Public domain in the US, the EU and the UK

The Call of CthulhuH. P. Lovecraft, 1928

Lovecraft's 1928 story, and Cthulhu with it, is free in the US, the EU and the UK. The games, comics and stories other writers added to the Mythos are not.

First published
1928
Author died
1937
Original language
English
Start my adaptationOriginal texts

Copyright status

Copyright ends at different dates in different countries. Here is where this work stands in the three places most readers release in.
WhereStatus
United StatesPublic domain. First published in 1928, before 1931: the 95-year US term for works of that age has run out.
European Union and United KingdomPublic domain since 1 January 2008. H. P. Lovecraft died in 1937, and the term is 70 years after the end of the year of death.
Other countriesMost countries protect a work for 50 to 100 years after its author's death, and some have transition rules. If you release or sell in a specific country, check its law.

Status checked on October 26, 2026 against the sources listed in our legal guide.

After his great-uncle's death, Francis Thurston finds his notes on a strange clay figure: an octopus-headed, winged monster carved by a young artist from his dreams. Thurston pieces together a police raid on a cult in the Louisiana swamps and the account of a Norwegian sailor whose crew landed on a city that had risen from the sea. There they woke Cthulhu, a vast creature sleeping beneath the Pacific, and only the sailor came back.

Free to use

  • The 1928 story: Thurston, Professor Angell, Inspector Legrasse, the sailor Johansen, the cult and the sunken city R'lyeh.
  • Cthulhu as Lovecraft describes him, and the chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
  • The structure of an investigation pieced together from documents.
  • Any version: a podcast-style horror film, a modern investigation, a series.

Watch out for

  • Lovecraft's later stories each have their own date: check that a story was first published before 1931 before you borrow from it.
  • Stories, characters and names that other writers added to the Mythos after Lovecraft are protected. So are role-playing games, their art and their trademarks.
  • New translations are protected. Use the original English or an old translation.
  • AI models have seen countless fan images of Cthulhu. Describe Lovecraft's creature in your art direction and check the result against the text.

The full rules, with the laws and court decisions behind them, are in our guide to adapting public domain works.

An adaptation idea

The Emma's last log: the sailors who landed on R'lyeh, told in real time.

Format: A 15-minute short, or three episodes, one per document.

Adapt it in ScreenWeaver

These are the steps as they run in ScreenWeaver today. You read and edit every step, and you start every generation yourself, in the app.

  1. 1Download the text below and save it as a PDF with a text layer.
  2. 2Attach it to a film project and ask for the characters, places and objects. Create the clay figure and Cthulhu as story elements.
  3. 3Write the art direction: a professor's study in Providence, a swamp at night, a city of impossible angles under a grey sky. Add a style image of your own.
  4. 4Ask for the scenes, then the shots; keep Cthulhu mostly unseen until the end.
  5. 5Generate the frames in Storyboard, then the clips in Production.

How a whole book becomes scenes and shots: novel to storyboard.

Original texts

Where to get The Call of Cthulhu from a legal source

Questions

Is Cthulhu public domain?
The Call of Cthulhu was published in 1928, so it is free in the US, and H. P. Lovecraft died in 1937, so it is free in the EU and the UK. The creature as he wrote it is free; later games and stories by others are not.
Can I use other Lovecraft stories?
Most of what he published in his lifetime is old enough, but check each one's date of first publication before you use it.
Can I use designs from a Cthulhu game?
No. A game's art, rules and trademarks belong to its publisher. Design your creature from the story.

General information, not legal advice. Copyright, trademark and personality rights depend on the country and on the facts of each project. For a commercial release, have a lawyer check your chain of rights.

Other works to adapt

Start your adaptation.

Import The Call of Cthulhu, build the cast and the places, write the scenes and cut them into shots. The Screenwriter plan is free.
Start my adaptation