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Hobbit Pub Saved By Actors Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen
Fluffeh writes "Recently the Hobbit Pub in England was sued for rights infringement, but it seems Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen are going to re-pony-up the cash to keep the pub alive. Landlady Stella Roberts said she had been shocked by the actors' offer. She said: 'I had a telephone call on Saturday evening, while we were trading, from Stephen Fry's business partner and manager. That's when he told me. I was very shocked. They've said as soon as they finish filming they would like to come down and visit the pub.' However Ms Roberts said she was not celebrating just yet. She added: 'Until everything is in black and white, on paper, we're going to be a bit reserved because it could be $100 this year and $20,000 next year.'"
Because it comes in PINTS!
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
I see you are a new user here...we can let it slide this time, but any real /. user would understand why this is a story here!!!!
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Because IP law is a thing of interest to nerds, and they believe that it's stuff that matters. But maybe not to you, sooooo, quick, let's bicker on the Internets now because your preferences aren't the same as everyone elses. Your whiney post has been somewhat legitimized by my humorous comment; you're welcome, no charge, it appears you could use a little bit of a sense of humor, and I have a little extra to share with the less fortunate. ^_^
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
OK, keep in mind the serious geekness of professing a love for LotR. Add to that an IP conflict in that this woman was ignored for years and now is gettin hammered on by the IP cops.
I could go on, but you get the general drift...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Because it's a matter of freedom... of speech AND beer!
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
It's not just the use of the name "The Hobbit" it's the use of Still Images from the LOTR movies in their promotional material. Essentially, these people are lifting copyrighted imagery and using it to promote themselves -- most definitely NOT cool and if I was one of the parties that ponied up hundreds of millions to make these films, I'd be a bit peeved by someone taking that work and using it without permission to make a profit.
I can only imagine that Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen do not know the full story here and possibly think that this is a matter of a harmless pub merely using the word "Hobbit" in their name and have not seen the website or promotional material produced by this pub.
And for the record, the web site and promo material is completely amateur and quite tacky. Hopefully any money given to the pub to support them would mandate that they cease using imagery from the movies and perhaps use hand drawn illustrations by fans and artists who wish to contribute artwork for them to use.
True and in general I think it is a pretty dick move, but they are using images from the movies on their websites which I think is a bit of a no no.
The difference here is, from TFA:
The pub in Bevois Valley, which is popular with students, has traded with the name for more than 20 years.
That pub existed wayyy before the movies made the franchise famous. It's not like they decided to name the business to ride on the films' fame.
Perhaps not, but they certainly started selling stuff with the images of the characters from the movie including putting Elijah Woods face on things. That's what prompted the legal action.
1. I agree this is petty bullshit.
That said...
2. The pub has likenesses FROM THE MOVIE. "It features characters from Tolkien's stories on its signs, has "Frodo" and "Gandalf" cocktails on the menu, and the face of Lord of the Rings film star Elijah Wood on its loyalty card."
The name "hobbit" is only about 1% of the issue.
I'll mince no words: Saul Zaentz is and always has been an ahole. He only owns the rights to the film version of the book, he does not own the book. He ripped off Credence Clearwater's John Fogerty long ago, and then had the audacity to sue Fogerty for hundreds of millions, claiming John did not have the right to use his own riffs. He lost the suit but remained a complete dick. This man is the epitomy of wrong.
The sad part is that you actually believe your childish little rant has any bearing on the issue. You don't You're absolutely clueless.
That word "Hobbit" predates JRR is irrelevant. That words starting with "hob" have existed in even less relevant. (Words don't even exist in any human language to express how irrelevant the latter is.)
They aren't being sued because they used the word "Hobbit". They're being sued because they used the word Hobbit in association with The Lord of The Rings - Something JRR did claim exclusive right over by the very act of copyrighting his works. And by establishing a literary estate, he willingly and knowingly granted his descendents the right to enforce that claim.
They're also being sued because they used imagery from the movie on their website.
Okay, mods, that's a new one... you can't call the First Post "Redundant".
Obviously, you can. Are you doubting the evidence of your own eyes?
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
The vast majority of Slashdot readers probably thought is was both funny and a much better answer to your (cave?) troll than was deserved.
If you can't see the point or the humor the problem may not be whether the post belongs on Slashdot, but whether you do...
Website of the pub: http://www.hobbitpub.co.uk/"
Most of the "infringing material" is mere fan art like this graffiti in the beer garden: http://www.hobbitpub.co.uk/gallery/hobbitgraffiti/67/
Even thought it is just a drawing they were asked to over-paint it.
Here is a still from the movie used as background for a card: http://www.hobbitpub.co.uk/hobbit-cocktails/
That's pretty much it.
I think Steven Fry and Sir Ian McKellen are right when they call the claims "petty". How many pubs are there with images of e.g. Elvis Presley? I am sure someone has a copyright to them as well. So all auxiliary lawyers here should calm the f*** down.
...an old guy who stands in front of implacable foes. Granted, lawyers are worse than ancient supernatural fire demons.
So if I'm going to a pub, and it has Coca-Cola posters, than Coca-Cola can sue them ?
Probably. However, usually Coca-Cola pays people to display their posters. It's called ad-ver-tise-ment.
However, in this case : they are just being fined into oblivion, after 20 years.
If by "fined into oblivion" you mean
Producer Paul Zaentz told the BBC trademark law dictated it had to act against infringements of its brands, but were open to licensing the pub to use them.
He said: "When it's an established business, we like to get the company to acknowledge they are using our trademarks, stop selling infringing articles and then we will grant them a licence for a nominal fee - approximately $100 a year.
Please, go away and take your stupid with you before it rubs off on others.
Perhaps not, but they certainly started selling stuff with the images of the characters from the movie including putting Elijah Woods face on things. That's what prompted the legal action.
I haven't seen any indication that the character image infringement issues were what "really" prompted the action. If that were so, this would be a non-story now (since they've removed all copyrighted pictures from their website and fliers) The copyright infringement may be where the pub was most definitively in the wrong, but it is far from the core of the issue.
It's redundant in that practically every story has at least one post saying how it's a nonstory. The guy claiming this one to be a nonstory is particularly off base in that the story involves Lord of the Rings, intellectual property law, and beer... the only way it could be more relevant to Slashdot's collective interests is if the ghost of Steve Jobs was found drinking there with Linus Torvalds.
No, definitely not. However, the image of a character from the movie is definitely copyrightable, and the names can be trademarked in the context of the movie. So if you just happened to be named Frodo, you could use your name all you want, unless you attempted to present some connection with the movie (or possibly the book).
dom
It's the Hobbit pub. It comes in half pints, you insensitive clod!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
It's the Hobbit pub. It comes in half pints, you insensitive clod!
Is that a European or an American hobbit? (An American Hobbit is only 0.42 pints).
But imagery from the LotR movies does not predate Tolkien, and the pub has been gratuitously using that in recent years.
So why not tell them to stop doing that rather than trying to sue them out of existence?
Either Jobs or Torvalds would need to be using a car analogy.
It's the Hobbit pub. It comes in half pints, you insensitive clod!
"Do you think they'll make jokes about our height?"
"Of course not! If we behave like tall people, we'll be treated tall people!"
"What'll it be, gents?"
"We'd like a half pint of ale, a plate of short ribs with small fries, and a short order of shrimp!"
"That's tellin' 'im, Mr. Frodo!"
(From The Ring and I, musical parody of the Bakshi version of Lord of the Rings, in Mad Magazine ~1978).
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
I feel I should address some of the issues raised in these comments. Firstly, the lawsuit was threatened because of their name. Second, the letter Mr Zaentz sent us was certainly NOT amicable, but we're not allowed to share it for legal reasons. Regarding use of images from the movie, perhaps that wasn't very well thought through, but anyone who has been to the pub could tell you that the places these images are used don't really have a bearing on sales at all - people don't buy loyalty cards because they've got Elijah Wood's face on, and nor do they buy an Aragorn drink simply because the poster has Viggo Mortensen's face on it. The pub has never tried to piggy-back on the movies' success. It's just a slightly geeky pub run by Tolkien fans for students who wouldn't see it changed for the world. Perhaps there have been some foolish but well-meaning errors committed. There are bigger things to deal with in the world of IP than small British pubs.
One does not simply walk into Mordor...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I gather you have never heard of fair use.
Congratulations, you are a big fucking idiot. There's nothing in fair use which permits the use of someone else's IP for your own economic benefit. Fair use is for education and critique. You may make full copies of any materials needed for a formal educational lesson and copy as much as needed of any work for critique. Nothing in there says "you may use small clips, stills, and other unique characteristics from privately owned works to advertise your pub"
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I gather you have never heard of fair use.
I gather you're not from the UK, or at least are not familiar with our copyright laws. There is no "fair use" provision. There is a "fair dealing" provision, but by my reading of the details this does not fall under it.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
The name "Gandalf" was lifted by Tolkien from Norse mythology(along with a shitload of other stuff), and was actually the name of a dwarf.
Norse mythology is worshiped as Asetro today, and is a legit faith in Scandinavia, so if you try to trademark a name like that, you'd be violating human rights.
It would be like trying to trademark a name from the Christian Bible, which I don't think is possible, even in USA.
If so, I think I'll write a novel with this guy, lets call him Jesus, and sue for rights infringement!
-H