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Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

nytimes.com

51–60 of 89 posts

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#51

> In April, Polychron sued the Tolkien estate and Amazon. He claimed that “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” an Amazon Prime Video prequel series that was released last year and is one of the few adaptations authorized by the Tolkien estate, infringed on the copyright of his book. He asked for $250 million in compensation. > Polychron said in court documents that he was inspired by Tolkien and the original “Rings”…

These allegations sound similar to the Mexican Inn Cafe Tragedy. Details deleted, sorry. Thank You, American Courts. \s Who is right does not matter in court if someone who is rich enough stands to lose enough money.

[citation needed]

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#52

> In April, Polychron sued the Tolkien estate and Amazon. He claimed that “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” an Amazon Prime Video prequel series that was released last year and is one of the few adaptations authorized by the Tolkien estate, infringed on the copyright of his book. He asked for $250 million in compensation. > Polychron said in court documents that he was inspired by Tolkien and the original “Rings”…

These allegations sound similar to the Mexican Inn Cafe Tragedy. Details deleted, sorry. Thank You, American Courts. \s Who is right does not matter in court if someone who is rich enough stands to lose enough money.

[deleted]

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think us courts for courts should be in the business of handing out stupid prizes. Instead, they should be measured and consistent with our longstanding social agreements. Someone has to be the adult in the room and seek the moral high ground.

Courts aren't moral entities, they're legal ones. This person went out of their way to put a completely unnecessary legal target on their back. This is absolutely 100% a stupid prizes scenario. I love fan creation and believe it should be enshrined properly in fair use doctrine, but god damn, I cannot imagine being stupid enough to make fan work of an IP and then sue the IP holder because I think they took my idea. H…

I hear you but, if you love fan fiction, it shouldn't even be POSSIBLE to request to delete all copies of the derivative work. In the end copyright was meant to protect new ideas and while this is a follow-up to an existing story, it clearly has new ideas inside

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think us courts for courts should be in the business of handing out stupid prizes. Instead, they should be measured and consistent with our longstanding social agreements. Someone has to be the adult in the room and seek the moral high ground.

Courts aren't moral entities, they're legal ones. This person went out of their way to put a completely unnecessary legal target on their back. This is absolutely 100% a stupid prizes scenario. I love fan creation and believe it should be enshrined properly in fair use doctrine, but god damn, I cannot imagine being stupid enough to make fan work of an IP and then sue the IP holder because I think they took my idea. H…

> Courts aren't moral entities, they're legal ones.

This is totally wrong. We have standards of behaviour and ethics throughout the legal system, and you could lose in court because:

1. You act in a manner that is arbitrary and capricious

2. You show contempt of the court

3. You act in bad faith

4. The contract Shocks the conscience

5. You have mens rea, or guilty mind

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#55

> In April, Polychron sued the Tolkien estate and Amazon. He claimed that “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” an Amazon Prime Video prequel series that was released last year and is one of the few adaptations authorized by the Tolkien estate, infringed on the copyright of his book. He asked for $250 million in compensation. > Polychron said in court documents that he was inspired by Tolkien and the original “Rings”…

These allegations sound similar to the Mexican Inn Cafe Tragedy. Details deleted, sorry. Thank You, American Courts. \s Who is right does not matter in court if someone who is rich enough stands to lose enough money.

Do you have any citations for this case? I haven't been able to find anything that mentions such a court case (or anything mentioning connections between the Mexican Inn and the Frito Company).

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#57
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No aspect of copryright is morally defensible, which is why the lawmakers who created it merely defended it on the grounds of encouraging innovation in science and art.

So you are perfectly OK with laboring for years to conceive, design, and build as unique work of art, writing, or software, from which you could earn a living, and then it being OK for me to just slap my name/label on it and out-market you, taking all the gains and leaving you destitute? Or, are you just someone who does not expect to ever create anything of value?

> So you are perfectly OK with laboring for years to conceive

Then why doesn't Einstein get a patent on Theory of relativity? Why is it okay for scientists to work for decades and have no IP rights over it?

Why does is our system designed so that only corporations can afford the cost of a patent, and most people in the developing world could never afford them?

And after paying all that money we get patents on blatantly fake inventions, like the Antigravity Machine?

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20040070299A1/en

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly do for certain film and tv series that have been banned or cancelled (e.g. Disney's Song of the South).

That’s quite strange.

It's really not. At all.

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because he egregiously misbehaved with his, and this is the resulting punishment This is like some new form of justice, where, if you hit someone with a hammer we punish the hammer?

No; we take away your hammers. It's quite an old approach.

Taking away the hammer would placing the fanwork into public domain.

Here, we are specifically destroying the hammer as a punishment.

Re: Tolkien estate wins court order to destroy fan's 'Lord of the Rings' sequel

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No; we take away your hammers. It's quite an old approach.

Taking away the hammer would placing the fanwork into public domain. Here, we are specifically destroying the hammer as a punishment.

It woudl be odd for the court to resolve a copyright infringement case by more copyright infringement. It's not theirs to put in the public domain; it's the Tolkien estate's IP.
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