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'The Hobbit' Pub Threatened With Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "'The Hobbit,' a small pub in Southampton, England, has been threatened with a lawsuit by lawyers representing the Saul Zaentz Company in California. The pub, which has traded under the name for the last 20 years without incident, now faces closure if it does not change its name. It's yet another example of big business throwing its weight around to get its way. The pub's landlady said simply, 'I can't fight Hollywood.'"
Change name to "The Halfling". Problem solved.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
The Habit.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
The "Fuck you Hollywood"
Here:
http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheHobbitSouthampton?ref=ts
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Terminate and Stay Resident? Am I increasing or decreasing my geek cred when I admit that's the only TSR I know?
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
Dungeons and Dragons before it was bought by Wizards of the Coast.
It's an American company doing the suing.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Name it the Ten-Forward Lord Smoked Meat and Fish's Leaky Cauldron Pub and Mos Eisley Cantina of the Vulgar Unicorn.
With all the lawsuit Publicity, you'll never close. Throw in a walk-down like Cheers and a surly endangered animal smuggling bartender named Moe, and the lawyers will be your best patrons.
If you look at their website, you'll see they use likenesses of the characters from the movies in their advertising. If the pub was just using fan artwork or coming up with their own graphical material (while using the names), they may have been left alone. But they are using the faces from the movie in their own advertising and promotional material (posters, loyalty card). That's just asking for trouble.
Its not what it is, its something else.
....if nine of them showed up to the pub dressed as Nazgul.
Interestingly, the original edition of the Lord of the Rings is in the public domain in the US due to an error by his publisher at the time. Tolkien had to go back and make a revised edition and market it with a note on the back pleading with fans not to buy the Ace Books edition that he saw no royalties from. So presumably a similar pub in the US (e.g. Bilbo Baggins, in Alexandria, VA) is on safer ground than this one in the UK.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Mr. Saul Zaentz has a long history of being a dick. Zaentz sued Creedence Clearwater's John Fogerty for plagiarizing himself (!) asking $140 million in damages, and lost.
Zaentz's perception is that he owns the 'brand' Hobbit, although he only owns screen rights.
If your idea of Nazi style jackbooted fascism is a bar being sued because they use direct images from the LotR movies in their advertising, then you're pretty well off, and really don't understand what the people that were actually exposed to fascist tyranny actually had to put up with.
I'd imagine most of their 20 years went by just fine because they weren't using movie stills in their advertising and promotional material on their public website..
http://www.thehobbitpub.co.uk/
Of course they can't fight Hollywood, since they've been using stills from the movies in their advertising. Take a look at their website, that's obviously a photograph of Elijah Wood from the LOTR movies on their "One Card To Bind Them All" loyalty card:
http://www.hobbitpub.co.uk/drink-offers/
They're not fighting Hollywood since they don't have a leg to stand on. If they would have used original artwork instead of copyrighted images from a movie, I'd be on their side.
... Shire Art?
-- Insert witty one-liner here. --
It holds all the water the lawyers can carry.
This case is not about the merits.
It's about a poor defenseless woman being outgunned in the legal arena and losing the case before it even starts because she's too broke to fight back.
Or they could pick a random name from the Völuspá, which is public domain. "Gandalf's", perhaps.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
A bit of information friend... since we became a nation of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation... the government/corporations (they've effectively become one and the same) and the nations people are no longer on speaking terms. Americans are way more pissed off than you ever will be, because our corporations crap on the world weekly but they defecate on us here in the states every few seconds. Please feel free to club a CEO or two. You'll win friends and garner respect here in the states.
While it does seem that way, think on this -
The Hobbit was published in 1937. Under life +70 copyright, it doesn't enter the public domain for another 30 years. This is ludicrous. 75 years after publishing, this stuff is part of our culture and should be free for all.
(Yes, I used to drink at this pub!)
You know, your snarky, self-righteous dismissal might come off as marginally less douchy if this guy wasn't some dickhead film producer who had fuck-all to do with the "success and work" of Tolkien.
It might, but I doubt it.
And put up an apostrophe, it will be pronounced the same in cockney.
the `obbit
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I felt sorry for this pub until I actually went to the website. The summary would have you believe the big guys are trying to crush the little guys over a little innocent naming. Not so-- Visiting the website will immediately welcome you with faces and figures from the films, trademark and copyright infringement everywhere.
I don't feel sorry for a pub that is trying to leech from the popularity of the source material and the films. Maybe it didn't start out that way, but that's what it appears to be now.
Did you see that tiny little text at the bottom of the site? It reads:
Site designed and built by frozendesigns.co.uk
Perhaps the pub should be raising some hell with them. Specifically on why they don't seem to understand the concept of building web sites using only original and/or royalty free images.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Your geek cred remains unadjusted. But your "Get off my lawn" cred shot through the ceiling.
Thanks for that, all this time I was thinking:"Big bully Hollywood using lawyers for no good." Then I went to the site, that sort of looks like a Lord of the Rings fan club and thought:"Ah, shameless copyright infringement, nevermind."
Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
But "Whosover files first wins", in trademark law.
Erm, no. Usage prior to registration is a defence against trademark infrinement, at least in the UK. http://www.inbrief.co.uk/intellectual-property/defences-to-trademark-infringement.htm