Hacker News Reader

Comment by RosanaAnaDana | Hacker News Reader

Right or wrong, 'Palantir' is a great name for this kind of company.

I think you're being sarcastic but it actually is. The Palantiri are tools made for a good purpose which were co-opted for malicious purposes -- and well-intentioned people got swept up in their wake.

If not Palantir, then maybe Insight, or Arnim Zola, as seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Only if you're certain you're not Denethor

That's part of what makes the name great, though. It comes with both references to great scrying power, and admonitions about the inherent risks.

Side question, why is it legal to take a name from "Lord of The Rings"?

Wouldn't the Tolkien Estate have a copyright on that?

Could I start a newspaper tomorrow called "The Daily Bugle"...(which is where Spiderman works)?

They disingenuously claim it has roots in Latin without mentioning LotR at all:

https://www.palantir.net/blog/palantir-philosophy-or-what-s-...

Even if it does, and I'd love to see more details about that (Google translates 'openly' as 'palam'), it's clearly a LotR reference.

Palantir.net is not the same Palantir everyone is talking about here. Palantir.net seems to be a website consultancy for drupal-based sites.

Palantir.com doesn't seem to have anything referencing the source of the name.

Ah! Thanks for the correction.

It's legal because they license the rights to use the name from the Token Estate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com