history, and they're a bit lawsuit-happy, but I think it's daft to argue that Crowley should be the only person in the history of publishing whose work falls into the public domain immediately after his death. Though if we can apply that standard, I'll be bringing out my own edition of the Mickey Mouse drinks Coca Cola in Narnia Tarot in the summer of 2012
