In April of 2023, Demetrious Polychron (the plaintiff) filed a lawsuit against Amazon and the Tolkien estate. Mr. Polychron claimed that the Rings of Power tv show took ideas from his fan-fiction book, The Fellowship of the King, which had a copyright back in 2017. This fan-fiction book was a project that Mr. Polychron took on himself, without any permission from the Tolkien estate.
According to court documents, Mr. Polychron even sent letters and a copy of his fan-fiction book to the Tolkien estate! In those letters, Mr. Polychron admits that he wrote “a sequel to the Lord of the Rings.” It is not known whether or not anyone who manages affairs regarding Lord of the Rings ever read Mr. Polychron’s fan-fiction book. On August 14, 2023, the federal court dismissed the lawsuit, saying the fan fiction was an unauthorized derivative work of the Lord of the Rings.
That deals with the lawsuit itself, but what exactly is a derivative work?
The Copyright Act defines a derivative work as “a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization…or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted.” One common form of derivative work is a motion picture based on a play or novel.
The easiest example to give is a spin-off, but other forms can also be derivative works. The Cleveland Show was a spin-off from Family Guy. The Avatar the Last Airbender comic books are derivative works based on the cartoon. Fan fiction, fan games, and other fan projects can be seen as derivative works.
Assaad Lyn: Attorney At Law 