[OT] More George Lucas bashing.

dogscoff · #1 December 11th, 2006, 07:50 AM

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 · #2 December 11th, 2006, 11:55 AM

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 · #3 December 11th, 2006, 02:08 PM

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 · #4 December 11th, 2006, 02:46 PM

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 · #5 December 11th, 2006, 05:49 PM

Sounds cool.

Caduceus · #6 December 11th, 2006, 05:54 PM

One more reason to watch the Rose Bowl Parade.

NullAshton · #7 December 11th, 2006, 10:42 PM

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

narf poit chez BOOM · #8 December 12th, 2006, 04:53 AM

Yep. Fanfiction, fanart, fan-made anything without a licensing deal is all a violation of copyright and, if the author of the copyrighted material cannot argue before a judge that they did not know it existed, they can loose their copyright. They have to stomp on anyone they can be proven to know about...Which, for a company as big as GL's, means everyone.

Or, as it was put better than I could:
http://weberfaq.thefifthimperium.com/

Go to number 1.4, or search for 'fanfiction'. It'll be the first one.

dogscoff · #9 December 12th, 2006, 06:55 AM

Quote:

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

The author has mentioned this, and believes he'd have a very strong case under parody & fair use - unfortunately he believes that even if his case were 100% rock solid he'd lose in court anyway because he doesn't have the resources to go up against GL's horde of partnership collective drones.

NullAshton · #10 December 12th, 2006, 01:32 PM

Quote:

dogscoff said:

Quote:

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

The author has mentioned this, and believes he'd have a very strong case under parody & fair use - unfortunately he believes that even if his case were 100% rock solid he'd lose in court anyway because he doesn't have the resources to go up against GL's horde of partnership collective drones.

Which is where you hire a very specific mercenary company to come with you into court.