[Child of the 7th Age]

I remember seeing on e-bay some books written or inspired by role players where they took characters from LotR and then wrote a story about them. That's kind of like the fan fiction people do, only this was actually in published form.

I wonder, how could anyone officially publish an "alternative" story about Middle-earth using the same basic world and ideas, especially the Silm from a different viewpoint? Isn't this protected under copyright law? Wouldn't the Tolkien estate sue them? Isn't this why people post fan fiction on boards but could not publish it in a book or magazine? I don't know too much about this and I may be totally mistaken in my supposition.

Maybe someone else could help who knows more about these things.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit