And I'm not talking about the long gestating animated version from Disney where Holden would have been a mouse. Not kidding. Really was going to happen.

Anyway, lets say that JDC gets away with this as fair use. He has established that these characters, including Mr. C belongs to him. He would be able to sell the rights to that character and book and then people would be able to make a movie based on this character. What will stop the producers from changing the age say of this character to better fit today's market of teenage movie goers. And so on and on. The fact that this guy merely madlibbed CITR would lead to exactly that. And then JDS would have no redress.

Think about fan fiction. If this was allowed, what would keep producers from taking some story written by fans of say Star Wars and using those pieces as basis for films without having to deal with Lucas? (Okay, that may be a good thing but you get the drift.)

For your first point, I'd like some citation, please (you'd think with all this hoopla over this book that might've been mentioned at the same time?).

But to your second point, JDC hasn't established anything; he himself states that he's taking Salinger's characters and supposedly has written more of an "analysis" of the author/character. But should he be allowed to claim this drivel as his own, anyone trying to make a film of it (Salinger has long since refused any making of his novel) would be wary of lawsuits coming their way from Salinger.

And given your scenario, it would be fairly obvious that such "tweaking" would really be making the novel, thus subjecting it to a lawsuit.

And authors of works - Star Wars, even Harry Potter - continue to have rights even with fan fiction. Those side stories that fans write actually don't get much ground being published unless the author consents - take the Potter compendium, created online by fans, when it was hoping to be published. Rowling, though admiring the online effort, squashed any chance of publishing it, citing copyright violation. Directors would be crazy to take on such a compromising project.

Though, in the case of Star Wars, it could've been brilliant had Lucas _allowed_ actual writers. : )

One sentence. Igby Goes Down.