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Jedi Archives In Dublin Library?

bill_gates_jnr writes "When Attack of the clones came out many Dubliners thought that the Jedi Archives looked similar to a landmark in Dublin, the Long Room in Trinity College Dublin. The library administrator of TCD, Robin Adams has story written a letter to Lucasfilms suggesting the company should acknowledge a debt to the original architect Thomas Burgh. " I was in the Long Room a few years ago - it's a gorgeous room. But while we're acknowledge debts, perhaps Lucas can also acknowledge a more significant debt.

6 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Debt? by CrackHappy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hemos, what other debt are you speaking of? I looked at the article you linked to, but couldn't find anything about Lucas.

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    1. Re:Debt? by Scooter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh for goodness sake - there are only about 8 plots in the broadest sense anyway - Lucas rips off Dune? why? becasue there's a "saviour" who was prophecied? One who will be more powerful than any before him and will set the world to rights? Come on - Herbert didn't invent that - try Mallory's Mort D'Arthur, "The Return of the King" - LOTR, or Jesus Christ if it comes to it. Honestly - Frank Herbert needs to climb out of his own arse if he seriously thought there are more similarities between SW and Dune than SW and a hole host of other films/books etc etc. I mean yes, veryone gets inspiration from things they;ve read or seen, childhood memeories and so on, but seriously - did anyone else apart from him actually think to themselves "hmm Star Wars - it's a bit like Dune" Only after sucking on some serious Jamaican Woodbines.

  2. Hardly unique by maggard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Gee, a barrel-vaulted room in a library littered with busts, I can only think of, oh, a half dozen or so of those off the top of my head. Without getting the DVD or seeing the Imax version playing downtown its hard to compare them but from my recollection there doesn't seem to be anything unique about the Dublin room or the Coruscant one.

    Furthermore, what kind of credit is expected? Few sets, digital or physical, are created ab novo. Need there be an attribution for every filmed space that was inspired by another? Should this be limited to notable public buildings or to parks too? Should I hound the film major who set a scene in what looks remarkably like my old apartment's living room in which he once got drunk?

    Did Lucas Film "rip off" that library? Who knows. Certainly enough other library rooms look like it, need they all get plaques? Indeed I used to live down the street from a former fire station in Boston that was notable for having its hose-drying tower built like a Venetian campanile. When that was built it started a trend of lots of other fire stations being built soon thereafter looking similar - should all of them put up plaques attributing their inspiration?

    Extending "Trade Dress" to spaces - Feh.

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  3. Is it a problem when... by Frobnicator · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ... creative people turn to existing sources? We have seen so many articles lately of when creativity is based on other creative sources and in some of them, one group sues over it. I'm getting pretty tired of it.

    Yes, if I duplicate your stuff almost exactly and hurt your business, then copyright should kick in. However:

    • Set designers need to build sets based on existing architecture.
    • Cartoonists should be able to draw an eyeball even if they saw other green eyeballs in the 60's. [back on that discussion, Blizzard could say both groups stole it from their Warcraft 2 'Eye of Kilrog']
    • Musicians should be able to use any set of notes, not worrying that a particular set of 4 notes will get them in copyright issues.
    • Any other creative art (programming, artistry, city planning, construction, &c.) requires the use of elements that are used elsewhere, or that may have been discovered by someone else for the same purpose.
    Or in summary: All great works are based upon the works that came before, and while credit is always appropriate, unless there is some actual harm done in the use, there should never be talks of lawsuits or licensing or copyright violations.

    Frob.

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  4. Re:Hidden Fortress by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well it's the cinema snobs, the people who can't accept Star Wars as a good movie because it's not subtitled.

    "Lucas is a plagiarist! He stole the plot to Star Wars from Kurosawa!"

    "Kurosawa is a genius! He adapted the plot to Ran from King Lear!"

  5. Re:first post! by UniverseIsADoughnut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have to ask the question though... Were the makers of Star Wars II even aware of this room? I wasn't, I also don't remember it from the film. But I can say that if I was going to have some grand library it would have looked like this one. It's what a lot of libraries look like and just the typical image of a grand library. The same goes for many other things. Just because you see a similarity in something doesn't mean there is, or that it copied it from something else. There are only so many original ideas in the world, everything else is a modification of an original idea. We go through life and bit things up from everywhere. If your the writer of something there is no way you could know if something you think of was truely something new to you or draw some some moment in your life. No one can remeber how every idea in their mind got there. The makers of Star wars very well could have just invisioned a library and this is what they got. Then someone around the world makes a connection and thinks they are making a rip off. There are so many things in the world. No one is aware of everything. Two people thinking of the same thing at the same time in the world happens all the time. Look at patent disputs. If enough people watched this film and tried to find similarities they would be able to say the makers ripped off the whole world. This goes for music , writtings, machines everything. There are only so many ways people are going to do things. and the good way have all probly been done. People make what people like so you get similarities, people arn't trying to rip people off or even aware of it. It just happens.

    Now if the producers said "yeah we got the idea from the long room" then there probably should be credit givin.

    people need to stop thinking everyone is just ripping other people off. It happens, you can't expect everyone to be aware of everything out there. your going to get copies.