Games Workshop Rights Bullying Hits a New Low

[Editor's note: Hogarth's Spots the Space Marine is back up on Amazon. It had been removed after Games Workshop sent Amazon a DMCA notice earlier this week back in December. Legal lesson, folks--DMCA applies to COPYRIGHT, NOT TRADEMARKS. (My apologies for the incorrect date regarding the DMCA notice.)]

M.C.A. Hogarth is an incredible writer and a brilliant artist. She wrote, among many other things, a story called Spots the Space Marine.

For those of you who aren't SF fans, the term "space marine" has been around forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but at least sixty years. The company Games Workshop decided to trademark a commonly used SF term.

Then they decided to go after folks who used the term, but not just any folks. They didn't go after the estate of Robert Heinlein or John Ringo. No, they went after folks they thought wouldn't or couldn't fight back. Like M.C.A. Hogarth.

Several folks have dealt with this issue far more extensively than I could. John Scalzi gives his usual acerbic breakdown of the term in literature. Angela Benedetti adds her two-cents as a game writer. Cory Doctorow has his own snarky take at Boing Boing. C.E. Petit gives some legal thoughts over at Scrivener's Error.

For M.C.A. to fight this, it's going to take money. A lot of it. If you'd like to support her, here a few things you can do:

Buy Spots the Space Marine. It's still available at Smashwords.
Buy her artwork or drop a tip in her tip jar.
Buy her books at Amazon.
Buy her other books at Smashwords.

Thank you in advance for supporting another writer!

P.S. If Spots isn't your cup of tea, I highly recommend Claws and Starships!