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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Trademark law would apply. Tolkien estate presumably never used or even registered them as trademarks.
Another comment mentions Droid phone. In that case, Lucasfilm had registered “Droid” as a trademark.
FYI: in most countries, something is granted a copyright simply by virtue of having been published. If the claimant has unpublished work, they can still make a claim if they can prove provenance. Copyright is something that happens (more or less) automatically.
The sticky part is that it’s a civil offense, and challenges must be extensively adjudicated-- which is often very expensive.
However, ModRetro’s recent announcement that it is manufacturing a Chromatic which comes with Anduril Industries branding is, for us, a step too far (Anduril is another of Palmer Luckey’s companies, and is an American defence technology firm which develops autonomous weapon systems, including drones and planes).
That people might have an issue with supporting a product that directly benefits an arms dealer is pretty obvious – and we’re sorry we didn’t draw the line sooner. After our review of the ModRetro Chromatic went live, we were criticised (rightly) for not making its ties to Luckey clearer. We updated the review to make the connection plain, but we can appreciate that it was too little, too late for some of our readers.
Why do people keep giving palmer lucky money? Do they see his name and just feel like it needs to be self fulfilling?
I think you’re exactly right about his name. It’s completely irrational but people seem to buy into the nominative determinism at a subliminal level!
You know how open-hardware gadgets often have a statement like “trans rights are human rights” or “black lives matter” printed on the circuit board? One wonders whether ModRetro have similar statements, only fascist/reactionary, on their boards or chip dies. Perhaps some Crusader motto in Latin, or the chapter and verse of a particularly harsh Bible passage, or just some 14s and 88s scattered all over the place.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Finally! I’ve been screaming about how this company is not someone we should exalt
