Hi all, this is my first post here. This particular topic interests me.
There's another layer to this lawsuit that I think you should all be aware of.
There's this total conversion mod for Skyrim that remakes Middle Earth in a map nine times the size of Skyrim's map. It's a really ambitious non-profit fan project.
Magic will be largely restricted to be more lore friendly. Spears will be implemented to the arsenal of weapons. There will be enhanced mounted combat.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/merp-middl...pons1#imagebox
Merp will also have its own original music and voice too. Here's a track.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/merp-middl...und-3#imagebox
There will be three "modes" to play. A Ringbearer quest-line, where you play as Frodo and go through his journey. There will be a dynamic timeline where events in the world are triggered by the dates they occur in the books. Best hurry to Mt. Doom before the Battle at the Black Gate is over.
There's also a White Council "mode", where you run errands and such for the White Council and a free roam "mode" similar to Skyrim. Each mode will have a ton of quests to complete. It would difficult to complete them in the Ringbearer mode and White Council mode because you'd have other duties to attend to and little time.
There's also supposed to be a realism mode, where the player has to worry about food and water. Viewing the map is restricted and combat is much more unforgiving in this mode.
In July Warner Brothers sent the project a cease and desist letter.
The modding team tried negotiating with them, even offering to severely limit the mod. WB didn't care. They wanted Merp gone, claiming that Merp would cannibalize the market. A multibillion dollar company feeling threatened by a non-profit fan mod.
The mod team got a lawyer and started a petition to revoke the cease and desist. The petition currently has over 28,000 signers. Maybe not much for WB, but nonetheless the team persevered.
In late November, The Tolkien Estate sued Zaentz and the their sub licensee Warner Brothers. In addition to the slot machines, Warner Brothers never had the legal rights to "non-tangible digital media". Entities such as Merp were beyond their jurisdiction, rendering their Cease and Desist void. The Tolkien Estate had inadvertently saved Merp.
Now however, Zaentz is counter suing the Estate, threatening to throw Merp back under the rule of Warner Brothers and undo the Estate's actions. This conflict between these two juggernauts does, in a way, decide the fate of fan projects like Merp.