[OT] More George Lucas bashing.

[dogscoff]

OK, these boards have seen their fair share of 'Lucas sold out/ ruined Star Wars/ is a beardy git' conversations, so I thought I'd draw everyone's attention to this little story of webcomic artist vs George Lucas' bully-boy lawyers:

Diesel Sweeties

Ok, legally speaking it's pretty clear someone is making money from T-shirts with stylised Star Wars stuff on them, but I say Lucas should have let this one slide. After 30 years I think Star Wars is so much a part of popular culture it's unfair to stomp on people who are simply expressing and sharing their love of it. It's not even as if the artist in question had simply grabbed a still from the film and stuck that on a T-shirt: The work is creative and original, even if it does invoke a copyrighted franchise. The fact that the shirts are sold for profit does nothing to detract from this imho, and I see this as nothing more than the precious Mr Lucas crapping on his fans from a great height for the sake of nothing more than petty jealousy. He's got enough money, he's made all the SW films he wanted to (I certainly HOPE he has, anyway), he should let the fans have Star Wars now.

Or maybe I'm just bad-tempered because didn't get enough sleep last night. One or the other. Either way, I'm tempted to get one of the 'Cease and Desist' shirts.

Also, Diesel Sweeties is a really cool webcomic. If you don't read it, do.

BTW, if you want to see the shirts that caused all the fuss (they have now been removed from the site), try:
Ain't Google cacihng brilliant?

[The Gnome]

The problem is the way copyright law is setup. You cannot, legally speaking, selectively defend your trademarks, copyrights, or intellectual property. If you have a proven track record of not defending them, over a period of time, they go public domain.

So while I am usually first in line to bash George Lucas, he doesn't have much choice here if he wants to own the Star Wars rights.

[Atrocities]

Lucas wants to be the only one making money off of his creation and rightfully so. Afterall, it was he who ruined the franchise with Episode I, II, and III. So why shouldn't the exhalted one make a $0.50 cents in royalties off of every T-Shirt sold?

Its not like he needs the money or anything.

[bearclaw]

I have to second The Gnome on this one. It's all fine for people to say that he's bashing on fans, but what is never said is when various fans do approach Lucasfilm through the correct channels, very rarely are they turned aside when they want to use copy-writed material. Of course, this totally depends on what they intend to do with them.

Case in point: The 501st Stormtrooper Legion (www.501st.com). The 501st has been working with Lucasfilm for many years and they have not once made an issue with us using trademarked/copy-writed stuff. In fact, Lucasfilm, though they maintain the trademarks, have even come to the 501st leadership to ask their input. In return, Lucasfilm has included the 501st in lots of promo events (escort duty for various SW personalities, SW Weekends at Disneyworld, etc). The 501st has permission to produce our own regalia with full licence to use copy-writed stuff. (My personal treasure is my 501st Swiss Army knife. All black, with the Imperial cog. Only 40 in existance).

Speaking of which, if you have the opportunity, watch the Rose Parade on January 1st, '07. As a jesture of thanks to all the 501st has done in the name of Lucasfilm, THEY are paying for 200 501st members (all just ordinary fans) from around the world to be in the Rose Parade. It will be the largest marching display in the history of the Rose Parade. The message we received from the 501st leadership is that this request came directly from George Lucas. Does that sound like he's against anything that fans are doing? No. Sounds to me that he's more than willing to support fans. They just have to do things through the correct proceedures.

[Atrocities]

Sounds cool.

[Caduceus]

One more reason to watch the Rose Bowl Parade.

[NullAshton]

Doesn't him selling those t-shirts fall under legal uses of a published work, in that you can make a parody?

[PvK]

Ya, walkers even get wiped out by 18-inch stubby-limbed muppets using stone-age wood/rock/vine technology.

Emperor Palpatine said something about them being crewed by "An entire legion of my best troops..." too...

[PvK]

My takes:

Star Wars IV: Classic, very well done space opera adventure, with very good action sequences with good pacing/timing. Good portrayal of good guy fear and death and chaos.

Star Wars V: Goodish but it's not a very complete story by itself. It's like a series episode that leaves plot threads dangling for the next episode and doesn't really resolve anything. Good effects, good atmosphere. Boring parts. Too much Yoda muppet and Jedi school lessons.

Star Wars VI: Goodish finale to trilogy with some weak points, especially the Ewoks and other bits that undermined the conflict and the sense of actual danger.

Star Wars I: Disappointing, with some potential and good parts, and some good effects, but too many really bad parts. Utterly unbelieveable underwater ecology with whales costantly chain-swallowing each other is just stupid, not exciting. Jedis bored reaction to it is appropriate for a viewer but not for characters supposedly in danger. Gungans are worse than Ewoks! Utterly unbelieveable physics-nonsensical over-accelerated pod race. Utterly unbelieveable Anakin abilities (build droid, insanely good racer, can fly fighter by instinct, finds the one "press here to turn off droid army and win climactic battle" button...). Bad acting, bad script. No one really seems afraid, ever (see Episode IV for people who show some fear in combat).

Star Wars II: Better than Star Wars I, but still disappointing. More good parts and good effects. Christopher Lee vs. Obi-Wan/Anakin and then Yoda is pretty good. Surface combat is pretty spectactular and ok, but slightly hyperactive and not entirely convincing. Lots of bad stuff though: bad script and acting and choreography (esp. Anakin and Padme), hyperactive/silly bits, like the arena combat and the flying R2D2 in a smelter that is like a platform-jumping computer game - are SO unbelieveable and disbelief-destroying. Again, no one really seems afraid, ever, which as in Episode I, undermines the conflict/tension.

Star Wars III: Better effects than Episode II, and lots of nearly non-stop action and significant events and death. But even more missed bets and screw-ups and potential to be far far better than it turned out. More bad choreography and timing and pointlessly unbelievable nonsensical and stupid action situations. Missiles that launch droids which grapple with fighters? Safely crash-landing a battleship from orbit without engines? That scene with Obi-Wan riding on a fake-o CGI dinosaur with super-ball resiliancy? Light-sabre fight next to lava waterfalls? I think not. The whole Anakin forbidden love transformation to evil thing had some dramatic potential, but the way it was done was very lame.

Alien: Good sci-fi horror film, apparently borrowing lots of ideas and aesthetics from Mario Bava's earlier Space "Vampires" film.

Aliens: Very good alien shoot-em-up adventure/horror.

Alien 3: Utterly unworthy sequel crap.

Alien 4: Outraged reviews and Alien 3 leave me with no desire to suffer through this, so I haven't seen it.

Predator: Good for an Arnie shoot'em up horror film.

Predator 2: Bad-ish crap sequel.

Alien vs Predator: Moronic, hyperactive and highly stupid, which wastes its expensive CGI graphics on horridly stupid plot and extremely fake-o CGI choreography.

* I am slightly amazed that anyone, even Atrocities, can possibly have changed his mind about AvP.

[PvK]

What!? That pixelized image that looks vaguely like an R2 droid? What, humanity can't draw pictures of 3-legged round-topped robots now without Mr. Scum Lucas' permission? That's such a stupid, evil concept, that I can even imagine that people would think that!