Can Technicalities In The Copyright, Be Allowed To Water Down The Original Artwork

Lord of Rings : Rings of Power is a series of 5 seasons streaming on Amazon Prime Videos, streaming from 1st September, 2022. This series is most expensive television series ever made. The fans of Lord of the Rings rejoiced when the show was announced as it was publicised that Rings of Power will depict the back story to Lord of Rings. However in an interview, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay cleared that, in fact, they do not have copyright for the book The Silmarillion, which is a prequel to the story of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien fans were left wondering and concerned on how the series is set to tell a story of that era without access to the base materials.

Technicalities In The Copyright[Image source:Gettyimage]

Arda, the world of Sir J.R.R. Tolkien is divided into 3 major eras; First, Second, and Third Ages. We all have witnessed and loved the cinematic masterpieces i.e. Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit Trilogy showing us the Third Age of Tolkien’s world. Different sets of books describes all these different ages such as The Silmarillion, describes the beginnings of his and Second Age, the Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin, Unfinished Tales, gives insight about the Second Age and early Third Age, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, concluding the Third Age. The Rings of Power series, which is set to narrate the Second Age, does not have copyright to the books which describes the Second Age. Christopher Tolkien, son of Sir. J R R

Tolkien, holds the authorial copyright on The Silmarillion, as Sir J.R.R. Tolkien expired before completing the book as the book was later completed him. As per current copyright laws, the copyright will not expire until 70 years after Christopher’s death, and not in 2043 when the copyright on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien will expire. The Amazon Studios have rights solely to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the Appendices, and The Hobbit.

It is the interview of the showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay with Vanity Fair that sparks the scepticism. An excerpt of the said interview is as follows 1)
“So what did Amazon buy? “We have the rights solely to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit,” Payne says. “And that is it. We do not have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, or any of those other books. There’s a version of everything we need for the Second Age in the books we have the rights to,” McKay says. “As long as we’re painting within those lines and not egregiously contradicting something we don’t have the rights to, there’s a lot of leeway and room to dramatize and tell some of the best stories that [Tolkien] ever came up with.””

So the justification offered by the showrunners is that they have enough references of the Second Age in the books for which they have copyright. It is under the garb of such technicalities, the showrunners are justifying their copyright over the depiction of second.

This is a flagrant violation of Copyright and is morally corrupt action for the following reasons

A past historical incidence is referred in storytelling to either remind the audience of the past or dramatize the future storytelling. It will be pertinent to note that such references are brief and in no way substitutes for entire historical account. The stories that are set to be depicted by the show are not independent short stories that have reference in the Third age, but the story of entire second age. The said age is deeply explained by Sir Tolkien in The Silmarillion. This is a flagrant violation of copyright as it is not narration of authors original work, but a fanfiction written by the showrunners with references found in the Third age. The showrunners have knitted their own version of second age story with the available material leaving out the essence and intricacies painstrikingly penned down by Sir Tolkien.

Moral Rights of Author: Every author has two kinds of rights over his work, economic and moral rights. The moral right is the right to oppose changes in his work that could harm his reputation. This concept is also recognised under Section 57 of The Copyright Act, 1957. Section 57 (which is in accordance with Article 6bis of the Berne Convention) briefly states that even after the assignment either wholly or partially of the said copyright, the author of a work shall have the right to restrain or claim damages in respect of any distortion, mutilation, modification or other act in relation to the said work if such distortion, mutilation, modification or other act would be prejudicial to his honour or reputation. The story is nothing but a mutilated version of the Second Age as the showrunners have no copyright over the relevant books.

In the case of Mannu Bhandari v Kala Vikas Pictures Ltd 2) the High Court of Delhi considered a similar matter wherein a mutilated version of the Novel of the plaintiff was depicted into a cinema. The court observed that Section 57 is the statutory recognition of an author’s intellectual property and must be protected with special care. Hence, a modification will be found to violate Section 57 if it results in the modified work appearing quite different from the original; or amounts to a perversion of the original. Tom Shippey, The Lord of the Rings scholar and former consultant on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, was fired from the Prime Video show because he was warning them that they were “polluting the lore.” This fact establishes that the depiction is far from original work.

Moral rights are derived from the fact that a work of art reflects the personality of the author or creator. Ofcouse a creative liberty has be exercised while adapting an art into different forms of expression. However the creative liberty should be exercised with caution not to degrade the essence of original art. The showrunners hence have provided an explanation that as long as they have the structure and the characters of the story, they can exercise their creative liberty. It is evident from the first few episodes of the show that this creative liberty is violated as the show does not reflect the original work of Sir Tolkien’s.

The show is already criticized for changing some major character arcs and storylines. 3) Characters such as Elrond, Galadriel, Prince Durin IV, Celebrimbor, Isildur, Queen Regent Míriel, Elendil, Ar-Pharazôn and High King Gil-galad, all of whom either appeared in or were referenced in Tolkien’s stories, are set to be included in the narrative. Meanwhile Bronwyn, Arondir, Princess Disa, Halbrand, Sadoc Burrows, Poppy Proudfellow, Largo Brandyfoot, Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandyfoot, Theo, Eärien, Marigold Brandyfoot and Kemen all appear to be original creations made for the series, having no clear source in the original works.

A love story between elf and human is a sacred thing in Tolkien , that has happened only twice in the original saga, is now used by showrunners for two completely new characters introduced by them. The two new characters are introduced as the showrunners don’t have copyright for the original characters. Such tactics are used by the showrunners just to avoid copyright issues.

The reputation and fanbase of J.R.R. Tolkien is widely exploited during the promotion and fund raising of the show. The showrunners are misleading the audience by stating that it is prequal to Lord of the Rings saga, which to a prudent mind means that it is depiction of Tolkien’s work in The Silmarillion. The story is nothing but interpretation of showrunners of the second age based on the Appendices and books to which they have a copyright for. The show is passing off of J.R.R. Tolkien work. Having same characters and a similar general storyline is not same as the original story.

Conclusion 

The spirit of Copyright Law is to protect the essence art and interest of the artists. The technicalities in law cannot be allowed to rupture the spirit of Law. A tribute to a true artist is to tell his art as whole and not to rupture it apart and weave a new story with its tatters. The fans deserve depiction of the original story of J.R.R. Tolkien and not a waterdown version of the same.

Author: Adv. Asawari Ghate, Pune, Maharashtra, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at  Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

Leave a Reply

Categories

Archives

  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010