Legality of Tolkien fan art

Hi Magianna, welcome to the site!

I cannot answer in any legal sense your questions, but I do have some thoughts and observations that might help.

There is a difference between making art that is your own interpretation of Tolkien's works, and making art that is clearly inspired by the New Line/Warner Brothers, for example. Middle-earth Enterprises and their licensees (e.g. Warner Brothers) have copyrights and trademarks filed and work to enforce those fairly rigorously - those can be names ("Bilbo Baggins") or images (a painting that is clearly Martin Freeman in his Bilbo costumes from the films).

No one can stop you from making any art you please, but if you try and sell your art, that's when you might get the attention of the Estate or M-e Enterprises. It really depends on what art you want to create, and if you try to sell it (or copies of it).

I recall an example of someone who hand-wrote out the entire Lord of the Rings to make a literal "Red Book of Westmarch". It was only when they tried to sell that work that the Estate objected, is my recollection.

Also I recall artists having troubles with Etsy and other sites when they used proper names in the titles of their pieces that were under trademark by Middle-earth Enterprises. They could still sell their art, but they had to rename it.

Not a clear answer, but hopefully somewhat helpful.

Like this Jeremy?

https://affiliates.abebooks.com/c/9724 ... 3Dsnippet-_-srp1-_-title1

If your art is derivative of another person's work then you are likely to fall foul of copyright if you attempt to sell it, as Urulókë points to.

I am going to offer what my brother was told by a fellow artist when he was starting out. "If you do not know and have to ask, then ask a lawyer who deals in IP/copyright, spend the money to get a specific answer to your specific question". He stands by that advice. You could ask any stranger and they might sound so clever on the subject but they could be offering you terrible advice.

That is obviously not aimed at this websites members but be careful where you ask for advice is what I am getting at. And not to go against my own advice but if you want to connect with a decent group then you could do worse than ask for advice from John Howe's forum.

onthetrail wrote:

I am going to offer what my brother was told by a fellow artist when he was starting out. "If you do not know and have to ask, then ask a lawyer who deals in IP/copyright, spend the money to get a specific answer to your specific question".

Good advice, I agree. What it really boils down to is that lawyer stating that they feel they could defend their opinion on your specific circumstance in court and have a good chance of succeeding. It's really all opinion until tested in the courts (or settled beforehand), I would venture to say. ?


Back on Khamûl's point - looks like the Estate didn't come down too harshly on the creator. They are the seller on ABE (not really a dealer, they have three listings which are all their handmade books). Here's an interview with the creator.