Christopher Tolkien at it again.... - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

davem · 04-17-2011, 01:10 AM

The Copyright notice in the books states that it is prohibited to reproduce, store or transmit in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the publishers.

Any copyright holder could prevent public reading of their work if they wanted. Again, its interesting to read in Carpenter's biography & elsewhere of Tolkien's 'inspirations' - we all know about The Kalevala, The Eddas, Beowulf & The Mabinogion, etc, but he was also 'inspired' by more contemporary works thoughout his life - from Andrew Lang's Fairy books, William Morris' works & Wyke-Smith's Marvellous Land of Snergs http://www.tolkiencollector.com/snergs.htm - read this piece because I think its important to see how much Tolkien drew on the stories he & his children grew up with.

However,while Tolkien was 'inspired' by the works of earlier writers, those who follow him are 'ripping him off'. Copyright is certainly being pushed by a number of holders, to be extended both in time & in what is actually covered. What cases like these do is not simply stop the 'offenders' (the writers of Hilary's bio & Hillard as well as those who run camps like this one) but they also attempt to scare others out of doing the same thing - or even risking becoming a target. And its always small groups or organisations who get targeted by large copyright holders in order to set an 'example'.

This is certainly not something that the Tolkien Estate is alone in doing, & its not the worst, but it does seem to be getting worse. If control of the Estate at some point in the future falls into the hands of individuals who do care only about exploiting Tolkien's works for money then we could find it becomes less & less tolerant of any use of Tolkien's work that they don't benefit from. If they set up an official Tolkien Forum, with either membership fees, or which earns a lot from advertising they may decide that sites like this one infringe their copyright & send out a cease & desist letter - & I doubt the Barrow Wight would have enough cash to fight them in court over whether the Downs constitutes 'fair use' (& different countries have different definitions of 'fair use' - actually it doesn't legally exist in the UK as far as I'm aware).

04-17-2011, 01:10 AM	#11
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	The Copyright notice in the books states that it is prohibited to reproduce, store or transmit in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the publishers. Any copyright holder could prevent public reading of their work if they wanted. Again, its interesting to read in Carpenter's biography & elsewhere of Tolkien's 'inspirations' - we all know about The Kalevala, The Eddas, Beowulf & The Mabinogion, etc, but he was also 'inspired' by more contemporary works thoughout his life - from Andrew Lang's Fairy books, William Morris' works & Wyke-Smith's Marvellous Land of Snergs http://www.tolkiencollector.com/snergs.htm - read this piece because I think its important to see how much Tolkien drew on the stories he & his children grew up with. However,while Tolkien was 'inspired' by the works of earlier writers, those who follow him are 'ripping him off'. Copyright is certainly being pushed by a number of holders, to be extended both in time & in what is actually covered. What cases like these do is not simply stop the 'offenders' (the writers of Hilary's bio & Hillard as well as those who run camps like this one) but they also attempt to scare others out of doing the same thing - or even risking becoming a target. And its always small groups or organisations who get targeted by large copyright holders in order to set an 'example'. This is certainly not something that the Tolkien Estate is alone in doing, & its not the worst, but it does seem to be getting worse. If control of the Estate at some point in the future falls into the hands of individuals who do care only about exploiting Tolkien's works for money then we could find it becomes less & less tolerant of any use of Tolkien's work that they don't benefit from. If they set up an official Tolkien Forum, with either membership fees, or which earns a lot from advertising they may decide that sites like this one infringe their copyright & send out a cease & desist letter - & I doubt the Barrow Wight would have enough cash to fight them in court over whether the Downs constitutes 'fair use' (& different countries have different definitions of 'fair use' - actually it doesn't legally exist in the UK as far as I'm aware). __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."