[davem]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

Now, the basis of davem's annoyance seems to be that the Tolkien Estate can and does rigidly control the production and dissemination of all material by and closely related to J.R.R. Tolkien, including his image, languages and, apparently, favourite typefaces. I can't really blame them for wanting to do this, and to be honest I can't really fault the law for allowing them to do so.

Not really - what the Estate were attempting to do was prevent the use of a historical figure (JRR Tolkien) in a fictional work. If that is not to be allowed then you effectively end both historical fiction which uses real people as characters (ie everything from WWII novels which depict Churchill or a recent Doctor Who episode which featured Richard Nixon, & the like, would not be legal) or even non fiction works like Carpenter's Inklings & the invented 'typical' Inkilings meeting in the chapter Thursday Nights. You wouldn't be able to use any historical figure without the permission of their Estate.

The point of libel laws is to prevent people from disseminating false written reports of our personalities and conduct, and the Tolkien estate is trying, by controlling the use of Tolkien's image, to maintain that protection for JRRT posthumously as I should like to do for my own family.

But you can't libel the dead. And the Estate is not attempting to use libel, but 'copyright' - which doesn't (& never has) applied to a dead individual's personality or character. And whether or not you would 'like' to maintain such protection for your own family, legally you don't have that right.

It shouldn't be enough to transplant the false report into a loosely fictional environment and claim artistic freedom.

But legally it is enough.

The basic principle seems to be that the Estate doesn't want to see people making money out of JRRT's name, image and ideas unless they get a cut of the profits and the project is one that they consider appropriate.

Would you apply that same principle to the Estates of individuals you didn't like - should the heirs of Richard Nixon, Saddam Hussain or Myra Hindley have the right to prevent them being depicted in drama/drama-docs in ways that they didn't like?

I didn't know him, and a fictonalised version of someone runs too great a risk of creating a new and inaccurate public perception of that person. Perhaps that is why the Estate is so keen to suppress such a use of JRRT,

But again, you're missing the point - its not about what the Estate is keen to do, or what they'd like - its about the law & their rights under copyright. They don't have the right to demand what they did.

As for blurring the lines between fiction and reality, literary criticism and literature itself, ..... Such an approach runs the risk of creating poor criticism that is also dull literature, and failing to please even its own tiny target audience. Perhaps without the controversy of an attempted ban we'd be looking at yet another forgettable book in a long tradition of forgettable books.

Again, this is not about 'running risks' - & if it was I'd say the risks of such a 'ban' on the use of historical figures in fiction/Lit crit are infinitely greater - its about what's legal & what isn't. The Estate simply don't have the rights they were claiming - & nor should they. Set aside the fact that this is about JRRT - this is very simple - should a writer be able to use historical figures in fiction or not? If you oppose JRRT being used as a character in this book you ought equally to oppose any work of fiction - book/movie/TV series - which depicts historical figures.