Middle Earth, by JRR Tolkien

[Deadshade]

hydewire: You should be aware that the Tolkien Estate is rather aggressive with regard to its intellectual property enforcement. If you are looking to release a board game based in Middle Earth, make sure you address the licensing before spending any money on assets.

Good information !
Btw I have toyed (and still do) with the idea to create a realistic Middle Earth planet. So not only the known part like Eriador etc but the whole planet.
Do you think that creating such a realistic style planet would fall Under copyright too ?

[- Max -]

Of course it will, J.R.R Tolkien's creation, including all the lore he developed isn't in public domain and not free to use.

[Midgardsormr]

Someone did apparently persuade them that it wasn't worthwhile to go after noncommercial fan art/fiction, so things like the Middle Earth DEM project appear to be safe. As far as I am aware, though, Tolkien Enterprises has not published any sort of official fan art policy, so in a technical legal sense, it's all against the law.

And since we're here, licensing information is available here: // Middle-earth Enterprises //

[waldronate]

Middle-Earth DEM Project

[Redrobes]

Could I offer the newer web site for MeDem. The old one had the forum but it basically broke after we had no admin support for a long time and then we got a new domain and put the new work there.

MeDEM - The Middle Earth Digital Elevation Model Project

The galleries are in much better shape there. I would suggest the Outerra Biomes pages for the latest pics.

If DeadShade wants to play in the MeDem world then head over to

Outerra

to grab the engine and datasets.

I agree that at any time MeDem could be hit with the C&Ds and we would pull it. But its a free, non commercial, no ads, no funding whatsoever little project. Obviously any fan who does anything in ME runs the risk. But a board game for sale would almost certainly need some kind of licensing.

There is a new forum for content creation within the DEM for the world.

Outerra Worlds Forums - Index

But that hasnt seen much activity for a while since Monks and I are not currently working on it.

[Deadshade]

If DeadShade wants to play in the MeDem world then head over to

Outerra

to grab the engine and datasets.

.

Ah well this looks like a dream ! That's exactly the kind of things I would like to do .
Unfortunately it also looks like a full time job
But many thanks for the information , I ignored all about Outerra. Perhaps one day ...