Middle-Earth Skyrim mod shut down by WB

dotarray writes: The death bells have rung for MERP, an ambitious Middle Earth Roleplaying Project (geddit?) designed as a mod for Skyrim. The mod's developers have received a cease-and-desist letter, but not from Bethesda, owners of The Elder Scrolls. Instead, the notification came from Warner Bros., who owns the rights to various works by J.R.R. Tolkien — including, of course, names and events used in MERP.

The independent development team had been working on MERP for more than eight years, but following the C&D request, has decided to completely stop development on the mod.