• JRR #Tolkien novel Mirkwood in legal battle with author’s estate | Books | The Observer
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/26/mirkwood-jrr-tolkien-legal-battle

    In a letter to Hillard, the estate’s lawyers, Manches, said: “At no time have our clients granted permission to use the name and personality of JRR Tolkien in the novel, nor would they in any foreseeable circumstances.” It claims “unlawful commercial advantage” has been taken of the estate’s “valuable rights”, and argues that Hillard’s book “trivialises the name, personality and reputation of the late professor”.
    (…)
    Hillard, 62, from Austin, Texas, said: “Imagine if you couldn’t use Winston Churchill as a character in a book about the second world war. How many movies have used a fictional treatment of Churchill? The implications of this assertion by the estate would be that you couldn’t do that.”

    #droit-d_auteur