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Tolkien Estate Says No Historical Fiction For JRR
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently the estate of JRR Tolkien isn't just overprotective of his works, but of himself as well. The estate is in a bit of a legal spat with the author of a fictional work that includes JRR Tolkien as a character, and in part discusses his works. The estate is claiming that this infringes on Tolkien's publicity rights, but if that's the case, would it make almost all 'historical fiction' illegal?"
No historical fiction? Would that include Irregular things like Web Comics?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Just change the character's name to R.J.R. Token (Ronald John Token), clearly explain on the cover the Token is a fictional character inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and then tell the estate to get stuffed.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
The estate is claiming that this infringes on Tolkien's publicity rights, but if that's the case, would it make almost all 'historical fiction' illegal?
More evidence that the copyright term is much too long.
The Right of Publicity can be defined simply as the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness or other unequivocal aspects of one's identity.
Maybe I'm missing something really obvious but I was always under the impression that publicity and privacy rights are separate from copyright. This lawsuit is bloody ridiculous and I hope the Tolkien estate loses but as far as I can tell it has very little to do with copyright law.
But this story suggests this is not a copyrights issue, but rather a "publicity rights" issue.
the Tolkien estate, ... alleged that it had a property right to commercially exploit the name and likeness of J.R.R. Tolkien. The estate also alleged that the cover art and typefaces in "Mirkwood" were similar to Tolkien's work to a degree that it would provoke unfair competition.
They are inventing a new right, apparently out of whole cloth, but certainly not based on copyright law.
One can't copyright one's existence, and thereby prevent, say, a biography, a news report, or tabloid coverage.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I'm still not seeing how the descendants, in particular Christopher Tolkien are leaching. CJRT put about three decades effort into organizing and publishing the vast amount of unpublished material than JRRT had written between 1916-17 and his death in 1973 available. CJRT actually was an Oxford professor himself and then spent a good chunk of his own retirement on this organization effort. A good many Tolkien scholars are very grateful for CJRT's efforts.
Tolkien's works were a lot more extensive than just The Hobbit and LOTR.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.