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Star Ballz Trumps Lucas
baby_head_rush writes: "The company that created pr0n cartoon Star Ballz won in court. George Lucas and company lost their first bid to stop its sale.
A judge with some common sense. There is 'little likelihood of confusion' between Star Wars and Star Ballz." Not for young eyes.
A note posted on the starballz.com Website succinct in its evaluation: "Basically , it means...the judge reached the decision [Lucasfilm's] claims were a totally unfounded PILE OF CRAP."
Looks like Wank Solo will fly again!
Winter 2010: With Glowing Hearts
If you go to the screenshots, I'd swear that was Goku. It seems that DragonBall Z would have a bigger claim to infringement.
And I must admit, it does look really stupid.
I demand a million helicopters and a DOLLAR!
I sense a grave disturbance in the force.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
"Luke, I am your father."
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
did Judge Claudia Wilken have to watch both movies to determine that there was little chance of confusion?
Lucasfilm's spokeswoman said "This is a pornographic cartoon utilizing Star Wars intellectual property. We feel strongly that the law does not allow for parody to be a defense to a pornographic use of someone else's intellectual property, especially when that use is directed to children."
But regardless of being pornographic or now, people are allowed to use intellectual property for parody purposes, which is clearly what Star Ballz is doing. Well done to the Judge for not taking sides with the big corporation, but instead choosing what is right for people's freedom.
Follow me
because whatever it is that "Star Ballz" is gonna be, from the looks of things, it's going to be better than Episode 2!
This is the NFL, which stands for "Not For Long" if you keep making those bulls*** calls.
When ever me and my friends see a new anime pron we rent it and watch it, I'm a guy, but all my friends are girls. These movies are just so funny! Our favorite is the Cool Devices series, the first tape is by far the funniest!
Bah!
"Lucas says Star Ballz could also negatively impact the sales of Star Wars-related merchandise, including videos, toys, games, books and CD-ROMs, potentially costing him millions of dollars"
My god! Lucas could lose a million bucks. Why, he'd be ruined! I feel awful for him! Someone should stop these guys!
I think I'm gonna cry!
Everyone loves a good parody, especially something as familiar as Star Wars. If I recall correctly, I saw Star Wars Intellectual Property being parodied on a recent Celebrity Death Match. It's not that big of a leap from CDM to anime porn. Besides, I wasn't the only one who lusted over the Princess when I was twelve. This had to happen sooner or later.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
when *nidt* can win when sued by *nift* for using similar name, wars and ballz are way too different.
Computer Help
Episode 2 looks to be YAPOS (Yet Another Pile Of Shit).
However, if they could show that Portman chick's gooya with Darth Vader's mule invading it, then I'd pay some money for it.
Other than that, why would I want to watch 2 kids may doe-eyes at each other for 2 hours?
How many hits from Slashdot will result in sales of the video just because MMG's pissing in a big studio's corn flakes?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
because whatever it is that "Star Ballz" is gonna be, from the looks of things, it's going to be better than Episode 2!
Hmm.. Do you think N'Sync's gonna star?
If so, then we should run out to the woods and hide..
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
'I got a NAUGHTY feeling about this.'
Star Ballz: The plot, dialogue and characterization are no better than Episode 1, but at least the chicks get naked.
-------------------------------------------------
charlton heston is more of a man than yo
...and have Natalie Portman in a sex scene so all these damn /. trolls will finally shut up!
Theres a 1980s porno caled Star Whores. Now how come Lucas didnt go after that. Afterall it sounds more like Star Wars than Star Ballz.
I sense a grave disturbance in the force.
The disturbance you're referring to is George Lucas.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security
if the guy that made this sleeps just a little sounder knowing that his work is protected now.
sig
"We feel strongly that the law does not allow for parody to be a defense to a pornographic use of someone else's intellectual property, especially when that use is directed to children."
Of course. Always invoke the children. That justifies any measure.
The Gardener
--
I wonder if Mel Brooks have an arguement then.
:-)
"I bet she give GREAT helmet."
You CAN here that in a pr0n flick, after all...
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
A star wars related movie with no muppets or N'Sync. No wonder Lucas wants to sue, I want to see this more than episode 2: star wars 90210.
Seriously. Am I the only person here that thinks that material like this is unsuitable? Slashdot has now sunk to an all time low by displaying that on its site, let alone on the front page. Forget spelling, moderation or any other complaints that people have about this site - what about the under-18's or non-US citizens who may have just violated their country's laws by clicking that link? Not everybody's grasp of English is extensive enough to understand what pr0n or "not for young eyes" might mean.
Yes, this article may have something to do with Star Wars and IP, but is something like this really news for nerds? Not all of us are obsessed with pornography and get our kicks out of cartoon characters of princess leia getting jiggy with mister biggy.
She's too thin, has ugly nose and has the breasts of a 10-year old chubby boy.
People v Larry Flint, he did exactly that he created a porno parody of a religious guy. Flint won at the Supreme Court.
Parody is enshrined within that judgement as being allowable, and indeed a cornerstone of US Law. Supporting Hustler and Flint in that case were NYT, Washington Post and others who you wouldn't normally see on the same shelf as Hustler.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
From the screenshots i'd say that someone figured out that hentai can be a well selling stuff :)
Hey, I think these guys are simply cool..
Check out this BSA guy.. =D
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
It's not like its the first parody with "Balls" in the name ;-)
This little Gem from the 80's is just great!
Sounds like the judge is a Star Wars fan and smote the evil Lucas accordingly.
Erik
+= E
Finally- someone decides for the people.
How much you want to bet that this judge never rises over her current position?
Starballz claims this is a parody. Really? Parody, says Websters is "a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule." Case law shows that criticising or commenting on the original is also fair use (although not necessarily parody).
Having your own original characters do a Matrix freeze-orbit scene is parody for comic effect (please, enough, stop doing this now). Borrowing the characters, but spoofing twenty two other works and making very cutting critital points about "moichandising, moichandising" leaves you mostly clear, as Mel Brooks showed, and in agreement with the very informative overview of fair use and parody laws at publaw.com
But this... well, I dunno. It's commercial, it's not commenting or criticising that I can see (not is it primarily comic per se, it's part of a well defined genre of its own, like musical), it uses substantial portions of the original (characters, scenes and plot). That only leaves the effect on the original which is, to be fair, minimal. But in three out of the four criteria that a court should use to decide fair use, it appears to fall down.
Perhaps it does comment on or criticise the original. Of course, we'd have to watch it first to find out. And perhaps Lucasarts should have done so too:
It's hard to sympathise with a lawyer getting bitchslapped at the best of times, but this, if true, is probably karmic enough to cancel out any actual moral transgretion.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Sailor Moon as Princess Leia..
This is so stupid, I can't even make myself sit through the preview. If Lucas hadn't sued odds are no one would have even heard of this.
I couldnt find it on kazaa :/
"This is a pornographic cartoon utilizing Star Wars intellectual property. We feel strongly that the law does not allow for parody to be a defense to a pornographic use of someone else's intellectual property, especially when that use is directed to children."
What I don't understand is how it is 'directed to children'. Starwars itself isn't directed specifically to children, pornography (usually) isn't. Is it LucasFilms contention then that all cartoons are directed to children? If that is the case then he needs to take a trip to Japan. I just can not see how this is directed to children and that seems a very unfair statement to make, probably done more for shock factor (porn directed at children! oh, no!) then because it holds any truth to it.
is it on morpheus yet? anybody found it?
How Wude.
I downloaded the sample clip and hoo-boy is that terrible. I can appreciate a good parody even ones that rely on cock and ball humor, but this is god-awful. I don't even know why Lucas felt there was anything to worry about. It's not like anyone is actually going to buy this.
...for more parodies like that? I have to admit that watching a re-run of "Thunderbirds" on DVD last night, my mind drifted for a moment fantazing about Lady Penelope and Tintin taking care of the 5 sons while the father and Tintin had some fun too and GranMa was watching and cheering up Tintin's father having taken off her denture.
I hope that people with animation talent won't be shy experiencing new ways to bring us joy and visual pleasure.
In a country drown by puritanism and religion, I am impressed about the open mindness verdict the judge has demonstrated. New lifestyles are reaching our country. This is re-assuring.
Kuddos to these guys for protecting US citizen rights by having taken the chance to fight Lucaz.
To these guys and the judge: You've got ballz! I know about a lot of people who would have comply with what ever big corp. would have order them to do (cough! Lindows cough!)
PPA, the (bi) girl next door.
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
I guess "Funny" is an acceptable category for this story, but "Anime" would really be much more accurate.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Unless you've actually watched it. Have you watched it?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
See subject.
If a work like this, which can only questionably be catagorized as a a "parody" is defended by the courts under fair use, does that mean that we're likely to find Fan Fiction defendable under the same defense?
Then again, the company in question being sued probably had enough money to hire some skilled lawyers. Individual fan fiction writers may just find themselves killed by legal fees, not by legal decisions, which is rather unfortunate.
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
Yeah this is real out of character for Slashdot: A first amendment issue involving Star Wars AND Anime.
/. as a mainstream news source. Last time I checked, /. is a website run by some geeks in western Michigan, not cnn.com. You can say "I don't like this" but the attitude of "this is contrary to /.'s purpose" graits on me.
Addressing your concern for the children; I grow so tired of people trying to define
Slashdot 's editors are dickheads
Far more serious free speech issues are going the wrong way. How about accademic freedom? The University of South Florida is canning a computer science teacher for saying bad things about Israel (see this Salon story). How about DeCSS? How about encryption rights? How about Digital Rights Denial? In all matters of real importance, the US federal government has proved itself wrong headed recently. So while the publishing giants feel free to swear on the public airways they own, place naked people on billboards, and do whatever else they think they can to make a buck, you and me are being stripped of the right to utter dissaproval in any meaningful way. Your comminications will be monitored (carnivore and local ISP caches), your house will be searched unreasonably(USA and Patriot acts), your property will be confiscated (standard proceedure), and you will be quiet.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Just go to Preferences and under Exclude Stories from the Homepage, select the Topic Porn. Oh, wait, there's no such topic...
Then again, considering the level of dialog in most of the discussions, I suppose limiting the vulgarity at the story level would be moot, something akin to locking the case of a Windows XP box.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What gets me is the "directed to children" bit. Um, what? Where does it say that the parody is directed to children? On the Star Ballz website, where there's a clear "this website contains material unsuitable for those under 18" disclaimer? By watching the thing? (Oh, wait, no, they didn't, did they?)
I know! It's because it's animated, and as everybody knows, animated vids are only for kids, regardless of content! Ha ha, right, all those Mangle Video animes with people getting naked (and peoples' brains getting shot out) that they release instead of getting around to Giant Robo are all to keep the little kiddies entertained!
Bleah. That mindset makes me sick.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Since when a couple of boobs is considered porn ? Not for young eyes... hah
[ROT 0 encoded for the sensitive Slashdot reader]
Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?
Hey, point that thing someplace else! Put that thing away before you get us all killed!
Look at the size of that thing!
I look forward to completing your training. In time you will call me master.
Hurry up, golden-rod...
Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!
Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?
Back door, huh? Good idea!
Wedge! Pull out! You're not doing any good back there!
Grab me, Chewie. I'm slipping -- hold on. Grab it, almost... you almost got it. Gently now, all right, easy, easy, hold me Chewie."
I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me!
I must've hit it pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh kid?
~The real Jon Katz is an imposter.
i remember the first porn anime i saw. woolegollenuuu
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If yes, well remove the id on the link in the story!
http://www.starballz.com/?yhnws --
The animation is nice and drawn nicely, but everything else is bad.. the sound.. the plot.. it's very depressing to look on it. I don't think LucasFilm should have paid attention to that thingie any way.
-- The ballad of arrivederci
What the hell are they using for servers, C-64's?!
What about thumb wars?
Lucasfilm has made them even more powerful than they could ever have imagined.
/. is strong with this one..."
"The power of the
That green slime had it coming.
"Hey, wait! That is not a planet." either.
The R2D2 thing bears much resemblence to pikachu as well....um, so I've heard, I don't actually watch pokemon
Keep in mind that this is just the opening round. There hasn't even been a trial yet; the judge has just said that, on the face of it, she doesn't see any reason to stop the sales of the film until the thing has been hashed out. It could still turn into a Lucasfilm victory in court.
So it doesn't open the door to anything yet. And it may not, in fact.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Now I can proceed with my first feature film "Star Whores"!
Vivid has me on hold as we speak.
I didn't think star wars was that bad.
Since anything that sticks out if you catch my drift... is offensive in todays society.
A very funny Star Wars parody called Star Whores is in the google cache of alt.sex.stories. It is very well written and very, very funny.
This is because corporations must protect their intellectual property otherwise it will be deemed to be in the public domain
Note that this applies only to the trademarks on "Star Wars," the movie titles, and the character names and likenesses. Copyrights on the expression of the movie and patents on the methods used to make the movie need not be defended as rigorously to maintain their validity; not pursuing infringers effectively amounts to granting an implicit license that can be pulled at any time.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Okay, I'll admit. I was curious in looking at the clips. The screenshots looked interesting even if it was anime pr0n. I downloaded and watched the demo clip and frankly the animation isn't half bad. I used to work in animation and some of the movement isn't bad. There are some horrible parts, but for the most part (again, besides that it's pr0n) it's actually a half-decent effort.
Animation wise.
Sound wise. Well, that's a whole 'nuther story. The dialog is pathetic, the music equally worse and the sound effects are pretty much non-existant. If the filmmakers just turned their efforts in making a real anime short instead of this lame-ass ripoff then it would be something to be admired. Get a half decent sound engineer and some music to play that's appropriate and a decent script and they'll be laughing.
liB
On a related note, the usual "fortune" at the bottom of this page says "Can't open /usr/games/lib/fortunes.dat." Is that a bug, or a parody of a bug?
Sometimes a bit dykish? Well, you know, she is a dyke (in the show at least)...
ok so "starbalz" won big fooken woop. it looks like one very special pile of crap. well ya for the little guy to bad the little guy was well stupid.
Riiiiight...
Lucas just gave them the biggest publicity and exposure they would have gotten even if they would have been called Star Wards, this is what over-reacting, misjudgment caused by greed will bring you.
I am all for trademarks and all,. but not when common sense is out of the picture. Next thing you'd know is they would have sued school when they do history lessons about the "star wars" project of US vs Russia... I'm glad a judge finally put them in their places. Lucas should focus on how to kill Jarjar in the most suffering and inhuman ways for episode II instead of suing anything that has Star in it.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
Hard to believe a lawyer gave up 2 hours of billable time, when all they'd have to do is watch some badly dubbed anime...
I wonder if this is the judge's way at getting back at Lucas for allowing NSync into Episode 2?
We're partially to blame. Every time we point to a Nintendo console as being "kiddy" because games are using cartoon graphics instead of being hyper-realistic, we perpetuate that belief.
:)
Of course, when I say WE, I really mean all of you.
Well, the series is a couple of years behind the US schedule over here...
Is that a bug, or a parody of a bug?
/usr/games/fortune -m fortunes.dat
/usr/games/lib/fortunes.dat.
[brock@harmless brock]$
(computers)
%
Can't open
%
The problem is that Lucas was able to stop sales for a month without having any merit to his case. This same kind of thing has happened in countless other frivolous lawsuits, and sometimes the defendants just settle with the extortionist plaintiffs because it's cheaper than losing a month of sales waiting for the trial. It's way too easy to get a preliminary restraining order. Also, if the plaintiffs lose the lawsuit, they should have to pay for all the legal expenses of the defendants
Repeal the DMCA!
Would the headline have read:
"Lucas licks Ballz" ?
People who don't understand these terms can get a quick education by clicking here.
Thank you.
So long as children are NOT involved, pornography should be a matter of taste, or the lack of it. The typical Japanese cartoon, what fans lovingly call anime, is pornographic (the cutesy Pokemon of the world excepted). Name a popular anime that doesn't have short, short skirts and near breast exposure. It's seems to be part of a great Japanese tradition, love for the vicarious, from virtual pet Tomagotchi to virtual pop star Kyoko Date to virtual heroine Aki Ross. Surely it's much safer than cruising the streets looking to pick up Ms. Right. Sexist perhaps, but in a harmlessly virtual sense.
Natalie Portman, Animated & Petrified!!!!
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance
Bum rush the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Does it occur to anyone that the lawyers seem to be running companies (and implicitly, the country) nowadays? I mean, did George Lucas look at this and decide that this evil stuff must be stopped? Seems more likely that some peon in Lucasfilms alerted the legal department, who then decided that they should create the appearance that they are actually doing something for their money.
MSN 8: Now Microsoft even has bugs in their ad campaigns.
I just tried to go there and got some kind of Dutch "404" page. *Shrug.* Guess they're toast afterall.