Little Hare
this is why i love 'free culture' and creative commons
A Word About Copyright
DraagonStorm
I've been working on a deck that I had based on The Dune Tarot. I call it Tarot of the Golden Desert. A play on words from the God Emporer's Golden Path, but not having Dune as part of the title.
I had talked about the deck on the Dune Forum, and then got an email from the lawyers, that I could not use Dune or hint at the fact that the deck was based on Dune. So I took out the comment that 'The deck was based on the Dune Tarot', and now everything seems OK, I haven't heard back from the Lawyer's even though the work I've done is still on my website.
BB
DraagonStorm
I had talked about the deck on the Dune Forum, and then got an email from the lawyers, that I could not use Dune or hint at the fact that the deck was based on Dune. So I took out the comment that 'The deck was based on the Dune Tarot', and now everything seems OK, I haven't heard back from the Lawyer's even though the work I've done is still on my website.
BB
DraagonStorm
Solandia
euripides, thanks for the very useful info on copyright. I've set this thread to be a sticky so that it's easy to find in future as well.
~ Solandia
~ Solandia
winnie
I'm surprised that the Tolkien estate has managed to trademark or copyright names like Gandalf and Frodo - after all, JRR lifted those from the northern sagas in the first place.
Licensing agreements are, I'd imagine, complicated lawyery things that need to be worded very carefully to protect the artist and the manufacturer, with as little scope for mis-interpresation as possible.
As for displaying your work on a website, I think the main problems arise when people 'borrow' pieces of art to use on their own personal sites but don't credit the artist. This has a knock on effects if the picture then gets taken from that site and added to others. Most artists I know of who have online galleries protect their work with visible and/or invisible watermarks, display only low-resolution versions and have very clear copyright notices detailing what they can and can't be used for, usually insisting that EVERY use of their images online is accompanied by the copyright notice and a link back to the artists website. I'm hoping to upload my own site soon and have had the very tedious job of adding a copyright notice in the picture properties text and a watermark to every picture I plan to display....it wouldn't stop someone from using it but with the site URL right across each image, hopefully it would be more work than it's worth to digitally remove the visible watermark.
Licensing agreements are, I'd imagine, complicated lawyery things that need to be worded very carefully to protect the artist and the manufacturer, with as little scope for mis-interpresation as possible.
As for displaying your work on a website, I think the main problems arise when people 'borrow' pieces of art to use on their own personal sites but don't credit the artist. This has a knock on effects if the picture then gets taken from that site and added to others. Most artists I know of who have online galleries protect their work with visible and/or invisible watermarks, display only low-resolution versions and have very clear copyright notices detailing what they can and can't be used for, usually insisting that EVERY use of their images online is accompanied by the copyright notice and a link back to the artists website. I'm hoping to upload my own site soon and have had the very tedious job of adding a copyright notice in the picture properties text and a watermark to every picture I plan to display....it wouldn't stop someone from using it but with the site URL right across each image, hopefully it would be more work than it's worth to digitally remove the visible watermark.
gregory
I don't think so................winnie said:
winnie
There's a 18c translation by L A Waddell of a 14c text telling the tale of Thor, Odin and Baldr that mentions a list of Dwarf chiefs. Among them are Dvalin, Bomfur, Nory, Gandelf and Oakenshield. I'm pretty sure Frodo gets a mention in there somewhere too although I can't place the exact chapter and line right now as I don't have the electronic copies of the texts at work.
Elven
LOL! Maybe he was working on the ol' 10% rumour 
- Thorin, Balin, Nori, Gandalf, Bombur ... but there are also Thrain Thror, Nain & Dain. Also Welsh based names - 'Gorhendad' from the Brandybuck line, and most Hobbit names are Anglo Saxon based: Angles, Saxons, and Jutes - also Medieval, Middle & Old English, Ancient Irish, Ancient Cornish, Latin, Old High German, Old Norse/Icelandic. The English names Took & Tuck come from old Norse 'taka' meaning to 'take' - then into Old English 'tucian' meaning to disturb - then Took.
For example: Dwarf is derived from Dweorh (Old English) - Dwergr (Old Norse) - Twerg (Old High German) - Dvairgaz (Prehistoric German) - Dhwergwhos (Indo-European) thus translating 'something small'.
The Dwarfs names come from the 'Edda' the 'Dvergatal' (The lost tale of the Dwarfs) - in Vikings mythology - the Dwarfs roll. Tolkien used this role ...
The Drarf names themselves tell of the quest of the Dwarfs ... Tolkien also used the name 'Eikinskjaldi' meaning 'he of the Oakenshield' which he gave to Thorin. 'Thrain' translated, means stuborn. Dain means deadly, Bombur translated means 'bulging', Nori means 'Peewee', Balin means 'burning one', Ori means 'furious', Gloin means 'glowing one' (riches and glory).
Gandalf started life out as Old Nordic/Icelandic - 'Gandalfr' ... 'Gand' meaning magical powers of astral travel, 'Gandr' a socerers magic stick, and 'Alf' means elfen or white. The name 'Gandalfr' is also mentioned in the 'Dvergatal'.
Bilbo started life as Bingo, but the name Bilbo was a short pointy dagger in Shakepeares time - from the name of a 15th century Portuguese city - Balboa, where it was made.
Tolkien made his names from old languages - as the words had meanings - and many meaningful words are strung together to form the name - its not unlike names of 'old' or recognized names especially in old lore and fairy stories. He also credited and mentioned his influences - such as George McDonalds 1872 The Princess & the Goblin - Beowulf, is a large influence on his works.
But as for Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White, Mithrandir, The Grey pilgrim ..etc ... from LOTR - he's got a trademark to the licensee 'New Line' ... and copyright in character from the books by Tolkien ...
- Thorin, Balin, Nori, Gandalf, Bombur ... but there are also Thrain Thror, Nain & Dain. Also Welsh based names - 'Gorhendad' from the Brandybuck line, and most Hobbit names are Anglo Saxon based: Angles, Saxons, and Jutes - also Medieval, Middle & Old English, Ancient Irish, Ancient Cornish, Latin, Old High German, Old Norse/Icelandic. The English names Took & Tuck come from old Norse 'taka' meaning to 'take' - then into Old English 'tucian' meaning to disturb - then Took.For example: Dwarf is derived from Dweorh (Old English) - Dwergr (Old Norse) - Twerg (Old High German) - Dvairgaz (Prehistoric German) - Dhwergwhos (Indo-European) thus translating 'something small'.
The Dwarfs names come from the 'Edda' the 'Dvergatal' (The lost tale of the Dwarfs) - in Vikings mythology - the Dwarfs roll. Tolkien used this role ...
The Drarf names themselves tell of the quest of the Dwarfs ... Tolkien also used the name 'Eikinskjaldi' meaning 'he of the Oakenshield' which he gave to Thorin. 'Thrain' translated, means stuborn. Dain means deadly, Bombur translated means 'bulging', Nori means 'Peewee', Balin means 'burning one', Ori means 'furious', Gloin means 'glowing one' (riches and glory).
Gandalf started life out as Old Nordic/Icelandic - 'Gandalfr' ... 'Gand' meaning magical powers of astral travel, 'Gandr' a socerers magic stick, and 'Alf' means elfen or white. The name 'Gandalfr' is also mentioned in the 'Dvergatal'.
Bilbo started life as Bingo
, but the name Bilbo was a short pointy dagger in Shakepeares time - from the name of a 15th century Portuguese city - Balboa, where it was made.Tolkien made his names from old languages - as the words had meanings - and many meaningful words are strung together to form the name - its not unlike names of 'old' or recognized names especially in old lore and fairy stories. He also credited and mentioned his influences - such as George McDonalds 1872 The Princess & the Goblin - Beowulf, is a large influence on his works.
But as for Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White, Mithrandir, The Grey pilgrim ..etc ... from LOTR - he's got a trademark to the licensee 'New Line' ... and copyright in character from the books by Tolkien ...
Elven
Speaking of the Tolkien Estate and copyright ... this is recent action related to file sharing on Tolkien literature - Hobbit, LoTR, Silmarillion ... from a fan based website. The website refused to give details of names of their subscribers, but the TE lawyers have taken legal action and have the names of those who have violated the copyright - even though the material has now been moved from the site.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aI.oEehDIdK8
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aI.oEehDIdK8
winnie
One of the issues about copyright that I've often wondered about is the bequeathing of copyrights in a will.
The law states that copyrights continue for 50 or 70 (now) years after the owners death but if you leave someone the copyrights to your work in a will does that mean the 50/70 year rule applies from your own death or is it then 50/70 years after the new owner dies - assuming they don't then sell or give the copyright to some else ?
The law states that copyrights continue for 50 or 70 (now) years after the owners death but if you leave someone the copyrights to your work in a will does that mean the 50/70 year rule applies from your own death or is it then 50/70 years after the new owner dies - assuming they don't then sell or give the copyright to some else ?
baba-prague
Edited to say. Hmm, this is confusing because I have read that copyright can't be transferred (though in "work for hire" cases it automatically becomes the property of the person/company doing the hiring). I thought only the rights could be transferred. However, the Wiki article implies that in fact copyright can be signed over to someone else but adds The copyright itself must be expressly transferred in writing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Transfer_and_licensing (scroll down to transfer and licensing).
As far as I understand it, what can be bequeathed to an heir is the ownership of the rights (i.e. the heir can license the work and receive payments for that) but the copyright is still counted as 70 years from the death of the artist (used to be 50 so that causes some anomalies that are a bit too specialised to go into).
Complex all this, isn't it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Transfer_and_licensing (scroll down to transfer and licensing).
As far as I understand it, what can be bequeathed to an heir is the ownership of the rights (i.e. the heir can license the work and receive payments for that) but the copyright is still counted as 70 years from the death of the artist (used to be 50 so that causes some anomalies that are a bit too specialised to go into).
Complex all this, isn't it!
