So... JRR Tolkien. Pretty good writer from all reports.

He made a classic work "The Hobbit," and then went and wrote some sequals, perhaps you've heard of them, "The Lord of the Rings."

But, when he made LOTR, "The Hobbit" no longer fit his vision. He went back and made, for lack of a better word, a "Special Edition" of it, where he changed a major scene involving his hero, a ring, and a little dude named Gollum.

Because of these changes, the original work that made him famous and allowed him to write LOTR was forever altered, and The Original Uncut Hobbit (The OUH) is available only to a small market of rabid collectors.

And yet I've never heard anyone complain about Tokien's actions (and I'm not complainig here). But what is the fundamental difference between what the Professor did, and what that one dude with the beard and the flannels did to his work?