It quotes a Guardian piece saying:<p>> Mark Le Fanu warned that even non-commercially distributed titles must be licensed by the copyright owner, in this case the Tolkien estate .. "If the book's available in English without a licence from the copyright owner, that's copyright infringement,"<p>This is (as I understand it) more of a UK thing. The US has a different view. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction</a><p>As a specific US example, see "The Wind Done Gone", "a bestselling historical novel that tells an alternative account of the story in the American novel Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell. While the story of Gone with the Wind focuses on the life of the daughter of a wealthy slave owner, Scarlett O'Hara, The Wind Done Gone tells the story of the life of one of her slaves, Cynara, during the same time period and events." - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Done_Gone" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Done_Gone</a><p>Note that while the lawsuit was settled (not decided by a judge), "The Eleventh Circuit, applying Campbell, found that The Wind Done Gone was fair use and vacated the district court's injunction against its publication" - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Parody" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Parody</a>