LORD OF THE RINGS Fanfiction Author Sues Amazon Studios Over RINGS OF POWER

In today’s edition of ‘lawsuits equally likely to succeed if Frodo arrives in Mordor without Sam’, a Lord of the Rings fan-fiction author is taking on Amazon Studios over their hit series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The plaintiff, Demetrious Polychron, filed a lawsuit against Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Jennifer Salke (the head of Amazon Studios), Simon Tolkien (nephew of JRR Tolkien himself) and the showrunners of The rings of power, Patrick McCay AND John D Payne. And that’s not all… The Tolkien Estate has also been dragged into this legal vortex.

According to court documents filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Polychron claims Amazon’s new TV series, based on Tolkien’s vast universe and appendices he wrote, copied his own published novel , which is, in turn, derived from Tolkien’s work.

Polychron’s book, entitled The company of the kingis the sequel to The Lord of the Rings which also delves into the history of the Second Age and the history of the Rings of Power. The author claims to have registered the book with the US Copyright Office in 2017 and has even attempted to contact The Tolkien Estate for a partnership to no avail.

Undeterred, Polychron ended up hand-delivering a copy of his manuscript, but still received no response. In either an incredibly bold or incredibly naive move, the author then sent a letter demanding his manuscript back and stated his intention to publish it anyway (along with the sequels). He published the novel on September 30, 2022, which is also the same day that the fifth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered on Prime Video.

Now, Polychron claims the show violates its copyright and has even provided tables highlighting moments in its book that it believes are similar to moments from the TV show. However, many of these similarities only serve to underscore how close the fan-fiction work is to Tolkien’s original works. The book also includes a dedication to Tolkien and his son before immediately using the characters created by the legendary author.

This lawsuit is about as likely to succeed as Legolas has lost his mark. Amazon secured the rights to the Lord of the Rings story through an extensive partnership with The Tolkien Estate, and this legal dispute feels more like a publicity stunt than an actual legal challenge.

One entity that may have an interest in this lawsuit is Embracer Group, the investment firm that bought the rights to The Lord of the Rings outright and may not take kindly to publishing unauthorized works. But for now, let’s sit back, have a pint and watch this legal drama unfold.

I think this whole thing is hilarious that a fan-fiction writer is suing the people who actually own the rights to the stories from which he is building his fan-fiction. People are crazy.

Source: PC Gamer