Lord of the Rings Online

[MR. Lurtzy]

Does anyone know if there is a place online that I can read the LOTR trilogy plus The Hobbit for free?

[Cw0rk]

It's probably on some torrent sites.

But... why not just get theses books at your local library?

[MR. Lurtzy]

But... why not just get theses books at your local library?

I own them all, but I'm not at home right now.

[TelTura]

Tolkien hasn't been dead long enough....to my understanding, for such things to be legally released into the public domain, under most laws the author needs to have been dead for fifty years...Tolkien died in, what, 1970?  that still leaves a decade or so before such a thing can happen.  And that's just for Lord of the Rings, I have no idea how it would play out with things like the Silmarillion, having technically been written by JRR himself, but edited and published by Christopher Tolkien.

so, yesh, a dive into the Dark Side of the Internet is all that can help you now....

[Kralik]

Current copyright laws in the US are quite constrictive. It's currently something like the date of publishing + 95 years before an item enters public domain. However, because Disney is overzealous for their Mickey Mouse copyrights, they keep lobbying to extend the XX years whenever it's almost up. The consensus is that nothing after Steamboat Willie (about 1920's) is ever going to enter public domain in the US.

[Gil-Estel]

he died in '73

[legolas3333]

he died in '73

wikipedia, right?

[Gil-Estel]

No, by heart. I am somewhat of a fan you know, reading biographies and such....