Fanfic author who said The Rings of Power copied his book now owes $134,000 to the Tolkien estate

We rarely do words of advice here, but let me give you one: don't try and rumble with the Tolkien estate. The guys over there do not play, and in the past have been memed to death for their overprotectiveness of Tolkien and his works. They tried to get an image of him scrubbed from the internet, for example. Just a normal image.

And now they've once more flexed their power against a fanfic author known as Demetrious Polychron, who wrote a book called The Fellowship of the King. Polychron tried to contact the Tolkien estate about his book, even sending a physical copy, but he received no reply.

Then, when the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power released, Polychron took to the court room, saying that the show stole their ideas. After a brief legal battle, a judge ruled the opposite, saying that Polychron stole ideas from the estate, and that he now owes $134,000 in legal fees.

"This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorised authors and publishers to monetise JRR Tolkien's much-loved works in this way," said Steven Maier, the lawyer for the estate. "This case involved a serious infringement of The Lord of the Rings copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys' fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions."

It's a rough story for Polychron, but this is why it's probably worth not going toe-to-toe with Tolkien.