Slashdot Mirror
More Star Wars Hype
We break the week barrier, and tons of people email to
gloat that they've seen screenings. The rest of us will
have to settle for massive media hype including
mantid's note from harper's
that proclaims that Reagan's Star Wars project costed $4.166
billion, but Star Wars merchandise costed $4.5 billion.
mattdm noted that
Moviefone blew up under the ticket demand yesterday.
ZD-Net has a report.
DH1 sent us a really top notch interview at Salon with Empire Director
Irvin Kershner- kinda
nice to read something cool about the original movies after all this
gas over the new one.
Lastly Jethro73 sent us a
George Lucas's take
on piracy of Star Wars. Basically,
he will be very angry and fight very hard (big surprise) against
pirates.
Update: 05/14 01:59 by CT : My ticket plans haven't happened, so if anyone
has bright ideas on getting tickets for the Slashdot crew while
we're at LinuxExpo, lemme know...
I'm confused why people are so worried about distribution of the trailers. I thought the whole point of the trailers was to advertise the movie, so the more copies of the trailers you have floating around, the more advertising the movie gets. (Like Star Wars needs more advertising). Why would you want to restrict your advertising by prosecuting all of the people who mirror your trailer for free?
:)
I also don't understand the comment in the article about "forstalling" the piracy of the second trailer by having it available only on their website (http://www.starwars.com). I don't see how that forstalls anything (except that their server was completely overloaded and slower than molassass).
With that said, I do agree with him about people who pirate the entire movie. Not only do they steal from Mr. Lucas, but they also tie up a lot of bandwidth that people could otherwise use to read Slashdot.
I read the internet for the articles.
Quote, from the letter linked to on the page:
"The Digital Millenium Copyright Act ("DCMA") requires copyright owners to notify internet service providers about infringing activities and about facts and circumstnaces from which infringing activity is apparent, and imposes the obligation on ISPs to remove or disable access to infringing materials. The information set out below provides you with the notice required under the DCMA with regard to unauthorized electronic files relating to the upcoming film _Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace_ ("Episode I"). It also includes information refarding infringment of trademarks relating to _Episode I_ resulting from the posting of illegal video recordings on the internet. We trust that you will act promptly to prevent this infringement."
And later:
"The information provided in this letter is accurate to the best of my knowledge and is provided under penalty of perjury."
IANAL, but this sounds like the language for giving legal notice. (Not to mention that he says he's giving legal notice.) Exactly what is he "legally notifying" them of? That copyright violations are illegal? I think they already know that.
Rather, this is an attempt to reinterpret the guidelines in the DCMA that address whether an ISP is guilty of contributory copyright infringement. This way, the rules that were set up to punish rogue ISPs that flaunt the law can be applied to any ISP that LucasFilm decides was not "diligent enough" in preventing violations.
ISPs didn't want that language written into the law for good reason; this is it.
Is LucasFilm's legal eagle team providing such a nice public service, educating the ISPs on copyright law? Don't bet on it.
You know, I remember the copyright police saying that the DMCA would only kick in for ISPs after official notification for *specific* violations. In other words, you still can't be held responsible for copyrighted material on your site unless you're notified and refuse to take it down.
Now LucasFilm is playing fast and loose with the rules and "informing" all ISPs of the "specific" violation that copying Episode 1 is illegal. This so that the hyperactive legal department at LucasFilm can kick in and sue under the DCMA the moment a file is found, without having to bother with the messy notification clause. After all, they've all been notified of the potential violation, so if a file is found, that must constitute refusal to remove it.
This is the most blatant lawyer-screw I think I've ever seen. LucasFilm stands to make millions on the film, but that isn't enough; they have to twist the law to screw the poor hapless ISPs who happen to harbor a bad apple or two, or who are unlucky enough to get hacked by the wrong hacker.
I hope they sue some ISP and lose, so that the language of the law gets some clarity in case history. And I hope the ISP they sue countersues, and gets a big chunk of those Star Wars revenues.
Ok, so people are already saying that this movie is going to be the best ever. Even I say (and truly believe) that it will be the most successful movie of all time. No other movie in history has ever completely sold out within hours in my city. Two theatres, 450 seats each, brand spanking new (opening Friday), eleven showings a day. That's 9900 tickets, SOLD OUT IN JUST THREE HOURS. Regardless of whether the movie actually blows (which I don't think it will), it will likely be amongst the highest grossing movies of all time.
My second point is that anybody who trusts movie critics on ANYTHING is a fool. If I had seen every movie ever made for the past 25 years, I'd probably get kind of grouchy and picky about movies. I also have made it a point NOT to read ANY of the hype in magazines and such, simply because I knew that it might well ruin the experience if I already had every detail in my head. I have seen both trailers, the four commercials, have the official movie poster, have the soundtrack, and will probably be buying the new toys. I've read almost every single Star Wars novel published. I know what the general plotline is, but that does not make me any less excited to see it. If I had the money, I would have paid for those charity tickets to get to see it early. Above all else, I want to see for myself if Lucas is still the greatest mind in the movie industry. But don't render judgement on the movie until you've actually seen it.
It seems to me that a community as intelligent and perceptive as the /. folks would see that Lucas has us all by the short and curlies, same as Gates has most of the non-technical lusers in the world. We are being manipulated and milked for our time and money, and we're letting it happen. How could the movie ever possibly live up to all the expectations that've been built up by all the hype? It can't. Why are we going to spend 5 and 6 dollars at a time for plastic toys worth less than a dollar? Why are we going to rush to the theatres, wait days and days in line, and spend 8 or 12 dollars a ticket, when in 3 months we can get in without waiting at all? To say "We were there when IT first showed"?? Big fuckin' deal. Theatres will probably run the damned thing until November, so what's the rush? And screw the whole merchandising monstrosity. Who thought I'd want to see lame-ass Darth Maul on my Mountain Dew bottle? He looks more like an ugly, angry circus clown with that ridiculous make up than he does a "ph33rs0m3 \/1ll41n". Vader was 10 times the villain this painted joke could ever be.
/rant
--- --- --- Don't just do something! Sit there!
The worst is the ad with Col. Sanders, the Taco Bell Chihuaua, and the Pizza Hut girl driving down the freeway to save the Queen from Star Wars, that's the most shameless Star Wars tie-in I've seen, and it's more likely to make me puke than it is to make me eat in those places.
Of all the comments I've ever posted, this is definately one of them
C'mon people.. I now that most of you Linux people beleive in no copyright notices but you have to respsect the creative talents and wishes of the creator. If Lucas wants only QuickTime format then keep it in QuickTime format. If he doesn't want you post the movie anyplace then don't. It's HIS production. He wrote it. It's his dream.
I certainly wouldn't like anyone taking any of my artwork without permission and potentially bastardizing it.
Linux is free only if your time is worth nothing.
Actually, this is not unlike the Neal Stephenson "Cryptonomicon" essay posted to /. a while back. The essence of the essay was that folks these days prefer mediated experiences to "real" ones. People want easy-to-digest movies, people want idiot-proof GUIs.
However, "Star Wars", as entertainment, works.
Windows, as an operating system, does not work.
If watching Star Wars sucked as much ass as using Windows -- and if they make a "Jar-Jar Binks Meet the Ewoks" saturday morning cartoon, it just might -- I would have to agree with you. Certainly Gates and Lucas are both fanatical about guarding intellectual property, and both have sunk their claws into other industries. Lucas, however, makes good stuff.
"Whatever happened to fair use?"
-- Duff-Man
What's wrong with getting a little, or a lot, excited about something pointless and childish?
the bombs are falling, everyone is making enough that they can take a week out to stand in line, or hours to wardial a ticket line. we all just want to have fun. there is not much left in the world that people care about, no charismatic leaders to follow, no religions to throw mad festivals, we have to create our own myths. and heck this one is better than most, like the marshmallow man, let's concentrate on something simple and innocent, and hope the crap goes away.
pease
Locally, the moviefone number was hosed all day, the entire automated system crashed. It still just shunts all calls to a full mailbox.
Funny. I didn't know a phone system could be slashdotted.
RB
I think Rob's message about the cost of SDI vs. the merchandising of Star Wars is a bit misleading (at least the way I read it). Here is what Harper's actually states:
"Amount the Pentagon will spend this year on its Ballistic Missile Defense or "star wars" program : $4,166,000,000
Amount the world has spent since 1977 on licensed Star Wars merchandise : $4,500,000,000"