George Lucas Goes After Fan Sites
Arkoth writes: "Sci-fi Newswire posted that Lucasfilm has ordered two fansites to pull authentic- looking storyboards off their sites. What used to be a fun game of bringing in rumors and secret images is now starting to become more serious when Lucasfilm ordered two Web sites, NaboOnline and Aldera.net, to pull two storyboards that looked authentic from their Web sites. Looks like George is getting out the big lightsaber and slashing leaks from his movie, which is 23 months from release."
Interestingly enough, I'd refuse to take it down without proof of copyright ownership.
e.g., post it as "We don't think this is really Lucas' storyboards, but here you go."
Then when Lucasfilm lawyers swoop in, say, "prove it, show us documentation that THIS work, is copyrighted by you, and we'll happily take it down."
The interesting part there is that then you could CONFIRM the storyline by seeing what articles were taken down, which is a FAR greater coup for the rumor site than getting possibly-fictitious photoshop storyboards in the first case.
If every rumor site did that, Lucas would have to leave them alone for fear of revealing the plot by killing the sites that had the truth.
D
When asked about shutting down the websites George Lucas commented, "I don't want anything to give the end of the movie away before the soundtrack does."
So far I've gotten all my Karma from telling people they are wrong... :)
The reason he's doing this is probably because his new merchandising juggernaut, Episode II, won't live up to all the expectations and hopes churned up by the fan rumor mill. Just like Episode I. He wants to keep our expectations down to reasonable levels. The question is.. why won't it live up to our expectations?
Think about it. Lucas had a great idea; take a classic fantasy plot, and stick it in a high-technology world. Once he saw the green rolling in, though, any thought of "art" went out the window, and became "How can I change this to make more money?" The result? Compare the Empire Strikes Back to Return of the Jedi and Episode I.
ESB is not cute. Look at some of the scenes in that movie. We have the Imperial AT-AT walkers. We have the asteroid scene. We have the escape-from-the-big-space-slug scene. The introduction of the Super Star-Destroyer, holograms, Vader becoming even MORE evil, brilliant light-saber battles.. I could go on and on, but I already have.
Then we have Return of the Jedi. Yes, there were some very cool scenes, but... Endor was originally supposed to be populated by Wookies like Chewbacca. Lucas, being a man of some intelligence, realized that something cute and fluffy would sell better, so he cut 'em in half and called them Ewoks. The result? A sequence of bizarre, Jar-Jaresque scenes of teddy bears overrunning trained Imperial troops in full body armor. Ok.
If I had a point in this rant, it's that Lucas has completely lost sight of the Star Wars "concept". Midichlorians, Jar-Jar's cartoonish escapes from tight jams... This is a live-action cartoon. I want the REAL Star Wars back.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
I think you are referring more to how difficult it is to explain the plot holes in the Matrix, as opposed to how long it takes to tell someone that SW Ep2 is filler between Ep1 and the original Star Wars, designed mostly to help move the warehouses full of Jar-Jar Binks junk Lucas still has laying around.
I do not have a signature
--
Lackey: Bad news, Darth Lucas, the url's of the fan sites were not on the Princess.
Darth Lucas: And you've searched her thoroughly? What about the webmaster?
L: I'm afraid he died before we could ask him.
Darth Lucas makes a grasping movement with his hands.
L:: Acckkkkkkk
DL: Lackey number 2 you are in command. Play a course to the Princess' homepage site.
UBU
Your strokes might be better than those of the copy, your colors might be a bit richer and brighter, but the value of your painting would be diminished by the fact that its novelty value had already been compromised.
What is the value of a book, when someone puts out the last three pages of an as yet unpublished novel? Though everyone may not go and visit the site to see the ending, the cat is already out of the bag and word of mouth will do its work.
The point is that the comments on Slashdot about Lucas being rich and greedy are beside the point. He may be rich and greedy, but he also has a right to protect his intellectual work. You can't Open Source everything, and even if you could, there are some people who want to maintain control over their artistic and intellectual property, which is THEIR CHOICE.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
We bitch about Lucas and all the CGI. We bitch about Lucas and his greed. We bitch about Lucas because he has a monopoly on desktop operation systems (er... got carried away there).
But how many of us are willing to back up our bitching? My nickel says the overwhelming majority of the readers here will rant and rave and complain and moderate and make jokes about Jar Jar, and then will jump down off the soapbox and fork over the $7.50 to see Episode II anyway. Or we'll call ourselves nonconformists, skip the movies, and later rent it (just to see how bad it is, wink wink).
Is this flamebait? I guess. But I think it's important that as we all get our panties in a bunch in our forum about this thing or that thing, we admit that rhetoric without action is of limited impact to Lucas, Microsoft, Congress, Metallica, etc.
PDHoss
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Writers get in shape by pumping irony.
These storyboards *belong* to Lucas. It is his right and will to publish or not publish them, especially as he owns the copyright and distribution.
It's different than the Lars/MP3/Metallica thing, because he really does own the rights, and not some corporation or distributor.
No one has the right to take his work and use it in ways he does not allow. In an analogous way to say, the GPL. If we allow *anyone* to infringe on Lucas's rights to his works, why would not anyone infringe on the Open Source's rights to their software/source? Why shouldn't NVIDIA include Open Source stuff in their drivers?
It's his. He owns it. He writes it. He makes it. He sells it. He produces it. He makes the special effects for it.
About the only thing worth complaining about is the quality of the movies!
The nick is a joke! Really!
GPL Deconstructed
Companies do not have the legal power to 'order' people to do things. Only the courts do.
In the same way Highlander II destroyed the whole film series for me, Episode I has put me off off any new Episodes. I will only go see E2/E3 if they involve the slow, painful, delicious torture of Jar Jar and the genocide of his race, one gungan at a time..
I'd rather see a new B5-verse movie anyway..
Your Working Boy,
"Horns" leaked what appears to be a very real picture board of EPII to Naboonline who said "due to the fact that we do not want to get into trouble with Lucasfilm, we have decided to not post those images".
http://www.naboonline.com/new s/i ndex.shtml#9701203 is an apology from Naboonline.com to LucasFilm and includes the original letter received from LucasFilm, or more precisely David J. Anderman, Associate Director of Business Affairs, from:netenforcement@lucasfilm.com and then they subsequently state their position as
A few choice snippets of the LucasFilm letter include.
so it is for copyright and trademark reasons The good old DMCA comes in along with anything else the lawyers can think to say.....what a surprise. Oh Yeah? You can demand but don't tell people that they must do things unless you are a court. IANAL but I thought it was as simple as that. Could this be harrassment? Also kind-of big demands to drop all links to all sites that have anything still up even if you are linking to something else or just the homepage.It concluded with a nice "Persuant to DMCA...infringe Lucasfilm's copyrights and other intellectual property rights...penalty of perjury". Do they have a form letter for this sh*t? And if the site was based outside DMCA zone (e.g. Europe) would they be able to ignore this?
If a tabloid newspaper published this stuff would they get away with it? I'd have thought so! What is the difference here?
There's only one problem.....See the parent post :-)
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
Interestingly enough, George will also have to go after sites that have incorrect info. If not, you'll be able to piece together elements of the picture fromthe things that are not under attack!
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
What happened to enjoying speculation? Using rumor to build anticipation? Liking the attention?
By the time this movie comes out, I won't care at all. Rumor, speculation, things like this keep me interested.
No $8.00 from me this time, Mr. Lucas. Learn to respect the fans a bit.
-- IANAEG - I am not an elder god.
GL: These aren't the fan sites we're looking for.
FS: We can go about our business.
GL: You can go about your business.
FS: Move along.
GL: Move along.
Some of them are HERE.
It's nothing to get too worked up about. I think they're fakes anyway... which makes it fit right in with the rest of my site.
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
Of all of the people in the film industry I can't honestly think of one that has time and time again shown themselves to be only interested in the sheer amount of $$$ they can gouge from loyal fans.
First it was the incredible array of editions and boxed sets released for the original trilogy, then it was the fact that DVDs for the new trilogy were only going to be released in 2050 or some other point in the distant future, and now he's attacking fan sites who are catering to the interests of the very fans he makes his wads of cash from!
Seriously, George Lucas has done nothing since the original trilogy worth bothering with. Despite all of the anticipation felt by die-hard Star Wars fans in the buildup to the new movies, he disappointed them all by pandering to 10 year-old children with his movie and its slushy plot, cardboard characters and fucking annoying CGI aliens.
Fuck Geoege Lucas and the piles of cash he rolled in on.
There is no Enemy, Anywhere.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
What is it that causes brilliant, insightful people to eventually become big, dumb, greedy, superficial fools? George Lucas was a visionary. He produced three movies in his youth that shook the very bones of the movie world. Instant classics. Is it just astronomical ammounts of money that turn people into assholes or is there something else here? Come on George! Let your fans be fans! (And MAKE Episode 2 NOT suck, okay?!)
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
George Lucas has decided to release Leonardo DiCaprio from his role as Anakin, and has brought on Metallica's Lars Ulrich. On being brought on, Lars had this to say; "This is fucking sweet shit man! I get to hit people with my flashlight!"
öööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööö
How Jaded Are You?
Grow up people.
If the story board would end up on the web, even if only remotelly accurate, it would spill the beans and spoil the movie.
Worse yet, it could bring a whole slew of cheap knock-offs, making episode 2 a lesser success or surprise. Case to the point: Antz vs Bugs Life.
Or perhaps you'd all want the storyboard open-sourced?
Lesse what kind of movie you can do in your basement, with your big brother's Sony digital camera.
(Admitedly, though, this would probably be the only source of a satisfying Jar Jar Bink death scene...)