Question about copyrighting and stuff like that...

[The Saucepan Man]

I'm not an intellectual property lawyer and I can, in any event, only speak to the UK legal position.

Under UK law, there is no copyright in a name. Copyright protects artistic works - eg, books, sound recordings, paintings etc - but not individual elements, such as names, phrases etc, within them.

Names can be eligible for protection as a trade mark, and I believe that a number of LotR-related names have been registered as such in connection with LotR merchandise (action figures etc). However, a trade mark will only be infringed when another person uses the same name commercially in connection with the same, or similar, goods or services.

Hope that helps.

[Meneltarmacil]

Thanks, Sauce, for the reply. I, however, am from the U.S., where things are probably different.

[The Might]

I was wondering about quotes.
How big does an excerpt have to be to be considered illegal, and no longer a legal quote?

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by The Might

I was wondering about quotes.
How big does an excerpt have to be to be considered illegal, and no longer a legal quote?

Any quotation from a literary work beyond a mere name, title, slogan or phrase will generally constitute a breach of copyright in that work. However, under the "fair dealing" exception, it is permissible to make single copies or take short extracts of works when used for non-commercial research or private study (although sufficient acknowledgement of the author should be included).

Originally Posted by Menel

I, however, am from the U.S., where things are probably different.

The US Copyright Office website looks to be a useful resource in this regard. From a brief review, US law in this area looks to be broadly the same in terms of the points addressed above.

[Durelin]

Most authors (and likely those who help Christopher Tolkien manage Tolkien's estate, if not Christopher Tolkien himself) are well aware of things like fan-fiction and roleplaying. Because of this, some authors have actually strictly said that they forbid these things, and thus it is considered illegal to use their characters, places, etc. But Tolkien is not one of those.

The list is somewhere...I'll go look for it.

[Nogrod]

Isn't the main reason for there being any copyright-laws in the first place the point that creative people get their pay from their work? At least if one looks at widely known cases concerning breaches to the copyright-laws they always carry the element of making or losing money in them. It may be that there are other concerns there too, but usually they seem to be acted upon only after there are some considerable amounts of money involved...

So if someone prints a book by someone else and sells them on the streets or burns movies to dvd's and sells them he's breaking the copyright. Or if someone shares music in the net thus hindering the sales of the album concerned he breaches the law.

In the academic circles it's quite normal to make even fairly long quotes. Fex. in the literary studies you may need to quote a whole work, like a poem, if you're going to analyse it in your own study. And I have yet to hear a case where an author would have denied the student's or reseacher's right to do that based on copyright-laws.

So long as you don't intend to make a profit with Tolkien or to share his works online, I think you can sleep your nights in peace, Menel.

[Durelin]

In case you're (or anyone is) interested... Here's the best list I can find; most can be found on "fanfiction.net."

P.N. Elrod
Raymond Feist
Terry Goodkind
Laurell K. Hamilton
Robin Hobb
Anne McCaffrey *
Dennis L. McKiernan
Robin McKinley
Irene Radford
Anne Rice
Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb
Lynn Flewelling**
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mercedes Lackey
David Webber
not an author, but a property... Archie Comics

* - it has been brought to my attention a few times that Ms. McCaffrey has changed her policy on fanfic, however, she doesn't want any fanfic on 'slasher' sites, and since the vast, vast majority of fics on this comm are slashy, i still think the best way to comply with her wishes is to forbid fics from her books. sorry!

** - Lynn Flewelling asked people personally not to write fanfic

~From: http://community.livejournal.com/fic_on_demand/325.html

Basically, I believe the authors have specific copyrights that bar people from using their characters, except in certain circumstances that have nothing to do with fanfic, roleplaying, or anything like that. I imagine the reasoning is that they are using the characters as characters, as part of a creative process, and so that kind of crosses over to the author's creative process...and is likely to clash with it. So some are prickly about that, some aren't.

And if you think that's an unreliable source...I beg to differ. Those fanfic people know their stuff.