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Originally Posted by Mithadan
Websites are bought and sold every day. The membership list is, in effect, a customer list and such lists are often sold in business either alone or as part of a larger commercial transaction. All this auction is selling is a domain name, software, a customer list and data in the form of the content of the website. If I were either buyer or seller, I would certainly not be satisfied without substantial terms and conditions to protect me.
As for the copyright issue, note the disclaimer at the bottom of the listing stating that the website is not sanctioned by or affiliated with the Tolkien Estate, Newline, or Tolkien Enterprises. I would suspect that such a disclaimer might have been what was required to avoid the copyright infringement claim threatened against the website, or maybe the owner is attempting a duck and run. I don't know and don't care to know either.
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The issue here isn't one of copyright, but of trademark and the developing law of domain names. The Estate has already registered "JRR Tolkien" as a trademark, and has applied to register "Tolkien" as well. Now, it may sound ****y for their lawyers to be suing everyone on the Web who uses the word: but they have to, you see: if a trademark holder doesn't actively protect it, if he just lets infringements slide, then the TM can be "generified" and pass into the public domain. Cf nylon (once a brand name), and Xerox Corp's continual fight to keep "xerox" from being a synonym for "photocopy."
As for domain names: it's solid precedent now in the [insert acronym for the international body that administers domain names] that you have a better right to your own name than anyone else does- it's consistently shot down domain name pirates who used to register tons of names like "beatles.com" and "phantomoftheopera.net," with intent to sell them to said persons for mucho moolah.