Archive for the 'Hobbits' category

And they thought pirates were bad…

by T. Colin Dodd

You just don’t mess with Hobbits. You don’t take their rings, and you definitely don’t trifle with their IP.

CNW Group | THE TOLKIEN TRUST | Tolkien Charity Files Suit Against New Line Cinema for Failure to pay Share of Film Revenues

The trustees of The Tolkien Trust, a British charity, have filed an action against New Line Cinema for its failure to pay a contractually required gross profit participation in the three films based on the world-famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. The trustees of the estate of JRR Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The suit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The Lord of the Rings films produced by New Line are among the most financially successful films ever created by Hollywood and were released in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. The cumulative worldwide gross receipts to date total nearly $6 billion. Notwithstanding the overwhelming financial success of the films, and the fact that the plaintiffs have a gross participation in each of the films, New Line has failed to pay the plaintiffs any portion of the gross profit participation at all.

Filed under Truth, The shame of downloading., Copyright as a weapon, Copyright, Hobbits on February 12th, 2008 | 1 comment »