No fanfiction, no fanzines, no Tolkien music, no Tolkien quotes (without permission), no writing in Tolkien languages (if you intend to post it somewhere), no Tolkien-related events (even charitable and not-for-profit ones - no exceptions), no public readings (without permission), no recordings of reading of Tolkien works (and TE is going to take action against unauthorized audiobooks or readings on social media), no Tolkien photographs.
Tell me if it is true, or if someone is joking!
Holy crap, it’s been YEARS since anyone did something as stupid as try and threaten fanfic writers. Those are dark days we talk about as legends! Does anyone know when these policies were published and if any legal actions have actually been taken?
Good lord, reading through this whole thing, this could be the death of the fandom. we may have to go underground, because the level of control they have exerted over this outright stops fans from even interacting with the work. It’s far beyond stopping people from making a bit of cash off of it, it full on threatens any creator who wishes to engage with the material! I’m honestly surprised they didn’t just go all the way and say making fan art is illegal too!
I don’t know the exact day that the new policies came out, but it was within the past two weeks. I haven’t heard that the estate has cracked down on anyone yet. It’s probably too soon still.
I’ve been checking some of the other large Tolkien fan communities (theonering.net, Tolkien Society, Silmarillion Writers’ Guild) to see if anyone has released a statement about the new policies, but I haven’t seen anything yet; nearly all discussion so far has been relegated to the site’s new appearance and the new artwork released on it. (Although there is this hilarious Reddit discussion about the new policies.)
I’m not sure how many Tolkien fanfic sites are left since I only use AO3, but this makes me wonder what could happen to the fanfic sites that haven’t yet moved their archives onto AO3 and don’t have the protection of AO3′s lawyers, should the estate decide to crack down on Tolkien fanfic sites. This could really deal a blow to some of those communities if the estate firmly enforces the new policies.
I’m astonished, though, that relatively no large Tolkien communities (that I’ve seen) are talking about the changes, except for on here, and that even the conversation about it here is pretty limited. I don’t know how seriously the Tolkien Estate will enforce this, but it’s a major shift in tone from the estate nonetheless.
that link has Facebook tracky nonsense in the URL, here’s a clean one:
and emyn-arnens’s “within the last two weeks” is as of 2022 March 5
To clarify a point: The wording they use for fan fiction seems to be designed to rule out fan art, too. You should probably ask a lawyer (which I am not) for details, but the wording there is not limited to literary fan material, it seems to cover everything a fan might want to create.
they’re also including in this ban such things as quotations for the purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship, or research that the Tolkien estate won’t like—I know this because the only thing they’re saying about quotations is “here’s where to ask for permission” and having to ask implies the possibility the answer will be no—and criticism, comment, scholarship, or research that the copyright holder won’t like are so unambiguously the sort of thing that US copyright law protects as fair use that I’m quoting those purposes from Section 107.
which, even setting aside all the discussions about the legality of fanfiction and composing songs in Elvish and etc, tells me the Tolkien estate didn’t consult an IP lawyer.
This is a hoot, they have said very seriously that you cannot use the trademark TOLKIEN name for anything without permission, examples given are things like: naming a park. I am fascinated by the implication that fanfic, academic works and rogue municipal park-namers are some of the key menacing threats to intellectual property
Apparently they did consult IP lawyers (lots of the links go to Maier Blackburn) but either they’re really very bad, or they don’t understand non-commercial fanworks at all. Or they’re aiming to piss off the fans.
Plus, this:
Almost every damn country in the world has a Tolkien Society! They’re not for profit, they live from donations and do literally nothing else except a) sit around and discuss Tolkien’s work and b) promote Tolkien’s work at events. They’re literally providing free advertising. Now who wants to bet that these annual licenses will be prohibitively expensive??
Oh, they also don’t want any music inspired by Tolkien’s works…
[Image ID: a screenshot from the office FAQ of the Tolkien estate, containing the following text: Clubs and Societies. How do I set up an official Tolkien club or society? Tolkien clubs and societies require a license to use the Tolkien name, which is a registered trademark. The Estate will consider, amongst other things, the proposed objects, constitution and management of the club or society when determining whether a license will be granted.]
this is fucking ridiculous
other things they want to be able to deny people permission for:
Any public readings of Tolkien’s work, even non-commercial ones. Tolkien Reading Day has been a well-established event in the fandom for years, and they would very much like this to not be a thing.
Documentaries. They will only accept requests from “established commercial broadcasters” so I guess that rules out video essays and other amateur documentaries.
Using his name in the “promotion” of “events or festivals”. What is an event or festival? Well, I don’t know, but it’s a good thing the pandemic isn’t over yet, ‘cause if you had planned a Tolkien panel/talk/whatever at a con (of any kind) that would potentially fall under this. To reiterate: If you want to talk about his works at a conference you essentially need permission to do so.
Fanzines, or more specifically: “Unfortunately permission cannot be given for publications which use the name TOLKIEN or the Tolkien Estate’s copyright materials”. Of course “fanzine” is a very broad category and also, it clearly says “publication”. So essentially, you are not allowed to independently publish critical analysis of Tolkien’s work, ever.
Making songs for Tolkien’s poetry. Honestly this probably pisses me off the most. Tell me the professor wouldn’t be absolutely delighted by the vast number of artists who have made songs out of his words.
In conclusion, you may only interact with his work by giving money to the Tolkien estate, you may not talk about his work, you may not take inspiration from his work, you may not utter his name without asking permission (and presumably paying a license fee).
I don’t presume to know the minds of people long dead, but considering he set out to create a great folkloric epic for England, I doubt the Professor would have wanted this.
This is actually a very good point. Any crafters out there that want any Tolkien associated craft pattern may want to grab them now. Fanfiction is one thing, but we have seen companies easily come through and take down patterns in recent years. Ghibli just did it recently themselves, and there’s no group like Ao3 to protect us.
