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> In April, Polychron sued the Tolkien estate and Amazon. He claimed that “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” an Amazon Prime Video prequel series that was rel

> In April, Polychron sued the Tolkien estate and Amazon. He claimed that “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” an Amazon Prime Video prequel series that was released last year and is one of the few adaptations authorized by the Tolkien estate, infringed on the copyright of his book. He asked for $250 million in compensation. > Polychron said in court documents that he was inspired by Tolkien and the original “Rings” series, but he argued that he created a “wholly original book and concept” for the sequel, including “separate characters and story lines that compose as much as one-half of the 8-episode series” released by Amazon. Has anyone both read Polychron's work, and watched the Amazon series? Is there even a shadow of truth in this allegation?

sambeau 3y ago
The claim to separate characters is somewhat undermined by chapter 1, page 1 which features Samwise and Rosie Gamgee, and mentions Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.
RecycledEle 3y ago
These allegations sound similar to the Mexican Inn Cafe Tragedy. Details deleted, sorry. Thank You, American Courts. \s Who is right does not matter in court if someone who is rich enough stands to lose enough money.
- upon_drumhead 3y ago
  [citation needed]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- rocmcd 3y ago
  Do you have any citations for this case? I haven't been able to find anything that mentions such a court case (or anything mentioning connections between the Mexican Inn and the Frito Company).
  - RecycledEle 3y ago
    No. Judge Carr is too smart and too crooked to leave any trace in the 5th Circuit Court.
duskwuff 3y ago
> Is there even a shadow of truth in this allegation? I certainly don't see it. Rings of Power is set as a distant prequel to Lord of the Rings; Polychron's novel was an immediate sequel. There are necessarily some characters and other elements of the setting which appear in both, but that's because they're both derivative works of Tolkien's writings, not because one is derivative of the other. Here's the specific list of similarities claimed by Polychron. To my eye, most of them are either trivial (e.g. a woman rides a horse, a character is dark-skinned, someone says "this is a map", someone makes a heroic last stand), or involve the shared usage of elements from Tolkien's work (e.g. the doors of Khazad-dûm, orcs as corrupted elves, a character is named Théoden). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.881511/gov.uscourts.cacd.881511.1.2.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.88...

sambeau 3y ago

The claim to separate characters is somewhat undermined by chapter 1, page 1 which features Samwise and Rosie Gamgee, and mentions Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

RecycledEle 3y ago

These allegations sound similar to the Mexican Inn Cafe Tragedy. Details deleted, sorry. Thank You, American Courts. \s Who is right does not matter in court if someone who is rich enough stands to lose enough money.

upon_drumhead 3y ago
[citation needed]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rocmcd 3y ago
Do you have any citations for this case? I haven't been able to find anything that mentions such a court case (or anything mentioning connections between the Mexican Inn and the Frito Company).
- RecycledEle 3y ago
  No. Judge Carr is too smart and too crooked to leave any trace in the 5th Circuit Court.

duskwuff 3y ago

> Is there even a shadow of truth in this allegation? I certainly don't see it. Rings of Power is set as a distant prequel to Lord of the Rings; Polychron's novel was an immediate sequel. There are necessarily some characters and other elements of the setting which appear in both, but that's because they're both derivative works of Tolkien's writings, not because one is derivative of the other. Here's the specific list of similarities claimed by Polychron. To my eye, most of them are either trivial (e.g. a woman rides a horse, a character is dark-skinned, someone says "this is a map", someone makes a heroic last stand), or involve the shared usage of elements from Tolkien's work (e.g. the doors of Khazad-dûm, orcs as corrupted elves, a character is named Théoden). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.881511/gov.uscourts.cacd.881511.1.2.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.88...