Artp said

Adagio Tolkien Fandoms

Did these get taken down due to copyright or something? I had looked over the fandom sampler and was just waiting to be able to justify an order. They looked AMAZING.

6 Replies

Yeah. Apparently the SZC company that made the old Hobbit cartoons threw a copyright hissy fit at Adagio for blends using Tolkien terms. So Adagio pulled all the blends until it’s all resolved….which it’s still up in the air as far as I know.

From their twitter – “We received a letter from SZC asking us to remove the teas. Decided that while we review options, we’d comply with their request.” (@AdagioTeas)

Which is incredibly irritating since the SZC company isn’t actually a part of the Tolkien estate. They just made the stupid cartoons years and years ago.

I know Aun-Juli has been re-releasing her Tolkien blends. Adagio is apparently working with her and approving re-releases of her teas because the terms she named many of her teas aren’t actually Tolkien specific but general words that exist outside Tolkien. XD
I’m not sure if Cara McGee has re-released anything under different names or not though.

inguna said

Not familiar with this particular case but if you use somebody else’s work without permission – that is not a hissy fit but a copyright violation.

It’s sometimes a name or a reference to a character or term from a particular fandom that a blender on Adagio is using. I wouldn’t particularly call that a copyright violation, especially if, in most of the Tolkien blend cases, a person is using a term that existed before and outside of the Tolkien works.
And I call it a hissy fit because, as far as I know, none of the other companies that people reference on Adagio has done something like this because I would think it’s good advertising business for their show/book/whatever.
Personally, I have a feeling that this company is hoping to get some kind of money kickback if they let Adagio ‘use’ whatever they’re claiming as copyright. If not then they’re apparently just being jerks about it.

TeaLady441 said

If it were the people who had the rights for the book, or the new movies I could see it being justified. But the cartoon? It just seems like a money grab now that their movie is so old and out-dated.

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Artp said

Argghhh now i’m kicking myself for not buying the samplers when I had the chance

Well, the Tolkien sampler that they had up was actually of Aun-Juli’s teas, so you may be able to still get some of them depending on what she’s re-released. They’re under the ‘Tales and Tea Leaves’ heading on the blends page. Also on the ‘Most Popular’ selection on the main blends page. ^^

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