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?"

Comments

do-not-meddle-in-the-affairs-of-greedy-offspring

[intellitech]

That's really what it comes down to. The lawyers are just doing the bidding of Tolkien's offspring.

Sorry Public Figure

[Hangtime]

Tolkein was/is a public figure, feels like there isn't much to stand on here especially if its fiction and portrayed as such. Seems like this fall well within the fair use realm.

70 years + is too damn much

[mbone]

More evidence that the copyright term is much too long.

Re:my Tolkien account

[Darkness404]

Except for the fact that there should be no Tolkien estate owning the rights to it. The idea that someone's heirs can say what you can and can't do with a piece of fiction written over 55 years ago written by someone who died 38 years ago is ridiculous. Copyright needs to be much, much, much more limited. When you look at the history of literature, all of it has been shaped through remixing and reusing ideas and stories of those who wrote before.