#demetrious polychron

[psychic-refugee]

When being delulu ruins your life, whew.

The writer not only has to destroy all his fanfiction and looks to be barred from publishing anything in the future, but he has to pay Amazon's attorney fees: $134,000 on top of his own attorney fees and $402 just to file his inane lawsuit.

Please think about that. SIX FIGURES for what I suspect is minimal discovery (emails and the fanfic in question) and probably decided by briefing (Summary Judgement) instead of a trial. Just to Amazon.

He did have representation, and the attorney looks like they have 16 years experience. I don't know their rate, but lets say amazon has the highest rate and this attorney the lowest for California (according to google), and they worked 263 hrs on this case (highest rate/award). That's $44,184 as a low, generous estimate. I suspect it's a lot more.

All together, ~$178,586.

When I tell you litigation is expensive...

[qualitygardengladiator]

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[tehri]

The Bonkers Lawsuit of Demetrious Polychron (I Wish This Were A Joke)

In other bonkers news I have just learned through my LotRO server’s certified Deep Lore Guy (bless you, Rana, may you never see this), apparently there’s a very literal fanfiction writer by the name of Demetrious Polychron (yes, I was also very surprised that this is his name) suing both Amazon and the Tolkien Estate for $250 million because he claims RoP was based on his book “The Fellowship of the King” - which is very blatantly a post-canon AU LotR fanfiction using several characters from Tolkien’s works, including Elanor Gardner, Elladan, Elrohir, and Eldarion.

One part of his reasoning is apparently that “there is a hobbit character in RoP named Elanor, this is obviously stolen from my book”, which makes no sense to begin with.

He also very clearly admits that his work was “inspired by the LotR and JRR Tolkien” (”inspired by”, lol) - when it is very much set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and even starts in the Shire and involves several of the characters from the books and so on and so forth.

He has written a very literal post-canon AU fanfiction. Which he has published. On Amazon. And now he’s trying to sue both Amazon and the Tolkien Estate because he thinks they ripped off his book.

[neil-gaiman]

Why I won't read your (or anybody's) fan fiction. Because there are people out there who will decide that I stole their ideas, and who will, against all sanity, sue.

[dduane]

“The US-based author Demetrious Polychron published what he described as the “pitch-perfect” Lord of the Rings follow-up in 2022, titled The Fellowship of the King. He planned for the book to be the first of a seven-part series inspired by the franchise.

“But the following April, Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkien estate and Amazon over the spin-off TV series The Rings of Power, which he claimed infringed the copyright in his book. A California court dismissed the case after the judge ruled that Polychron’s text was, in fact, infringing on Amazon’s prequel, released in September 2022.”

[mishafletcher]

hey it's important to me that you hear the stupidest and funniest thing i've heard this month, which is that a writer named demetrious polychron wrote a fanfic sequel to lord of the rings, then self-published it on amazon, and then sued amazon and the tolkien estate for making the rings of power tv show, which he claimed infringed on his copyright.

it didn't go well for him.

also, for those of you who love a trainwreck, as of 19 december 2023, there's a 75-page preview available on google books. it is—and i don't wish to be overly harsh—not very good.

this may shock you, but it opens with a birthday party and the arrival of an unexpected wizard. feels familiar, somehow!

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/18/copyright-claim-against-tolkien-estate-backfires-on-lord-of-the-rings-fanfiction-author

"...The US-based author Demetrious Polychron published what he described as the “pitch-perfect” Lord of the Rings follow-up in 2022, titled The Fellowship of the King. He planned for the book to be the first of a seven-part series inspired by the franchise.

But the following April, Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkien estate and Amazon over the spin-off TV series The Rings of Power, which he claimed infringed the copyright in his book..."

Yeah, the Tolkien Estate doesn't have the reputation of being all nice and cuddly, but... what went through that guy's mind??

--

There's no accounting for some people.

[justusmice]

so this? THIS my children is why we DO NOT FUCKING MONETIZE FANFIC. never get too comfortable.

[anoonzee]

So, in the waning days of 2023, we have three writers / authors behaving badly.

Cait Corrain - who had it all for a writer and was about to debut the first of 2 novels in 2024, yet decided to spend time to create some sockpuppet accounts on Goodreads to reviewbomb BIPOC writers who dared to have their books released in 2024...and stupidly use the same sockpuppets to give her own book 5 stars. She's been dropped by the friends she lied to / used, her book agent, and her publisher.

Lauren M Davis - believes that a WOC plagiarized her. The idea that was plagiarized? A character with sun-based powers. [Insert facepalm here]

Girl, you're not the first to have that idea, whut?

Demetrious Polychron (seriously, this is the name he goes with) - some ballsy fanfic writer who wrote what he called "the pitch perfect sequel to LOTR" and decided to sue THE ESTATE OF JRR TOLKIEN and Amazon for "infringing the copyright of his book". The Tolkien estate won and they countersued, demanding that Polychron destroy all physical copies of his book.

At the moment I'm writing this Tumblr post, we're not yet done with the year 2023. Either we've got the third one (it comes in threes, right?) OR there's still time for more ridiculousness in the world of publishing / books.

[namesonboats]

As a reader and writer of fanfiction, this person deserved this and beyond. Unhinged fans need to take a step back and NOT DO THIS SHIT YOU ARE RUINING FANFICTION FOR EVERYONE

[beardedmrbean]

A fan fiction writer has been sued by the estate of JRR Tolkien for copyright after publishing his own sequel to The Lord of the Rings.

US-based author Demetrious Polychron published a book called The Fellowship of the King in 2022.

He dubbed it "the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings."

The court ruled that Polychron must stop distributing copies of the book and destroy all physical and electronic copies.

'Frivolous' lawsuit

In April 2023 Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkein estate and Amazon, claiming the TV series, Rings of Power, infringed the copyright in his book.

The case was dismissed after the judge ruled that Polychron's own book was infringing on Amazon's prequel that was released in September 2022.

The Tolkien Estate then filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to stop The Fellowship of the King from being further distributed.

On Thursday Judge Steven V Wilson called the lawsuit "frivolous and unreasonably filed" and granted the permanent injunction, preventing him from selling his book and any other planned sequels, of which there were six.

The court also awarded lawyer's fees totalling $134,000 (£106,000) to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron's lawsuit.

The estate's UK solicitor, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, said: "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.

"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."

Earlier this year it was confirmed by Warner Bros that more Lord of the Rings films are on the way over the next few years.

Work on the second series of Amazon's TV show began in October.

The BBC has tried to contact Demetrious Polychron for comment.

[ebookporn]

That guy who snuck into the club successfully but decided to take a swing at the bouncer on the way out...

[serendip8y]

"But the following April, Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkien estate and Amazon over the spin-off TV series The Rings of Power, which he claimed infringed the copyright in his book. A California court dismissed the case after the judge ruled that Polychron’s text was, in fact, infringing on Amazon’s prequel, released in September 2022."

[thehungrycity]

This is interesting... A LoTR fanfiction author tried to sure Amazon for copyright infringement.... with predictable consequences...