Here's a Q I've been itching to ask: what sort of distribution license are contributors (implicitly?) applying to the work they give to the project?
Here's why I ask:
Suppose something super big happened—some adaptation rights got sold—and a studio came knocking, wanting to use the extensive workshopping and research the SilmFIlm project has done (they would be fools not to pay attention!). There's a vague idea (hope?) that Amazon's 2nd Age project could be seen as a trial run, that eventually someone might get a crack at the 1st Age. A few years ago TV adaptation of the Akallabêth would have seemed ludicrous, and it's possible we'll get to see that before the decade is out.
Maybe this is all moot. But it would be far nicer to make the idea of using SilmFilm ideas attractive, rather than a legal minefield to the extent that things are done differently purposely to avoid claims of stealing ideas, even when it is arguably the best approach to a particular thorny problem in adaptation.
Here's why I ask:
Suppose something super big happened—some adaptation rights got sold—and a studio came knocking, wanting to use the extensive workshopping and research the SilmFIlm project has done (they would be fools not to pay attention!). There's a vague idea (hope?) that Amazon's 2nd Age project could be seen as a trial run, that eventually someone might get a crack at the 1st Age. A few years ago TV adaptation of the Akallabêth would have seemed ludicrous, and it's possible we'll get to see that before the decade is out.
Maybe this is all moot. But it would be far nicer to make the idea of using SilmFilm ideas attractive, rather than a legal minefield to the extent that things are done differently purposely to avoid claims of stealing ideas, even when it is arguably the best approach to a particular thorny problem in adaptation.