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His paying to advertise is only an extension of his already existing violations. I just personally would prefer it if leading mud sites didn't take money from license violators.
I am a little baffled that some of you have such a difficult time understanding the concept of intellectual property. Whether you're providing something for free or charging for it is legally irrelevant. Whether you think the Tolkien estate might make money because of license violations is irrelevant. Of course, if the Tolkien estate (or perhaps Vivendi in this case, as given that Middle Earth Online is currently being developed by Turbine under contract with Vivendi, it's likely that all online massively multiplayer rights were sold or licensed to Vivendi) doesn't care, then I don't care, but as far as I can tell, they've never told the Shadows of isildur fellow that they don't mind.
However, if they do object there's no question that what Shadows of Isildur and all the other Tolkien muds are doing is simple and blatant IP theft. I'm going to give Tolkien Enterprises a call on Monday to see what they have to say. Then, I'll either shut up and apologize to anyone I've offended over this issue or do my best to point them to everyone who is abusing or stealing their IP.
--matt
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