Tengwar on a general purpose translation site

[Mark E. Shoulson]

Interesting.  In the case of tengwar, the copyright-holder has actually 
explicitly given an answer to the question:  they do not want it 
encoded.  But CBS/Paramount has never said anything one way or another 
about pIqaD (beyond boilerplate copyright notices), as far as I know.  
So tengwar would seem to be further from encodability than pIqaD, in 
this sense.  (And yet, the one disapproved of is not the one that is 
non-approved.)

As you say, the actual relevance, legality, and enforceability of the 
Estate's statement don't really matter.  Nobody wants to be in the 
position of showing it's wrong, even successfully.

~mark

On 3/10/22 17:46, Julian Bradfield via Unicode wrote:
> The Estate does not wish to release tengwar into the public domain to
> the extent that would be required for an encoding.
>
> Somebody asked about public evidence of their attitude. Here is what
> their FAQ says
>
> https://www.tolkienestate.com/frequently-asked-questions-and-links/
>
>    Tolkien’s invented languages and scripts are protected by
>    copyright. You may use them for your own private interest and
>    amusement, but you may not reproduce them in any form of publication
>    or in connection with any group activity, commercial or otherwise.
>
> As people have remarked, there are interesting legal arguments about
> whether this statement is true, but neither Unicode nor I can afford an
> argument with an organization which is not short of money for lawyers.