Is it possible to use worlds from books without signing contracts and paying royalties?

Question

Copyright

Recently, I have a lot of free time and I wanted to take it with some useful and interesting hobby. Since I wanted to create something for a long time, I decided to try to make my own browser toy, while simultaneously studying modern web technologies (html5 / flash / silverlight - I haven’t chosen yet). Since I lost my imagination in the fifth grade, when I became interested in mathematics, the first thing I decided to do was choose a ready-made world in which everything would happen. And here the question arose: is it possible to use worlds from books without concluding contracts and paying royalties? That is, for example, can I take the world of the same Tolkien (geography, history, characters) and use it in my project? (for fantasy haters, imagine the world of Herbert's Dune) Also as an option worlds from old toys for example 8/16-bit. Naturally without trademark infringement.

PS *Looking into the distant future* if the game appears, it will be focused on the Russian-speaking audience.

Answer 1

"The Lord of the Rings" was published in the mid-50s, it does not seem to pass under the public domain. (I think there will be no patience until 2032.) “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” in general, too, although soon.
Eight-bit toys are all the more proprietary. I don't remember the heyday of the GPL and indie on the Famicom. So you still have to contact the copyright holders if you want everything to be clean, of course.
Take something older or use a typical fantasy world in a vacuum. You won't describe any spin-off adventures of Frodo or Link, will you? Orcs, elves and trolls have not yet been patented. Probably, problems in this case should not arise, geographical names and names with a plot are not a problem to come up with.

Answer 2

I think such use will be doubtful from the point of view of the Civil Code. Copyright protects not only all works but their parts, regardless of the method of expression. There seems to be no precedent yet, but many experts believe that the characters and the "world" are part of the work, which is logical, and their use is a derivative work. And some even register names as trademarks.