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Heh, more of this shit.
Remember, the only reason we can still watch the highly influential 1922 vampire movie Nosferatu today is because some people didn't destroy all their copies despite a court saying they had to.
DISOBEY DESTRUCTION ORDERS.
COPY ALL THE THINGS.
The author in question here was pretty shitty. He wrote his own sequel to called "Fellowship of the King", and then sued Amazon and the Tolkien estate saying they stole elements from his book. He lost, and the Tolkien estate countersued.
The guy played stupid games and won stupid prizes.
Yeah, I read. I don't have much sympathy for him. He sounds like a jerk.
IMO preserving the content is more important than honoring him (or, for that matter, humiliating him).
Hey this is a pretty interesting story, got a link?
Here a pretty good version of it
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086605684/try-as-she-might-bram-stokers-widow-couldnt-kill-nosferatu
Some older dutch movies were released as rentals to the theaters that had to be returned after they stopped playing the movie. These copies were all destroyed and re-releases on DVD now look worse than what it looked like in movie theatres.
The good news is that some theatres hung on to some movies.
In my opinion LotR should've already entered the public domain but thanks to Disney well have to wait until 2044 for that.
Can't have the already well-off children go without their steady income that they didn't have to work for...
Well how else are we supposed to encourage people to be related to people who develop intellectual property? It makes sense from a neponomic standpoint.
Embracer is gonna be the next one to beg for an extension.
It may as well be, they’re endorsing all sorts of shit content lately (like the Golem game, or the ring of power)
Don't worry, they'll manage to get it extended again before 2044.
Such optimism that it wont be extended again.
You can't just extend copyright indefinitely. It's not like a patent, where you can make minute changes and claim it's a new product. The original works have a copyright limit of 95 years after the first date of publish (thanks Disney and other corporate lobbyists).
If we go by The Return of the King, it was published in 1955. That means the words, the story, the settings, and the characters will be public domain in 2050. Steamboat Willie, on the other hand, was published in 1928. That means it expires at the end of this year. Unless Disney can convince Congress to change copyright law again, these copyrights all have hard expiration dates.
ETA: Disney might have a case where they can claim copyright on the information they added or changed from the original works, just like how they can still claim copyright over Mickey after losing Steamboat Willie.
And I'm sure they will, because fuck society, amirite? /s
Look, I agree his works shouldn't be destroyed, just not monetizable.
But the dude poked a bear with a sharp stick... Suing the creators of the story/characters you've built your content on for copyright infringement? Brilliant move....
Right? Like I’d go write Harry Potter 8 and then sue WB lol that guy is nuts.
Copyright's explicit purpose is to encourage new works.
Any form of "unpublishing" is theft from the public. You wanna say a guy can't make money on a thing? Great, fine, go nuts. But nothing any human being put effort into deserves to be lost forever.
The author then filed suit against both Amazon and the Tolkien estate, claiming the streaming series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” had borrowed from his sequel and infringed his copyright.
The gall.
Tolkien Estate? What's that? People profiting off of the work of an author who has been dead for 50 years?
Copyright law is fucked up.
The only sane thing to do in response to this is the same thing that SHOULD have been done when Paramount went all sue happy on folks making unofficial Star Trek stuff.
Creators should stop making things related to their works and consumers should stop consuming and giving Paramount money for the official works.
The lesson being if the rights holder for something wants to keep it all to themselves, let them, forget it exists and starve it out of profitable existence. Spend the time and money with content, creators, and consumers that don't believe sucking up ever dime that's not nailed down is, or should be, the ultimate goal.
Did you even read the article? This dumbass wrote a book based on LotR characters and then HE tried to sue the Tolkien estate and Amazon. This person actually probably needs mental help if they think this could have worked, it was such an incredibly bad idea that there has to be some kind of mental health crises involved.
Worth also mentioning the Tolkien estate is notoriously letigous. There are piracy sites that specifically ban Tolkiens works from being uploaded for that very reason.
They plagiarized his fanfiction. Theoretically you would have rights to your stories even if they involve characters that you don't have rights to.
What was this guy thinking? He was clearly violating copyright.
Is he just soft in the head, or is he up to something us not crazy people can't see?
More to the point, who's got a link so we can judge this fanfic for ourselves?
While this is piracy adjacent, good on Amazon and Tolkien's estate for shutting down that trash lol
lol, Amazon's LOTR was trash.
I don't even like Tolkien (find his writing to be just excessive, I don't need to know the color of the buttons on the shirt of the dead character with no name), and even I have to agree, lol.
Too many re-interpretations of authors' works. Tolkien is highly detailed - not reflecting that (or worse, substituting your own details) in a movie or show is just hubris. If you're so damn good why don't you write your own shit. Oh, your name doesn't sell instantly is why.
So much money, just absolutely wasted.
Amazon should be sued for the Rings of Power
I can’t really weigh in, as I couldn’t get more than 30 minutes into it.
This guy was just deluded to think he was in the right or could win.
I think it's okay to let this one go doesn't seem like there is any value in his work.
I do think it's time to open up the rights to older IPs and let the community make their own stories within universes though. I loved all the star wars EU stuff as a kid.
Yeah, the article itself makes me a lot less sympathetic towards the author than the headline would suggest, given he instigated this whole legal dispute on frankly idiotic premises.