Since the word is already out elsewhere, I figured I'd post it here as well. http://www.moddb.com/mods/merp-middle-earth-roleplaying-project has received a Cease & Desist letter from Warner Bros because the project uses copyrighted content to which Warner Bros has an exclusive license (names and events).

The team has decided to stop development of the mod. We simply don't have the resources to go against this, and hiding in anonymity wouldn't work because due to the great ambitions MERP needs publicity to sustain the life force of the team. We had hoped that since Third Age - Total War never received a C&D we would have a chance to dodge that bullet as well, but apparently an RPG is a bigger threat to Warner Bros than an RTS like Total War.

Changing all copyrighted content is not an option for us, once all the names and such are different it wouldn't feel like LotR anymore.


We're not sure yet what the future will bring, but as for myself, I don't plan to stop modding Skyrim. This time not on projects that risk receiving a C&D though.

Damn. Such an ambitious mod, and such a long history too. Awful news

Would you mind sharing how far you had gotten in development?

Looks like history repeated itself. A real shame, but not all that unexpected.

Edit: Well, I can't find a good link. Anyway, the point was that a similar ambitious project called http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/42-general-memod-discussion/ was being made for Morrowind until it was shut down for copyright issues.

Didn't this happen with the Oblivion MERP project too, like, years ago?

Unbelievable! That such a large company would stoop to such measures against a free mod that simply uses the same story that J.R.R Tolkien wrote, it is despicable! I bet that Tolkien would not have approved of this 'mafia' style censorship of fans wanting to express their love of his work.

This is completely insane.

Hell, a pub in England that has been named The Hobbit Hole or something for far longer than any crappy American company has held the rights to the name was forced to change their name, so really it's no big surprise.

Did they sign exclusive rights with the Tolkien family?
Ianol, but this sounds like a BS letter to me.
A shame you all don't have access to any attorneys in the community.
a) It's not like you are getting profit from the work.
You would probably have a claim that you have substantially altered the original so as to constitute your own original work.

Remember what Shakespeare said about the lawyers : (

Some of your models are awesome. I hope they can be re-used.

The Tolkien Estate is actually known to religiously defend any and all things related to this stuff. May or may not be the case here, but that may help shed some light on things all the same. /shrug

Dunno about Shakespeare, but I'm of the "Scum-svcking leeches" camp where copyright lawyers are concerned.

My brother is a copyright lawyer

Ouch, bummer man. Gotta be a kick in the gut after all the work, condolences.

No, we ported from Oblivion to Skyrim. Same team.

We think WB was aware of MERP for Oblivion but didn't consider it much of a threat. After the port to Skyrim we achieved very fast progress and combined with Skyrim's engine MERP's future started to look very promising. It didn't seem that over-ambitious anymore (because I admit, for a long time MERP was very over-ambitious). During that time our whole team was constantly pumped up with excitement because everything went well and fast. Since we could still use more devs (especially modelers) we showed many pictures on ModDB to recruit more. WB probably noticed our increased quality and rate of progress and started worrying.

That is very sad to hear.

It's just so depressing that corporate greed is able to destroy so much hard work and creativity. It really doesn't seem like this is what copyright law is supposed to be for. Can't really say anything about the Tolkien estate of course but I've come across in other cases where the beneficiaries have behaved in a way that an original author would consider quite unconscionable.

The MEMod wasn't shut down by anyone. The leaders of the team were in communication with the Tolkien estate, among others, about legal issues and trying to receive some informal assurances they wouldn't be shut down after they released. The Tolkien estate didn't say they would shut down the mod but gave no assurances they wouldn't attempt to either. The leaders all decided to not bother wasting countless thousands of hours working on a mod that could be shut down at any time and moved on. At the time, the MERP leadership said they would carry on despite the legal implications until told otherwise. We're talking 2004-2005 timeframes, here.

It is sad to hear, but this is how copyright works, and it is their right as copyright holders to send these letters. They've likely paid countless millions in order to gain these rights and will protect them rigorously. My thinking is that an Oblivion/Total War mod wasn't a big issue because the last LotR film, The Return of the King, came out in 2003. Oblivion didn't come out until 2006 so all the games and buzz surrounding the film releases would have died down by that point. Fast forward to today and there are two new LotR films (The Hobbit) coming out this year and next year, and no doubt they'll have video game tie-ins for the films due to be released along with the films. However petty it may sound, they don't want their games to have to compete with a free mod for a great game. And it's their right to ask anyone to cease and desist on using copyrighted works they've paid millions to acquire licenses for.

I wish you all luck on your future endeavours.

Crap dude..
That svcks so bad.

You've helped me a bunch Maegfaer and thanks so much for that and I am also leading a somewhat big project and the thought of a big company bullying me to stop working on it is a terrifying thought and I can't imagine what it feels like for you and the team. Honestly I think that with enough publicity from places like reddit or something we could do something though.
For example that pub that was called The Hobbit or something. Warner Bros tried to shut it down and, if I remember correctly, it wasn't shut down because of publicity via the internet.

But yeah saying "that svcks" is an understatement.

did you use original sources or you made your own ? because if is the second I do not see how this could result inan infringement , the LOTR of rings stories and books should be free of a copyright because are over 60 years from the 49 of the last century release.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. Though I kinda agree that such an old copyright should have expired by now, but legally it isn't expired...

This is exactly why I deeply, wholeheartedly and endlessly hate capitalism.

We do actually have a lawyer we've contacted (who does this kind of stuff all the time, and for free), to see if we can continue with MERP. She is helping us in negotiations with WB. So MERP isn't dead quite yet.

Nice ... but so ur artwork is original or based on the movies ?

Some artwork is inspired by the movies. But the artwork nor the movies is the issue here, it's about the books and mostly names and events.


We are still pretty helpless though, even with a lawyer. We don't have anything to offer to WB in these negotiations.

She's not so sure. As long as we can say MERP is transformative, we should be fine.

Pathetic behavior from Warner Brothers. I suppose they realised that your mod would of been way better than all those lazy, uncreative, licensed Lord of the Rings games that have been coming out in droves since the movies were made.

I was really looking forward to this. Will Rongphale and the rest of your team continue modding Skyrim?

Can we hire him? (For free of course ).