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George Lucas C&Ds 'Lightsaber Laser'
dward90 writes "George Lucas thinks that bulky, handheld lasers shouldn't be produced because they are his intellectual property. From CNN: 'George Lucas wants to force a laser company to stop making a new, high-powered product he says looks too much like the famous lightsaber from his classic sci-fi series.
Lucasfilm Ltd. has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Hong Kong-based Wicked Lasers, threatening legal action if it doesn't change its Pro Arctic Laser series or stop selling it altogether.'"
Dildos look too much like MY penis. Can I sue their makers?
But now I remember and want to go to the Wicked Laser web site and buy stuff.
Thanks for reminding me, George! Say hi to Babs Streisand when you see her!
Anyone else notice how Lucas tends to just shit all over anything remotely reminiscent of Star Wars? My fiancee is convinced it's because Star Wars prevented him from having any other successful films for the rest of this life, and he resents the series because of that.
My response is that I don't know how you can resent something that makes you a gajilionaire, but whatever.
Living With a Nerd
I don't care about the legal implications of what the laser looks like, but I think it would be a lot cooler to have if it didn't look like a toy. I don't want someone getting a hold of it and thinking it is a light saber and shooting me with it. Dangerous tools should never be made to resemble toys, regardless of who owns the trademarks on the toys.
I hope Lucas also got a patent on a process for establishing "prior art" through the use of a non-functional prop, imagination, and delusions of grandeur.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
...they're the ones with the functioning lasers!
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
They should be awarded. Can you imagine how much time and effort it took to make such a small injection-mold?
I can see it now....
Scientist: We developed Hyperdrive!!
George: Nope...I did...didn't you see my movie...geesh.
I think George is heading down the path of the Dark Side....
I seriously doubt 'George Lucas' had anything to do with this. It's possible he's not even aware of it. This was done by the Lucasfilm Ltd legal department. George doesn't exactly engage in day-to-day operations....he has 'people' for that.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
If he succeeds, then REAL scifi authors could have a field day. No more helicopters, hovercraft, or zillions of other inventions they wrote about without getting their permission first...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
"They're a big company that needs to protect their trademarks. Maybe they're having to look like they're protecting their trademark in case they need to [protect it again] later."
It's just a laser for now, but next month when Lucasfilm sues a company making unlicensed life-size R2D2 statues, their lawyers can claim they've been actively protecting their copyrights and trademarks, which easily cuts off the biggest defenses. It's all part of the game.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
While I think this is heavy handed of Lucasfilm Ltd, I looked up the actual product on their website. The pic in TFA is rather close up and doesn't truly show how close this laser resembles a lightsaber. Check out the other pics here: http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html
As much as I hate to admit it, it does look way too similar to a lightsaber.
the problem is that Lucas is still alive.
He was much better when he just wanted to share some amazing stories floating in his head, like the original SW trilogy and IJ. Ever since it's been downhill, with a slightly worse prequel trilogy, then selling it all out to have an animated TV series, a handful of recent video game flops, and everything else that seems to be detrimental to the Star Wars fantasy universe.
And don't forget the holiday special. shivers
Yeah, George has long since seemed to be more in it for the money, like he is trying to build this vast empire to rival Microsoft. You might even say his entertainment companies, Lucasfilm, Industrial light and magic, skywalker sound, and then hsi co-founding with THX makes it seem like he's monopolized that field. (What's the last action flick you saw that didn't have the little THX promo before the show).
Seriously Lucas, you've built your empire, and it's doing absolutely great without you trying to "defend" it. Just quietly retire and let the other men try and run the company. I've noticed Lucasarts is revamping the Monkey Island series, and I have a feeling this was not your idea. It's not as huge a success as you probably wish, but its not doing too bad. Remember, the reason these people were even inspired to make lightsabers because of your films, no one is going to forget that.
That's like Paramount tell apple to stop making the iPad because it looks like the PADD's on the Star Trek series
Isn't it nice to see Lucas as lawsuit-happy as ever some 33 years after the launch of his massively successful franchise? The amounts of legal disputes, some so petty as to beggar belief, that George Lucas has launched over the decades illustrate more about the man himself than about any significant precedent or legal milestone. Yes he's won lawsuits; but there's a difference between legally sound and ethically sound.
Great White Snark has a short list of five of Lucas's most silly qualms which in the final analysis basically attack inspiration itself. Despite the fact there's a still-debated laundry list of inspiration for Star Wars, much of which he's acknowledged in straight-faced affable fashion in interviews over the years.
I'd have thought by now he'd started to mellow with age, or perhaps devoted more time to helping the world in general like certain other elder-geeks on the globe. Apparently not.
What you need to be worried about is not just the power, but the intensity (power density, or power/spot_size). If the spot size is 1mm diameter, then the power density would be:
sunlight = 1000 W/m^2 (intensity of sunlight)
laser_toy = 0.5 W/(0.001^2) = 500000 W/m^2
500000/1000 = 500 times brighter than the sun!
Let me know if my calculations are wrong... Haven't done this in awhile.
It wasn't that long ago that the lasers from this very same company were featured on the slashdot front page. While the company doesn't make any Star Wars references themselves, the slashdot write-up certainly did.
Here's the Slashdot article "Set Free Your Inner Jedi (Or Pyro)". It was posted June 14 - less than a month ago today. I'm surprised the intrepid Slashdot editors didn't remember running it while writing up this summary.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
It used to be that Science Fiction authors and movie makers used to -like- the fact that their predictions came true because it showed that they made good predictions... Imagine how much H.G. Wells would be thrilled if someone made a working time machine based on his book, something tells me that he wouldn't send a C&D letter because they "stole" his idea, instead he'd be happy that he could be the inspiration for such a great idea.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Yeah, George has long since seemed to be more in it for the money, like he is trying to build this vast empire to rival Microsoft.
That's what happens when you surrender to the Dark Side of The Farce...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
it's more like lawyers realize they can sound busy and make extra money by thinking that you have to sue anything remotely similar.
this has NOTHING to do with it being a laser. He claims the shape of the body was built to resemble a light saber handle.
Functioning has nothing to do with it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Scientists ceased work on developing a time machine that fits inside a car.
"When we first started development, we had our eyes set on a Camaro," said project manager and lead scientist Phuc Mi. "There aren't too many modern cars that still have enough space both under the hood to fit the fusion reactor necessary to generate the 2.19 GW of power needed to feed the fluidic transistor needed to initiate time travel. But, Michael Bay got wind of our project and, well, let's just say we gutted the Camaro and borrowed someone's Mustang instead. But with this second cease-and-desist letter from Steven Spielberg, we can't keep fighting lawyers! We have much better odds predicting where lightning will strike next than beating them in court!"
Do Not Look Into Laser with Remaining Eye!
(My favorite lab warning sign of all time...)
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
Please?
I wont to see the idiot who clearly didn't read the article moderated to hell.
They run around projecting the narcissistic doom and gloom via wild speculation based on a poor interpretation of a headline.
I am not new here by any stretch of the imagination. I have been here long enough to get sick of it, come to terms with it, and then get really sick of it again.ad nausium
FYI: IT's abouit the look of the handle,. not about it being a laser.
"high-powered product he says looks too much like the famous lightsaber from his classic sci-fi series"
AND
"These references make it clear that the public is being led to believe that the Pro Arctic Laser is an official lightsaber device and/or copied from our design," the Lucasfilm letter said.
It's a CNN article people. It's not going to be hard to read.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It seem pretty obvious to me that we cannot allow art copyright apply to scientific discoveries.
No one is going to buy one simply because the handle looks similar (and it is a laser). And it is a handle, it is no wonder that it is similar looking to other handles.
Quite a lot of possible future technology has been dreamed up by fiction writers.
For example Star Trek could sue cell phone makers (the first ones even admit to being inspired by Star Trek).
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
He was much better when he just wanted to share some amazing stories floating in his head...
Just based on things I've seen and read here and there, he was "much better" back then because he was confined by limited resources, and by people around him that would actually say, "No, George, just....no."
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
If Lucas is claiming the "lightsaber handle" is *his* intellectual property, he's on very shakey ground as the prop in the ORIGINAL STAR WARS was a Graflex handle, a fairly off-the-shelf item in the moviemaking biz.
Similarly the prop control panel for the Death Star's main weapon was a Grass-Valley video switcher. These are not Lucas's intellectual property. They are common items that were used in the movie because the guy was strapped on the budget.
Is Lucas going to sue anyone making a 3-wheeled two-seater with no top, even though *they* used the chassis from a Reliant Robin for the landspeeder? And what about blasters? The guns used in the movie were slightly re-dressed real weapons, he really doesn't have much copyright on existing designs that were around long before the film.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
What if someone build a real light saber? Would the IP of a non existing object restrict someone from selling a real one?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
In a related story, the copyright holders of the Akira Kurosawa film "Hidden Fortress" have demanded that LucasArts cease all sales of "Star Wars".
When I was ten, I read fairy stories in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
-C. S. Lewis
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
they were NOT "floating around in his head", the first three SW movies were ripped nearly line for line out of Norse myth (minus the space travel). Luke, Leia, Aniken, the emperor, Tatooine.... he didn't even bother to change their names. "Skywalker" is a direct translation of their Old Norse surname.
Credit where credit is due... 4, 5 and 6 were Norse. 1, 2 and 3 were what you get when you see what is his original work.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
you used the term "good lawyer" that's like saying "honest politician" or "military intelligence." You shouldn't use phrases with words that directly contradict themselves.
the problem is that Lucas is still alive.
He was much better when he just wanted to share some amazing stories floating in his head, like the original SW trilogy and IJ. Ever since it's been downhill...
I read, in the Secret History of Star Wars, that Lucas genuinely wanted to impress his dad. He wanted to do something great that wasn't just running a stationary store or what-have-you. Since his father passed away in 1991, and also since he divorced one of his strongest contributers in 1983, I'd say he is just lost. He seems to lack any particular direction and is just doing what he can, rather than to impress any particular person.
That's my take on it, anyway.
Poor guy.
That's a big stretch for copyright.
Copyright doesn't cover functional parts of objects. A D-battery sized cylinder with a light source at one end predates anything Lucas has done. The exterior detail doesn't match any Lucas product. Lucas doesn't have a design patent, and if he did, it would have expired years ago. Lucas would lose this in court.
The Wicked Lasers device is probably just a prototype, though. They admit they're getting those Nichia NDB7352 1 watt laser diodes by disassembling video projectors. If the product was in production, they'd be buying them in bulk from Nichia.
The same sense Han meant when he used the phrase "good blaster".
And in the sense of "does the dirty business for which it was created well", there are most certainly good lawyers, and you want one by your side. Probably in preference to a blaster. After all, a good blaster may be helpful in a firefight, but is typically unwise to use in a courtroom. While a good lawyer is very helpful in a courtroom, and can be used as a shield during a firefight.
The enemies of Democracy are
Dunno if I'd even give him credit for basically inventing the lightsaber, though. It's been one of those ideas that has floated around for at least one millennium, in one form or another.
E.g., King Arthur's sword Excalibur is said in various legends to be so bright that you can't (or can only with difficulty) look at it, and in at least one it consists or is covered in two jets of bright flame coming from the two chimaera heads on the hilt. It also can slice right through steel.
Other flaming swords or swords made of flame date as far back as Genesis (God placed one at the entrance to Eden after kicking those two buggers out), or one that shines like the sun is supposed to be wielded by Surtr (leader of the Muspelheim fire giants) in the battle of Ragnarok in Norse mythology. In fact Surtr's sword is arguably even more interesting as it isn't described as flaming or made of fire, but as a sword which shines brighter as the sun.
And while not exactly contemporary with the old Norse, there are paintings from _long_ before Lucas which represent Surtr wielding basically a lightsaber. E.g., "The Giant with the Flaming Sword" by John Charles Dollman from 1909.
Or there's the sword Tyrfing, again norse, forged by the dwarves to shine like the sun and cleave through steel or stone like through cloth. (The only catch was that it _had_ to kill someone each time it was drawn, if all else fails, even its wielder.)
And while not necessarily flaming, great heroes carrying awesome swords with supernatural abilities in battle is basically as old as we have a history. The Celts have the likes of Caladbolg which cleaves hills and leaves a rainbow arc when swung (weapon swing arc effects in computer games, anyown?;)), Caesar had the Crocea Mors, etc.
Really, I liked the original trilogy and all, and I'm not trying to minimize Lucas's role on the whole. But crediting lightsabers as his invention, is a bit like crediting Disney with inventing mermaids ;)
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Lucas did not write or direct episode V, The Empire Strikes Back.
"... directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_V:_The_Empire_Strikes_Back
Yeah I agree. Many of Harrison Ford's Han Solo lines were more "Han Solo"ish than the original lines by George Lucas.
Sometimes a little humility goes a long way. Sometimes the other person is actually right.
But no, when I watched Phantom Menace it seemed like the actors had just read their lines for the second or third time, and George says "OK that's enough, let's go make more dresses for Amidala", and the actors and everyone else just went "Yes Sir!", rather than: "Uh George, we have to do that again, that sucked".
Seeing it was just like seeing someone do the first or second round of his presentation ( some nice graphics, but blah). It usually takes a fair number of goes till the presenter says "forget the slide, let me tell you a story"...
It is not about patents or copyrights. It is about the trademark on the term "lightsaber", and that is what the C&D says: Call it something else or stop making it.
Ehem...
The cease-and-desist letter doesn't accuse Wicked of using the term "lightsaber" in its marketing -- which Liu said is primarily aimed at industrial, military and research customers.
While your position makes logical sense, I regret to inform you that it doesn't match reality...
After Lucas' infamous hissy fit with the DVD standards committee, he refused to release any of his movies on DVD for a very long time. I got pretty angry at him for that, but I found that there were plenty of other movies out there deserving of my attention. So I went years without watching the Star Wars movies. It turns out that watching those movies regularly altered my perception of those movies. By not watching them for years, the spell lifted and when I finally came back, I was able to (finally) give a more fair evaluation of the original trilogy, and I have to say it didn't age well. At all. Now when I look at it, all I can see is the amazingly bad dialog, occasionally atrocious acting (who puts a hack like Mark Hamil in the same scene with the great Alec Guinness?), and of course plot holes you could drive an imperial star destroyer through.
Lucas has always been a talentless hack. There was never a better time when he made better movies.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the laser in question really does resemble the light saber. As much as it pains me to side with Lucas, it seems more than within his rights to argue copyright infringement.
Willow was directed by Ron Howard, not Lucas. Granted, he was a producer, but it still wasn't totally "his baby".
Lucas is at his best when he's NOT behind the camera calling all the shots. Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably testament Numero Uno to this. And while Empire and Return were great movies, I think we have to recognize that part of the reason that Star Wars was such a phenomenon is that it came along at exactly the right time and gave the country exactly what it needed... an old fashioned fairy tale of good guys vs. bad guys in the gray, dreary post-Vietnam world.
Had Star Wars been released in any other time, it probably wouldn't have become the legend that it did. Had Star Wars been released in 1955 or 1995 (with appropriate levels of special effects for the period), it probably would have been as awkward as releasing Easy Rider in 1985. So to some extent, Lucas has probably profited from a good deal of lucky timing. Is he talented? Clearly. Is he the wunderkind that everyone thought in 1977? I think the test of time says "No".
Life is hard, and the world is cruel