they literally keep saying they're evil
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
203 points (100.0% liked)
chapotraphouse
14093 readers
922 users here now
Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Exit scam is just standard procedure in crypto land
I mean he already has an evil surveillance company named after the evil surveillance orb, this is on brand
The orbs are neutral and are more like Skype
Skype that can turn a wise favourite playing father into a crazy tomato eating favourite playing father... well I guess regular Skype can also do that
Its just cause the only guy who's always online is also evil
So like Skype.
Definitely more similar than different
did anybody else watch that AMC anthology series "The Terror". the first season is a fictional/dramatic account if an ill fated voyage in the 1840s to find the northwest passage which failed and i think has only been partially recovered in recent years.
anyway, it had two ships full of dudes trying to penetrate an environment extremely hostile to human life: darkness that can last for weeks, extreme cold.
what do they name their ships, literally IRL:
HMS Terror (wtf) HMS Erebus (the greek god/personification of "darkness", sometimes thought to be a son of Chaos or Time, depending on the author).
im not superstitious, but GREAT WORK, GUYS.
Tolkien is spinning in his grave so hard I'm surprised he hasn't tunnelled out the other side of the planet yet
he probably got stuck in middle earth (if you don't know middle eatrh is a land in the middle of earth as in a hallow earth)
the nerds have gotten entirely too powerful in this country. the jocks have really let us down
I'd normally never support such pettiness from trademark holders and whatnot. But I'd seriously like the Tolkien estate to do something really funny.
im pretty sure a name cant be copyrighted, and the legal process for trademarks is way more reasonable than copyright, they test if people are confused about the origin of the product. i think they wouldnt have a case
im pretty sure a name cant be copyrighted
Really? I feel like that comes up all the time for like comic book characters and such.
I think the distinction is between the name of the work itself (like there are actual comic books called Batman or whatever), versus the name of a character in the book. I ain't a lawyer though so I'm not sure
I guess that's probably a major factor in why so many comic book series are mainly or just the name of the protagonist.
Yeah there’s a reason only DC has a superhero with the obvious name “Super-Man”
If anyone has the infinite money pool to explore such things it would be the Tolkien estate and the studios who either own or licensed the IP for The Hobbit, LotR, etc.
I'd say if he had stopped at Palantir maybe be could have a good counter argument. He's very clearly just ripping every single "evil" object, creature, whatever else he can from the books though.
I don't think there's confusion for most people over the original source of the names. He's definitely using the names to get more attention though. I feel at the very least he should be paying them some sort of licensing fee. I'm surprised they haven't already tried something. Nintendo would certainly not let someone name their evil company Bowser's Warship (I dunno, just trying to think of something close to similar). They'd at least send a C&D and review their options if the company ignored them. Maybe I'm crazy.
bowser is just a name people have though, you could totally call it that
I could also make a game company named after my distant cousin "Mario" and name it "Hyper Mario Land"
How would Nintendo respond in that scenario?
But either way my hypotheticals are irrelevant and not anywhere near the reality of Theil just straightforwardly lifting names from Tolkien and doing so repeatedly. They're not like common names either. Did the word Palantir exist before he published LotR? Obviously Tolkien "borrowed" (ripped off in some cases) from like Finnish mythology and others. I wouldn't expect words like "Wizard" or "Elf" to be protected in anyway. "Hobbit" though? Well, I dunno. "Palantir"? "Nazgûl" (why the fuck does Apple auto correct that spelling)?
Look, I'm feeling gross typing all this pro-corpo sounding stuff. I just want Theil to lose lots of money. However that can happen is fine with me. It's also personally annoying to me that he keeps using LotR stuff. It's cringe as fuck, and I'm pretty sure he couldn't even explain why he thinks the names fit. Although Palantir sigh does sort of fit. In a round about way anyway.
game company called hyper mario land would be same industry, more similar name to an existing trademark than just the name mario, both sides definitely trademarked rather than copyrighted, they would probably have a case. everything im reading says fictional names cant be copyrighted but they can be trademarked, it would only be an issue if they trademarked the fictional character's name and then they met the conditions for a legal test including consumers not understanding that the bank was not affiliated with lotr. istg trademark law is actually chill
You're forcing me to arrive at the conclusion the other commenter made. Involving a hit of the man sort.
I think it’s genuinely baffling they’ve allowed him to keep doing this
Sue this fucking ghoul for defamation (or whatever the company equivalent would be)
Like put a hit out on peter thiel would be vvv fummy
Naming real life shit after a fantasy book is so lame. Look at my gym bro, I call it ellesar, elven stone, king of the united kingdom of arnor and gondor.
naming his rockets after ships in the Culture series is a very 
moment too
ugh 
i thought i would never say this but read another book you bloodless ghouls, fuck
They did and it's going to be named Gringott's now 
We were too hard on potterheads I fear
Kill all LOTR nerds, NOW
I am pretty sure most LOTR nerds don't side with the villains.
As a LOTR nerd, if it must be done, it must be done
thank you for your sacrifice
Most of them are super irritating. Calling Tolkien 'The Professor' or titling a reddit thread like its a thesis chapter. Instead of Did Balrogs Have Wings they will write Of Balrogs and Wings: A Discussion on Metapjor
I think you are giving crypto bors too much credit. The entire industry is literally built on exploiting other people (and that'strue for most industries under capitalism) but in crypot it's in a far more direct often scamming way. Anyone who's a crypto bro at this point in time does not care aboiut morals or ethics cause if tehy did they woudln't be a crypto bro. I doubt many of them think they are the good guys at best they are moral nihilists. It's definitley not that htey are too sucked into realize this person calling themselve sevil. or doing evil things. it's more that htey care more about money than they do of morals.
Nerds in high schools really are just temporarily embarrassed jocks.
Next, to compete with Chorus, their new influencer incubation program: Wormtongue
thiel had his sidepiece killed for embarrassing him
that dipshit on the right is the 'if you die in the matrix you die IRL' guy?
What a fucking loser.
Yeah, and you may remember back during Trump's first run he tried to AstroTurf a "grassroots" right wing propaganda movement on reddit. Dude didn't even bother starting a network of think-tanks to launder his views through. SMH.
They don't care