'Fuzzy Ergo Sum' copyright claim triggers revised edition

Fuzzy Ergo Sum, by Wolfgang Diehr, published in March by Pequod Press (review), is now in a revised Second Edition after a copyright claim.

The novel, intended as a “fourth” Fuzzy novel after H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Sapiens, and Fuzzies and Other People, is based on the 1962 Hugo-nominated Little Fuzzy, which entered the public domain in 2006.

Two other Fuzzy novels, William Tuning’s 1981 Fuzzy Bones and Ardath Mayhar’s 1982 Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey, have been disowned from the Fuzzy canon. However, three months after Fuzzy Ergo Sum was published, Golden Dream publishers Ace Books charged that it was in copyright violation.

Although Diehr based his sequel on the public domain Little Fuzzy, he scattered throughout it words in the Fuzzy language created by Ardath Mayhar in Golden Dream. Diehr had gotten Mayhar’s permission to use the words, but Ace Books complained that Golden Dream is copyrighted by Ace, not Mayhar, and Ace did not give its permission!

Diehr had to rewrite Fuzzy Ergo Sum to alter Mayhar’s Fuzzy language into something original. Now, in September, the Second Edition of Fuzzy Ergo Sum has been published, changing over 300 words of the Fuzzies’ Gashta language, and correcting typographical errors in the first edition.

Fewer than 100 copies were printed of the hardcover first edition, which is now a “rare collectible”. Amazon.com has it listed for $2,475.00.