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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?
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?
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.
Do you honestly think you know more about this than Steven Fry? Themed pubs are part of our culture and part of American culture and it is wrong that they are being litigated out of existence. They are not claiming to be official places, they are just pubs or restaurants and it is time that the legal system started defending them.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill 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.
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.
If anyone had bothered to actually look up the details they were only asking for $100 to license the rights. As they also explained, they were legally obligated to license the copyrighted/trademarked material, since failure to pursue a known violation would allow anyone else to do the same. So they did the best thing they could, which is to preserve their IP and license the rights for a trivial fee.
$100 to use all of the likenesses and images from the movie to promote the pub? That sounds like a great deal to me. And as the OP said, it does sound like Fry doesn't know the real story, as ponying up $100 to pay for the license is just a PR stunt.
To quote the licensor:
Zaentz has said: “we’ve tried to be very gracious. We said in the letter [that was sent to Roberts], rather than engage in protracted and expensive litigation, we would prefer to resolve this matter amicably.
“We think asking for a nominal licensing fee is very reasonable. I think $100 would be about the maximum we would charge.”
He went on to say that if he is ever in the neighbourhood then he will stop by for a drink.
OH NO! HOW EVIL!
Besides, it's not American culture, it's a British novel and a British pub...
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.
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.
It's the Hobbit pub. It comes in half pints, you insensitive clod!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
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.