Film Rights to First & Second Age

[Sauron the White]

WCH - two things: First, if you go back and read my statement (and I did reproduce it for you) I said

There is a huge legal difference between a copyright and a legally registered copyright which attaches protections of law and introduces certain legal remedies and penalties. Huge difference.

Please note that I used the word "copyright" and did not deny it. I also differentiated between the type of copyright that you keep referring to and a legally registered copyright. I do believe that any fair minded person can read the quote from the Copyright site that Nerwen provided and see that there are indeed definite differences that are beyond procedural. In fact, they also are in the amount of monetary damages one can collect.

You seem to be making a similar mistake in your 'diminished value' argument. Again, you've bypassed my essential point: As holder of the primary copyright, the Tolkien Estate is under *no* obligation to take cognizance of any 'dimunition of value' in derivative rights. Zaentz owns exactly what he always did. If it has fallen in value: tough.

Why therefore should the Estate 'settle' or 'negotiate' anything. They owe Zaentz *nothing*. He got what he paid for. Its subsequent vicissitudess in market value are his problem, not the Estate's.

The owner of the Silmarillion events as told in the Appendicies sold those film rights to UA who then sold them to Zaentz. Then, the designated and rightful heirs of JRRT, CT and the Estate, caused to be published THE SILMARILLION some eight years later.

You refer to these "subsequent vicissitudess in market value" like they fell from outer space or were created by some other force like a third or third-millionith party. That is not the case. The reason for the loss of value was the publishing of THE SILMARILLION by CT using some of the same material that had already been sold as film rights.

Yes, CT had a right to publish that book. But it had the unintended (I am giving the benefit of the doubt here) consequence of causing the rightful films rights holders to now be holding a property one Tolkien sold them only to have another Tolkien put out a similar property using much of the same content.

How can you not admit this? Are you of the impression that CT or the Estate can do no wrong and regardless of what they do its never their fault?

Were it not for several million copies of THE SIL in existence for the last three decades, the lawful rights holders could make a movie including that laundry list that both you and I agree are withing their rights to include. But now, if they fill in the blanks or connect the dots between those events with material of their own invention, they risk seriously damaging their product in the eyes of the public because "its not the real SILMARALLION", "you just made all this stuff up to make money", or "you are urinating upon the real SILMARALLION". Before the publication of that book, there was no SILMARALLION to compare such a movie effort to. None.

Or they can take some chances, and fill in the blanks and connect the event dots with actual things, characters, dialogue and other material taken directly from the published SIL. They then risk a very damaging lawsuit.

Again, they are damned if they do and damned if they do not. And who put them into this position? They were sold rights by one Tolkien and had those rights diminished by another regardless of the intent and absence of malice.

So now they own something which they paid for and cannot exercise their rights without risking either public ridicule and rejection of their film, or, a serious lawsuit which could bankrupt them. Talk about your rock and a hard place. They did not put themselves there. The publication of the book length SIL did - intended or unintended - the results are the same.