Connecticut-based ComicMix has been sued for trying to sell a book called Oh, The Places You'll Boldly Go!, which was proposed on Kickstarter as a "mash-up" of Dr. Seuss and Star Trek. The lawsuit raises the question of what kind of "fan fiction" may be legally allowed in a world that's embracing "remix" culture.

The plaintiff in the case is Dr. Seuss Enterprises, or DSE, which owns the copyrights and trademarks related to Theodor Geisel, the author and illustrator who wrote children's books under the Dr. Seuss pseudonym, including one called Oh, The Places You'll Go!

ComicMix and the project's creators, Glenn Hauman, David Friedman, and Ty Templeton, raised tens of thousands of dollars on Kickstarter before they were hit with an intellectual property complaint from DSE. At that point, the Kickstarter page was taken down. The lawsuit was filed on Friday and reported yesterday by The Hollywood Reporter.

The complaint shows detailed drawings of settings that precisely mirror pages in various Dr. Seuss books, but fill them with original lyrics and characters from the Star Trek world. Here are two examples:

The creators were aware that they might get taken to court. On their Kickstarter page, they wrote:

While we firmly believe that our parody, created with love and affection, fully falls within the boundary of fair use, there may be some people who believe that this might be in violation of their intellectual property rights. And we may have to spend time and money proving it to people in black robes. And we may even lose that.

According to the complaint, DSE sent ComicMix et al. a cease and desist letter on September 28 and another on October 7, but the defendants did not "substantively respond" to either. DSE then sent Kickstarter a notice claiming the fund-raising campaign violated their rights, and it was disabled on October 7.

The complaint seeks up to $150,000 in damages for "each separate Dr. Seuss Copyrighted Work" that was infringed, as well as any profits made from the book thus far. DSE also seeks an order forbidding the authors of Oh, The Places You'll Boldly Go! from showing the allegedly infringing comic book in any way.

The Dr. Seuss case comes on the heels of another prominent lawsuit over fan fiction: the CBS complaint against Axanar, an unauthorized Star Trek film.