Re: Did the mod ever had Legal issues? Why?
The mod creators were very careful about this. In most cases they are using their own created work inspired by LotR books and films. Where content is taken from the film, in game videos for instance, their kept to 3-4 seconds, which falls within fair use guidelines.
The other important thing to point out is that Third Age isn't denying any legitimate rights holders of LotR profits. If a game studio obtained the rights to make a LotR strategy game they would certainly look at stomping out anything like TATW.