Beyond the Tolkien Estate

[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.