Tolkien fanfic writer sues Tolkien estate over copyright

[billd91]

Copyright claim against Tolkien estate backfires on Lord of the Rings fanfiction author

Demetrious Polychron ordered to destroy all copies of The Fellowship of the King after claiming Amazon prequel infringed his copyright

www.theguardian.com

There’s an old saying out there about glass houses that, apparently, this guy doesn’t know.

A Lord of the Rings fanfiction writer has lost a copyright lawsuit over the publication of his own sequel to the much-loved series after opening up a counterproductive legal battle against JRR Tolkien’s estate.

The US-based author Demetrious Polychron published what he described as the “pitch-perfect” Lord of the Rings follow-up in 2022, titled The Fellowship of the King. He planned for the book to be the first of a seven-part series inspired by the franchise.

But the following April, Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkien estate and Amazon over the spin-off TV series The Rings of Power, which he claimed infringed the copyright in his book. A California court dismissed the case after the judge ruled that Polychron’s text was, in fact, infringing on Amazon’s prequel, released in September 2022.

Clearly, Demetrius Polychron has a number of misconceptions about copyright that are being corrected in a very expensive way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I hope his book is better than his pen name.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Barnes and Noble seem to have not pulled the ebook yet:

BN No Results Page

www.barnesandnoble.com

I'm tempted to get a copy for posterity, but unwilling to give a fraction of $13.49 to its author.

By all accounts, it's even worse than you could possibly imagine. Worse than The Rings of Power, even.

 

[Deset Gled]

By all accounts, it's even worse than you could possibly imagine. Worse than The Rings of Power, even.

Worse than I could possibly imagine? This is fanfic we're talking about. The place where My Immortal comes from. The home of X rated slash fiction. I've seen some stuff in my day, man.

 

[Scribe]

Demetrius Polychron

That is, 100%, the name of a person who would sue over an IP he does not actually have the rights to use.

This was essentially me, in looking at this.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Worse than I could possibly imagine? This is fanfic we're talking about. The place where My Immortal comes from.

I've never even heard of Ebony Dar'kness Dementia Raven Way.

 

[GMMichael]

That's too bad. I want a personal apology from Amazon for how bad the Rings of Power is. This looks like a setback for that wish.

 

[trappedslider]

By all accounts, it's even worse than you could possibly imagine. Worse than The Rings of Power, even.

I was about to say

Worse than I could possibly imagine? This is fanfic we're talking about. The place where My Immortal comes from. The home of X rated slash fiction. I've seen some stuff in my day, man.

well...i mean ummm 50 shades of grey came from twiligh fanfic..oh wait i see what you mean nvm

EDIT: Otoh, we did get Harry Potter and the methods of rationality...

 

[Dioltach]

From the blurb, it's even worse that the Iron Tower by Dennis Mckiernan. I mean, at least he understood sentence structure and commas. Even though his not-Gimli was forever "casting his hood over his face" whenever he got bad news.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]