Rider-Waite Deck Copyright?

Is the Rider-Waite Deck copyrighted by US Gaming System? Or is it in the public domain? I did some research and Wikipedia says it is in the public domain as of now, but I really can't trust Wikipedia. Still doing research at the moment, but I want to make a post to see if anyone knows anything--or if there are good sources to find out about tarot copyrights.

I am planning to use images from the RWS tarot deck for a book I am writing.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Kim

Why not go over to the RWS threads as l think this has been discussed before, lots of good discussions in that thread

http://www.tarotforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=58

Here you can find the best explanation of the situation that I know of. It's still inconclusive, though, because much of it depends on location and subjective interpretation of the law.

The sad fact is that the copyright belongs to however has the biggest guns. As far as I know, the public domain status of the RWS has never been tested in court, probably because anyone who would try would be bowled over by USG's lawyers. They're just too big. What is certain, though, is that it will definitively be released into the public domain everywhere in 2021, unless copyright laws are drastically changed by then.

Thank you for the resources. From the looks of it, RWS entering the public domain seems to be the trend, but I probably wouldn't risk copyright issues with the Us Games Systems. I simply don't have the resources to deal with that lol.

Here's some more. I don't know how much longer they can keep it up.

The Stieglitz letter referenced is this one.

There's also a good article about it all in Manteia. I'll try and pull that out from the whole thing and link it - but it's 16 vlumes and my hard copy is slightly buried just now.

If you use a version that was colored by US Games that robber baron Stuart Kaplan will come after you.

If you use the black and white version (Dover?) or a very early printing (Pam A, B) you have a better chance.

some websites and tarot apps tried to use RWS rights free and were legally chased. I know some of those apps are not available in some countries now on the different app stores, I know they got removed from Europe, I don't know if they are still available in other areas of the world. It should be public domain now here, once again it's the fear of the legal fight that keeps the copyright going but they can make app stores block it in some territories!

Shade said:

If you use a version that was colored by US Games that robber baron Stuart Kaplan will come after you.

Click to expand...

I don't know why you would call him that. There actually is another side to it. It's his, he bought it, he even defended that in court. We can find many problems with the law itself, but a copyright on a property also serves to protect it from becoming cheap. After all, we all know that the second the copyright is released, we'll be seeing RWS toilet paper. None of it is done with malice, but it is the cornerstone of his company that, without Random House, isn't as big and as monolithic as people make it out to be. It's just business.

Heck, if I'm not mistaken there are people on the forum who have actually met him, and he showed them his Tarot collection. Plus, although he's makes money off it, one shouldn't shrug off his incomparable contributions to modern Tarot. Let's not be too quick to demonize actual people.

Yes, from everything I have read, he is dedicated to tarot, passionate about it. It is because of him that many now popular decks even exist, and some that I love though are not so like the Ukiyo-e.

There must be thousands of books showing RWS and other Tarot cards. I wonder, did most of the authors pay for (or get for free) the permission to publish the pictures? Are their books potentially going to be taken off the market, otherwise? How can you find out what is in the public domain and what is not? What about the "fair use" policy? Maybe some folks experienced could explain all that a little more in general here. I'd appreciate it as it may well become an issue for me, too (and others on the forum) in the near future.