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Lucas Restricts Fan-Made Films To Documentaries, Parodies
garagekubrick writes: "A great piece at the Houston Chronicle discusses how the community of fan made Star Wars films received a boon in December when Lucasfilm loaned their sponsorship to the event, and George Lucas himself would be a judge. Unfortunately, they've limited the contest to parodies and documentaries, thereby shutting out hundreds of entries. As a Lucas rep says, 'if in fact somebody is using our characters to create a story unto itself, that's not in the spirit of what we think fandom is about. Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.' Pretty rich coming from the filmmaker who constantly cites greed as being the root of the dark side, and who keeps discussing the liberating values of digital filmmaking. Guess as long as it doesn't hurt his Empire..."
According to current law, if Lucasfilms shows the propensity to forgive others using their trademarked material, their ownership of those trademarks would be jeopardized. It would mean anyone could make Star Wars films or merchandise and sell them. Parodies and documentaries are protected as fair use, so Lucasfilms can promote them without threatening their trademark ownership. I don't know of many IP production companies that'll even go that far.
I can live with getting the Phantom Edit in DivX over P2P file sharing programs. Just let me see Troops on the big screen.
Limit this, limit that; Can't do this, shouldn't do that
Is that the only thing Media Giants know ?
I thank God that the Media Giants weren't present when paper was first being made, or else, the Media Giants will purchase the RIGHTS to make paper, and dictate what people can and cannot do with their baby - paper.
What can we, the people do ?
Why are we tolerating so much nonsense ?
We can't copy songs, we shouldn't do e-books, they say it's all piracy.
What's next ?
We can't utter the word "Coke" or "Mickey Mouse" just because those words are "copyrighted" or "trademarked" ?
Should I say
"I just finished that black, sugarly liquid, which came from a white and red can"
instead of
"I just finished my Coke" ?
That'll be a new dimension of "Political Correctness".
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
As a Lucas rep says, 'if in fact somebody is using our characters to create a story unto itself, that's not in the spirit of what we think fandom is about. Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.
I think that's stretching the meaning of fandom. Here's what the dictionary has to say about it:
fandom
All the fans of a sport, an activity, or a famous person.
Nothing in there about having to follow any sort of guidlines set by the fanee. Now, there is a word that kind of means "a fan who does everything the fanee dictates. From the dictionary:
flunky also flunkey
A person of slavish or unquestioning obedience; a lackey.
One who does menial or trivial work; a drudge.
A liveried manservant.
Now if he wants a lackey or a flunky, why can't he just come right out and say it. All this talk of "fandom" seems kind of deceptive.
These guys have obviously never heard of Fan Fiction. I wonder what they'd do if we mentioned lemon fan fics?
Seriously though, some of the best Star Wars videos I've seen have followed these lines. Ever see TROOPS? It was excellent.
I agree that its just one more neon sign flashing "sell-out" to tack onto George Lucas' Motel of Movies. And I'm still going to go see all the rest of the star wars movies, because who can't??. Star Wars is burned into my brain along with Indiana Jones. George Lucas knows he owns us, and there's little we (or at least I) can do about it.
Your
Star Wars has made George Lucas a billionaire (or close to it) and you have to ask exactly what he thinks he's got to lose by letting loose of the franchise. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did this with his Sherlock Holmes character and greatly enriched popular culture. For example, Sherlock Holmes appears in more films than any other recurring character.
Lucas has also been very grandiose over the years with his association with Joseph Campbell. The two have promted Star Wars from "successful pop culture" to "modern-day myth making." You'd think that releasing his tight-fisted grasp on the material would cement Lucas' mythmaker status. Sure, Tolkein never let loose of his canon, but then again, he never claimed to be the new Homer.
Episode I demonstrated that Lucas was pretty much out of new or even good ideas. If Episode II continues this, then we can pretty much bet that Episode III will draw a shameful end to what the original Star Wars started so brilliantly. If Lucas wants to live up to his own hype and ensure that Star Wars has the new ideas to make it a legacy, he should let loose of it.
If he just wants to make a couple more hundred million dollars before he dies, then, yeah, he's doing exactly the right thing.
So when a story about how evil Lucas is for not letting people distort his characters for their own gains shows up here, it just looks like a bunch of spoiled brats that throwing a fit because they can't play with the toy that they want.
And whoever the person was that posted the one about "you can't own ideas" I'm sure you would feel differently when you find out your own ideas are being developed by someone else and they are claiming credit for it all. Money or no money, you had the idea, they heard about it, and then decided to act on it. Your stance is as it is because you probably haven't had a unique idea of yours stolen yet.
Check out Lucas' opinion of critics in this Salon piece
... They certainly don't know anything about history; they don't know anything about film. They don't know anything about politics. They don't know anything about sociology or psychology or anything. I mean, it's like, you get into a conversation with them and it's hard to find a subject that they can actually converse on."
An excerpt: "I mean, they aren't like the rest of us. They don't have any knowledge of anything. They're not successful in any world that I've
What can I add? Not exaclty Mr. Open-Mind. I don't like the idea of him as a judge.
I recently discovered another game written for the same class that is a even more blatant rip-off. It is here. Strangely, this second game was developed without any knowledge of mine. Both seem to be inspired by Star Wars and specifically by the asteroid field scene in ESB.
So could we get sued?
Lasers Controlled Games!
Yeah, the many, many similarities between Star Wars and the Lensman series, or Akira Kurosawa movies were total coincidences, hm? (early drafts are pratically identical to "The Hidden Fortress")
There's nothing wrong with changing an existing story. Disney does it all the time. So did Shakespeare. In fact, that was the predominant sort of writing throughout history; continual refinement of stories using stock characters and situations.
Original works are nice too -- within reason. Total originality is hard to come by and not very useful if carried to extremes.
Take a look at how useful the revision of preexisting works has been to the arts in the past. It's not something to be ignored.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Does anyone honestly think that Lucas would be so protective just because of money? Because quite frankly I strongly doubt "money" is a factor in the creation of fan-made films. The odds of any of these films making any money is about 0%; money is simply not the real issue.
George lucas has just always been protective of his story. If he doesn't anway anyone else taking over where he leaves off, just respect it.