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Free Lightsaber Event Now Battling Lucasfilm's Lawyers (siliconbeat.com)
For eight years the arts collective Newmindspace had been staging free lightsaber battles, and in December they set a world record with 9,951 "combatants" simultaneously participating in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle. But then in January they received a letter from the copyright attorneys for the Star Wars franchise. "We immediately stopped using the words 'lightsaber,' 'Jedi,' 'Sith' and 'The Force,' " the group's co-founder told the technology blog of the San Jose Mercury News, saying they've still been "aggressively pursued" for the last three months. '''In March we received further communication stating 'The Light Battle Tour' and 'light sword' were still too close to their trademarks, and we moved to settle the dispute to avoid legal action." Their new solution involves referring to the weapons as "catblades", and they've re-branded their upcoming series of events (which begins on April 30 in San Jose) as the "Cats in Space Tour".
Otherwise stated, because fuck you that's why.
Imagine if this had stopped 'Star Trek" conventions through the years. Would the franchise be nearly as popular as it was/is?
Here is a clue for the 1% media fucktards and their lawyer army. Something that gets people engaged and excited about your supposed "IP" is free word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth advertising is free, and far more effective than any other kind that you pay dearly for. The trade of is you cannot tightly control the message. Boo hoo.
Silence is a state of mime.
I would have sponsored the event, it's obvious that there is a huge following of fans there.
Instead of reaching out and asking if these people would want to become a sanctioned event, or a simple, could you please work with us to not violate our IP, they chose to instead swing the FUCK YOU hammer.
Lawyers are garbage.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Seriously, is that the best name they could come up with it?
I would have went with the "Generic Glowing Space Sword" battle, which gets the point across while giving the middle finger to Disney and their copyrights.
They could have also done a Spaceballs themed Swartz battle, assuming that whoever owns that copyright also isn't an asshole.
If someone spends a {week,month,year} creating something, at least they're actually creating something.
My daughter makes costumes for herself and her husband. Often they are characters from a movie, but sometimes from a book. Last year I helped her make a metal belt buckle for her Gamora costume.
Don't be dissing people for the things they like. Who are you to judge? And if they're making something, that's extra cool.
So there is this huge event made by geeks that costs them not a dime, advertises their franchise with what is pretty much a public stunt show and they SUE against that?
"But what if they misrepresent it?"
Please! We're talking hardcore geeks here. Anything that could remotely, possibly be consider by someone not-canon would be axed if not nuked with more zeal and closer attention to detail and accuracy than any of the lawyers who have no idea about the franchise itself, only about its IP laws, could or would do. If anything, these things are going to be closer to canon and whatever the "designers" of the franchise create than any amusement park you sell your IP to ever would (because they don't give a fuck about canon as long as it is gimmicky).
So please explain that to me. It makes no sense.
Oh. It's covered by copyright law. Ok, never mind, carry on, that's not supposed to make sense.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Just change the name - Sword Art Online had the "laser sword".
It's as valid as renaming Snarf to Jar-Jar and then making the character horribly annoying.
Ah, so their business strategy for keeping their business is to gain revenue from fans by alienating fans.
This is quite a novel approach to business. Ok then. If they can dictate what English words other people should use, then i will dictate how my money that i created will be used.
I won't buy anything Star Wars ever again, and will only pirate any and all media they get out.
Two for two.
I see your Schwartz is as big as mine.
Yeah! And enough with books and music and television and movies. Everyone should stay in their basement and never expose themselves to anyone else's creative works, much less celebrate them!
Or, you know, we could continue to behave like humans have behaved since the beginning of recorded history.
Sharing stories and celebrating them is a fundamental part of human interaction. We use stories to share our knowledge, beliefs and morals. Stories entertain and educate and act as a form of common ground that people can use to connect to and understand one another.
From wikipedia:
Like Harry Potter, almost no single element of Star Wars is "original", its just a blend that was there at the right place and right time and got popular. So can we stop treating the creators of these franchises as creative gods and merely make them mere mortals again and doing what other creators have always done? That is copy and imitate and through enough thought and practice, sometimes put their own slightly original spin on something?
Copying and imitating them in turn shouldn't become illegal just because they had the good fortune to get popular.
From Wikipedia: In 1994, engineers at Apple Computer code-named the mid-level Power Macintosh 7100 "Carl Sagan" after the popular astronomer in the hope that Apple would make "billions and billions" with the sale of the computer. Apple used the name only internally, but Sagan was concerned that it would become a product endorsement and sent Apple a cease-and-desist letter. Apple complied, but its engineers retaliated by changing the internal codename to "BHA" for "Butt-Head Astronomer". Sagan then sued Apple for libel in federal court. In November 1995, Apple and Sagan reached an out-of-court settlement and Apple's office of trademarks and patents released a conciliatory statement that "Apple has always had great respect for Dr. Sagan. It was never Apple's intention to cause Dr. Sagan or his family any embarrassment or concern". Apple's third and final code name for the project was "LaW", short for "Lawyers are Wimps".
I think they should call these blades Litigation Exit Sabers or LitESabers for short.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
They have to protect themselves against trademark dilution, or they could lose the trademark. The more amenable solution would've been to give these guys a license to use those trademarks for their event for a paltry sum like $1. But I guess Disney wants all such events to require you pay the $100+ admission to Disneyland / Disneyworld.
And at this point, I don't think the franchise cares about any more advertising, free or not. It's pretty much reached the saturation point in mindshare.
Sort of, but not really.
Prenda Law shut down, but the people behind it haven't faced any real consequences.
Paul Hansmeier was one of the people behind Prenda Law, for example. He's moved on to filing ADA violation lawsuits against small businesses using the same business model; demand payments that are a bit less than it would take to defend in court in order to drop the suit. He's filed over a hundred of those lawsuits in less than two years.
He's also trying to file for bankruptcy to get out of the debts from the Prenda Law fiasco and there are signs that he's been fraudulently transferring assets to his wife in order to avoid losing them in the bankruptcy. Because why not? Our legal system is set up to protect the wealthy owners of corporations while fucking over people who do things like take out a student loan to pay for college, after all.
It does look like he might finally get disbarred in Minnesota, but he can still continue the same scheme in other states where he's licensed until those states go through the process of disbarring him as well.
Since Lucasfilm/Disney would be better served by not having lawyers running after a good-will event like this, it seems like everyone might be better served if Lucanfilm/Disney would require them to collect a $1 entry fee, all of which is required to go to a charity. Now, no on looks like the bad guy, everyone has fun, and people get some help.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
Lucas used to hand out free IP licenses all the time. He let people make amateur films based on Star Wars. You just sent him a letter asking for permission and you usually got it. As long as you aren't making loads of money off of it he didn't care.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Look, if they were actually making something interesting, creating something new, that would be one thing. But they're just imitating things that others created.
So what? Let them be fans and get their rocks off over what they like. It's not my thing, but lots of things aren't my thing, and you know what? I'm okay with it.
What I find petty and grasping is when a creator feels like he or she is owed money every time mention is made of something they created. Note to creators: fans are what MADE you popular, cut them some slack FFS. Stop being such greedy, grasping dollar whores. You've made your millions, relax a little and enjoy your money without being such a bunch of robot-like revenue-seeking pricks.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Well let the content creators do what THEY like and ask for money. It isn't my thing, but you know what? I am OK with it. So stupid. Go do something original, if you don't want to be original, pay the creators what they ask.