Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Sure he could have. He would have just had to pay for the rights. Like Peter Jackson (or whoever) did for the LOTR movies. People produce derivative works of in-copyright works *all the time*. James Bond movies. Star Trek novels. The Avengers. Star Wars chess sets (suggesting that it's not always a good idea).
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But they can only do so where the copyright holder approves; there's no statutory requirement to allow derivative works for a given fee - unlike what I understand to be the case with music licensing.
(If the copyright holders on the books had their way, Jackson wouldn't have made the LOTR movies. Unfortunately for them Tolkien sold the rights decades ago. But that meant Jackson had to work with the studio who had the rights; he wouldn't have been able to produce the movies under anyone else's aegis.)