Lawsuit by Tolkien Estate may halt The Hobbit

[davem]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

I am not a lawyer either, but I'm curious -- wouldn't this idea of "creating a substantially different work" by making alterations be ineffective? I mean, if you change a work enough to create a substantially different work, won't the original work still enter the public domain according to schedule anyway?

I'm not sure about the whole Ace Books thing & the exact reasoning behind the decision for the changes which resulted in the Second Edition, yet, for all the arguments about Tolkien 'nigggling' at his work & being unable to leave it alone, we do know that that edition - with its changes, additions & deletions, only exists because Tolkien wanted to get LotR copyrighted in the US (btw, anyone wanting a cheap First Edition text of LotR should look out for the Ace paperbacks, as they are generally a lot cheaper than the 'official' ones).