The Hobbit On Hold

Flea of Pain writes "Director Guillermo Del Toro has confirmed upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been put on hold indefinitely because the movie has been caught in a 'tangled negotiation' over the future of the MGM movie studio. The film, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's first book in the fantasy series, was reportedly due to begin shooting this summer, but has been mired in delays. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who will act as producer on the new film, recently dismissed rumors of trouble with the picture, insisting, 'It's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date.'"

The next James Bond as well!

[The-Pheon]

Bond 23 [imdb.com] has also been delayed because of MGM's legal issues. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni2143090/ [imdb.com]

I was looking forward to seeing Mr. Craig shoot some guns, drive some fast cars, and flirt with some girls.

They are waiting for copyright to expire in 2

[geekoid]

years. The copy copyright was in 1937, 28 years, plus a possible 47 year extension. 75 years Max and assuming the filed properly.
2012 it expires. Seems to me the Tolkien estate should suck whatever blood they can get from our culture now.

The Renewal System
Under the 1909 copyright law, works copyrighted in the United States before
January 1, 1978, were subject to a renewal system in which the term of copyright
was divided into two consecutive terms. Renewal registration, within strict time
limits, was required as a condition of securing the second term and extending
the copyright to its maximum length.
On January 1, 1978, the current copyright law (title 17 of the United States
Code) came into effect in the United States. This law retained the renewal
system for works that were copyrighted before 1978 and were still in their first
terms on January 1, 1978. For these works the statute provides for a first term of
copyright protection lasting for 28 years, with the possibility for a second term
of 47 years. The 1992 amending legislation automatically secures this second
term for works copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977.

The Hobbit was published in 1937. It had to be extende withing 28 year. 1965 at the latest.
The second extension is for 47 years. meaning the second, and final extension shoud ahve ended in 2007.

note: If a copyright originally secured before January 1, 1964, was not renewed at
the proper time, copyright protection expired at the end of the 28th calendar year
of the copyright and could not be restored.

Some of the first runs didn't even have a copyright mark, so one could argue the copyright is invalad. You would need to be a dick to argue that.

Re:They are waiting for copyright to expire in 2

[JimDarley]

The US adopted the Berne convention in 1988, according to which:- "One important minimum rule was that the term of copyright was to be a minimum of the author's lifetime plus 50 years."

According to Wikipedia, Tolkien died in 1973, that plus 50 years means that it'll be 2023 before the copyright expires.

Copyright expiration is all over the map

[bgalbrecht]

In life+50 countries like Canada, it will be 2024 (it becomes PD Jan 1 of the year after the 50th anniversary of the death), but in the US, since it was copyrighted under the rules in place then, with the extensions (geekoid forgot about the 20 year extension in 1998), the copyright will expire in 2033. In the UK and EU and many other countries where it is life+70, it will be PD in 2044. This is all assuming the terms aren't extended yet again.

Re:They are waiting for copyright to expire in 2

[edjs]

I don't believe the US was obligated to apply that to works created before they adopted the Convention.

From my reading of the circulars below, The Hobbit would be copyrighted (in the US) until 2032. It would have expired in 2012 if they hadn't extended the term an additional 20 years in 1998.

There is, of course, plenty of time to extend it further.

Copyright Basics [copyright.gov]

Duration of Copyright [copyright.gov]