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?