Parody and legality

[mollyringwraith]

Questions for those of the legal persuasion:

People have asked me when I'm going to "publish" my Lord of the Rings parodies. Some have gotten almost belligerent about it: "Why aren't they published yet??! What are you waiting for???!!" and so forth. :) I kind of figured I couldn't publish them, since they use names and plot points that I didn't

Comments

[morgandawn]

I suggest you post your question on fandom_lawyers and also perhaps contact the EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundations for a quick opinion. http://www.eff.org/

It should be protected -but it may be a gray area (and you have to think about both the books as as well as the movie copyright holders).

[mollyringwraith]

Good links. Thank you! Yeah, it seems like the more I read about it, the less I understand. :)

[ctrl_a]

I'm just a law student, so I'm not going to go into too much depth because what I say will be of limited reliability anyway, but... My impression is that while parody does get a break, you might have a harder time because your works don't stray that far from the original. Yes, it probably doesn't hurt the profits of the real thing, but it is still trying to achieve the same thing: entertain the same audience (or a subset thereof). I'm not sure how much courts would want the parody to have some kind of "social value" (or social commentary?), or whether they'd want to make that kind of judgment at all, but it's something to think about. But I'm pulling this almost completely from a single case because I just happened to have read it yesterday, so don't be discouraged. It'd be awesome if someone could come and prove me wrong

[mollyringwraith]

Hmm, so the use of the character and place names might be where I impinge on trademark?

In any case, thanks for answering--it does seem a very fuzzy area. Maybe I can make legal history. ;)

[ctrl_a]

Yeah, I'm guessing there are trademarks on some of the character/place names. The problem with trademarks is that companies have to defend them, otherwise they lose their rights (all the classic examples of trademarked names becoming synonymous with the generic product, like Kleenex, Band-Aid, etc.). I don't know much more about trademark law beyond that, though.

Making legal history that weakens the copyright stranglehold on creativity in the U.S. is always a good thing. ;)

[pith]

Well, cleolinda got a book of parodies published, but since that was through a "real publisher" (whatever that means nowadays), they probably had someone who smoothed out the legal wrinkles. I don't know what how an indie effort would fare. I think some Cafe Press shops got closed down for using LotR-specific images/lines.

[mollyringwraith]

Cleolinda's success gives me hope! That's quite similar to my style, after all. Maybe I should just seek real publishers/agents. Wonder how she got hers...hmm...

[pith]

From what I recall, her parodies were being forwarded and one happened to land in the in-box of someone at a publisher. They contacted her, yada yada yada.

I prefer your style =) It's less... pop-culture driven. People will still get the jokes in 10 years.

[mollyringwraith]

Aw, thank you!
(But, dang it, why aren't people sending my stuff to publishers? Some folks get all the luck...) ;)

[ankhsenet]

I know that there is a book out called Bored of the Rings, but I believe all the names were changed in the book to ummm raunchier names. It's really an amusing book if you can find it. I have a copy which is somewhere in storage, so I can't even dig it out to see if there was any info regarding copyright info. I don't know if they had any special verbage in the copyright info.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[mollyringwraith]

*nod* Heard of that one, but they changed all the names and weren't actually using Tolkien creations, so I wonder if that makes a difference. Still, it offers hope!

[ankhsenet]

Yeah, I didn't think it would help much. SOrry I couldn't be of more help.

[mollyringwraith]

That definitely is a good sign for me. Maybe I'll ask some agents or publishers myself... *dreams on*