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We Won't Be Covering ModRetro Products Moving Forward (www.timeextension.com)
submitted 1 month ago by Eibriel@sopuli.xyz to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Because of the link to Anduril, seemingly.

I really fucking hate these tech bros taking stuff from Tolkien's mythos to name their products. Tolkien would fucking hate these people and these companies.

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

I’m a little bit surprised that the Tolkien estate never sued them for that. I suppose the terms were never copyrighted..? But at the same time, appropriating a character or concept name from a copyrighted work and using it as a company name does seem like something a good lawyer could work with… but idk, I’m not an attorney.

[-] brsrklf@jlai.lu 10 points 1 month ago

For some reason, the Tolkien estate had to tell paleontologists who nicknamed an homo species "hobbits" they had to stop doing so.

But a corporation is committing pure evil under the name "Palantir" or "Anduril" and, nevermind any kind of legal action, you can't even hear a strong word from the estate.

I guess some targets are easier than others.

[-] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago

From my understanding it was not the Tolkien Estate but the company SCZ?

This article was amended on 1 November 2012 because the first paragraph and a quotation from Dr Brent Alloway referred to the Saul Zaentz Company/Middle-earth Enterprises as "representatives of the Tolkien Estate". While the Saul Zaentz Company/Middle-earth Enterprises hold the film rights and some other rights to certain of JRR Tolkien's literary works including The Hobbit, they are not representatives of the Tolkien Estate. The Estate has also asked us to clarify that it was not approached concerning Dr Alloway's lecture.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/30/hobbit-banned-prehistoric-hobbit

[-] brsrklf@jlai.lu 2 points 1 month ago

Hmm. Looks like it.

The wikipedia article on Homo floresiensis is wrong then. It quotes another article that says the lawyers were representing the Tolkien estate, but that article too was quoting Alloway, who apparently got it wrong. Unlike the Guardian they probably didn't bother to check and correct the article.

[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I know Verizon has to pay Lucasfilm to use the term “Droid” for their Android phones, back when iPhones were AT&T exclusives and they were using the slogan Droid Does, but I think Lucasfilm had also specifically trademarked/copyrighted/whatever the term. I remember projects like Trillian and Babelfish took their names from the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide properties but I don’t think they did any licensing.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

was it Verizon or Motorola?

[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

IIRC it was Verizon; Motorola and eventually a couple other manufacturers would sell the same phones under different names in other countries.

this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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