Beyond the Tolkien Estate

[Mister Underhill]

The extent of the Estate's rights is a tangled skein. They clearly think, for instance, that they retain enough rights to block the Lord of the Rings museum in New Zealand housing props, costumes, and miniatures from the movies. I'm not sure whether this matter has been resolved yet or not.

This past summer, the Estate apparently also contacted a site called http://www.shiremail.com, claiming that they own the rights to the word "Shire", which may be taking things a little far...

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

The extent of the Estate's rights is a tangled skein. They clearly think, for instance, that they retain enough rights to block the Lord of the Rings museum in New Zealand housing props, costumes, and miniatures from the movies. I'm not sure whether this matter has been resolved yet or not.

This past summer, the Estate apparently also contacted a site called http://www.shiremail.com, claiming that they own the rights to the word "Shire", which may be taking things a little far...

Both untrue. It seems our esteemed Press (not to mention webgossip) can't keep straight two completely unrelated entities: The Tolkien *Estate*, meaning the Tolkien family headed by Christopher; and Tolkien *Enterprises*, Saul Zaentz' merchandising money minter. It is the latter (i.e. they guy in Hollywood) who blocked the museum and sued shiremail- not the guy in France.

[Mister Underhill]

Well, it's tough to know what to believe. It seems that Jackson, at least, thinks the museum was blocked by Christopher:

Director Peter Jackson said today (Tuesday) that he has been blocked by Christopher Tolkien, son of the late Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, from building a museum in New Zealand that would display the thousands of costumes, props, and sets used in the movie trilogy. Jackson told The Australian newspaper that New Line studios, which produced the film, "don't have the legal authority to allow [the museum] to happen. That's kept by the Tolkien estate, and so the Tolkien estate so far have refused."

But I'm not a lawyer, I don't know any of the parties in question, and I haven't seen any contracts and/or legal papers.

It looks like I was dead wrong about the shiremail one, though -- apologies for propagating misinformation on that one.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

The extent of the Estate's rights is a tangled skein. They clearly think, for instance, that they retain enough rights to block the Lord of the Rings museum in New Zealand housing props, costumes, and miniatures from the movies. I'm not sure whether this matter has been resolved yet or not.

This past summer, the Estate apparently also contacted a site called http://www.shiremail.com, claiming that they own the rights to the word "Shire", which may be taking things a little far...

Shiremail was NOT sent a C&D by the Tolkien Estate. It was Tolkien Enterprises- appreciate the difference. Tolkien Enterprises is the mask Saul Zaentz wears when he's pimping the film-merchandising rights.

Peter Jackson is quoted in the press as blaming the Estate for the museum thing- but this cannot be correct. The Estate has absolutely NO control over movie props. I expect that PJ was either misinformed or misquoted (the press is positively malevolent towards CRT)- the villain, again, can only be Tolkien Enterprises (which would contol the rights applicable to a prop museum).

And, no, the Estate is not blocking a Hobbit movie either. That's a legal catfight between New Line and MGM/UA.

[Aiwendil]

Shiremail was NOT sent a C&D by the Tolkien Estate. It was Tolkien Enterprises- appreciate the difference. Tolkien Enterprises is the mask Saul Zaentz wears when he's pimping the film-merchandising rights.

See Mr. Underhill's post above yours. He acknowledged that this was a mistake.