Further statement about Éditions Sans-Détour

Earlier this month we announced that Chaosium has not renewed Éditions Sans-Détour license for Call of Cthulhu, and that a new French licensee will be announced shortly.

Please be advised that Éditions Sans-Détour does not have a current license to publish or sell their translation of Chaosium’s copyrighted Masks of Nyarlathotep and Day of the Beast material. The earlier license that would have permitted them to do this expired in September of 2018 due to non-payment of royalties and other contract violations. This includes failure to pay Chaosium the royalties owed for the Masks of Nyarlathotep/Day of the Beast crowdfunding campaign on Ulule.com.

As of October 1, 2018, ESD are not permitted to publish or sell any new Call of Cthulhu material. This includes any material that was in development, but not for sale as of October 1, 2018. Until sales reports are issued and those missing royalties are paid in full, or we can otherwise reach a satisfactory resolution, ESD is no longer permitted to sell or produce any material related to that crowdfunding campaign.

We noted in our earlier announcement that we do not want ESD's failure to perform its contractual duties to result in Ulule backers not getting the product they have already paid for. We stated we are willing to work with ESD to enable it to fulfil its crowdfunding obligations. We are attempting to negotiate with ESD to reach an agreement that would allow them a temporary license to publish this new material, but these efforts have not been successful. ESD have simply not responded in substance to any of our requests to discuss the matter with them.

If the situation is resolved we will provide an update immediately. But without a new agreement, any attempt by Éditions Sans-Détour to release new Call of Cthulhu material will be considered a serious breach of contract, as well as a copyright and trademark violation. 

We have written to Ulule.com to inform them that ESD no longer has a license to publish or sell the Masks of Nyarlathotep and Day of the Beast material that was crowdfunded on their platform.

It is deeply unfortunate that Éditions Sans-Détour has caused this problem for the Ulule backers. Chaosium is making every effort to resolve the matter positively, but can only do so with the cooperation of Éditions Sans-Détour.

Michael O'Brien
Head of Licensing
Vice President - Chaosium Inc.
www.chaosium.com