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San Francisco, 9:21 PM
Sun Dec 20
13 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of tamoko tamoko
    06:56 PM

    In reply to R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
    I'll miss you Dan. You contributed to scaring the crap out of me as a nine year old in 79, and I never looked back...
     Reply
    tamoko was starred tamoko was unstarred
    Image of joetato joetato
    07:58 AM

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    This opens up a great new opportunity for stormtroopers to appear in other films. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, now with stormtroopers! The Wizard of Oz with flying stormtroopers! Or perhaps a retelling of Gone With The Wind? "Miss Scarlett! The stormtroopers are burning Atlanta!" Too bad Spielberg couldn't have waited to do Saving Private Ryan until now. He could have saved a lot on all those Nazi uniforms.
     Reply
    joetato was starred joetato was unstarred
    Image of AmishJohn AmishJohn
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    The Law is an Ass.
     Reply
    AmishJohn was starred AmishJohn was unstarred
    Image of RobinSure RobinSure
    12:39 AM

    @AmishJohn: Bollocks. This is the right decision. Otherwise, I'm gonna make a film full of near future safety gear, and charge anybody who wishes to wear a full suit of it.
     Reply
    SJ_Edwards promoted this comment RobinSure was starred RobinSure was unstarred
    Image of Wookie1972 Wookie1972
    12/19/09

    In reply to R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
    I watched Alien again last night, and I'm amazed by the quality of the script. It's like a Howard Hawks movie, in that it's really driven by the dialogue. It could almost be a play.
     Reply
    Wookie1972 was starred Wookie1972 was unstarred
    Image of SJ_Edwards SJ_Edwards
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    I think it helps to use the phrase "Arts and Crafts" to delineate what has happened here, and why.

    Whatever is the product of 'Art' (I won't even attempt to define that, but there are plenty of possible definitions here [en.wiktionary.org] ), is protected by 'copyright' for 70 years (if it was considered to be sculpture, in this case).

    Whatever is the product of 'Craft' (much 'easier' to define [en.wiktionary.org] ), "the skilled practice of a practical occupation", is protected by 'copyright' for 15 years.

    What appears to have swung the judgement, is the fact that although Andrew Ainsworth was an 'industrial designer' when he was employed to produce the Stormtrooper helmet back in '76, he was not paid to exercise this 'art'.

    Instead he was paid only for producing the product of this 'art', in the form of a rate of £20 a piece, for 50 helmets.

    Because they didn't treat him as an 'artist' and pay him for his 'art', what they got wasn't art.

    It was the 'product' of a 'craft'.

    This is a colossal win for 'artists' of any sort, producing any sort of 'art' for pay.

    If they don't treat you right (and pay you right) at the beginning, they don't get treated right (and payed right) at the end.

    FTW!
     Reply
    Edited by SJ_Edwards at 12/19/09 9:48 AM SJ_Edwards was starred SJ_Edwards was unstarred
    Image of OCEntertainment OCEntertainment
    12/19/09

    @SJ_Edwards: Fantastic explanation, thank you.
     Reply
    OCEntertainment was starred OCEntertainment was unstarred
    Image of soulfinger soulfinger
    12/19/09

    @SJ_Edwards: Thats a bunch of nonsense. Industrial Design is a form of artistic expression. Saying it's not eliminates a sizeable portion of the value of that particular profession.

    I think the court made assumptions on the manner in which the person was treated. If he is not considered an artist, then certainly they would have felt free to hire janitors to produce these right?
     Reply
    SJ_Edwards promoted this comment soulfinger was starred soulfinger was unstarred
    Image of YackBacker YackBacker
    12/19/09

    @SJ_Edwards: Thanks for getting into the details of how this court came to its decision.

    I personally disagree with its decision, but I do appreciate the argument. The court conceded that Ainsworth doesn't own the design, which leads one to believe that the design itself IS a copyrightable thing, but that the design for the physical costume is something "industrial" or distinct seems silly to me. I am not a fan of Lucasfilm's heavy-handed, greedy practices, but I think they have a legitimate claim against Ainsworth. Let's see what the British Supreme Court does, if anything at all...
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment YackBacker was starred YackBacker was unstarred
    Image of comics0026 comics0026
    12/19/09

    @SJ_Edwards: Yeah, great explanation. At first I was thinking "uh, wait, that can't be right..." but I remember hearing about that, when the guy who originally made them tried to make more and sell them to fans (which may be where this lawsuit came from), and that makes total sense. Under that logic, the only sci-fi "being" that I can think of that can definitely be defined as "art" is the Xenomorph from Alien, so I imagine this may have long last effects on the industry.
     Reply
    SJ_Edwards promoted this comment comics0026 was starred comics0026 was unstarred
    Image of ThisDudeRufus ThisDudeRufus
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    People seem to be missing the point. Who cares about the nitpickey bits of copyright law, this means they're going to make Stormtrooper costumes on the cheap! And without fear of the thunderous hand of Lucas crushing them!

    What about clone trooper armor? Mandalorian? The bounds are endless!
     Reply
    ThisDudeRufus was starred ThisDudeRufus was unstarred
    Image of tetracycloide tetracycloide
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    this article minces a few words in its report. the stormtrooper from star wars was not deemed utilitarian. the stormtrooper replica helmets that an independent british man was making were deemed utilitarian and not art. the guy made the helmets for lucas and the star wars film, his props were used in the movies, and he retained the mold he made himself to spec from lucas. he already lost a case in california to the tune of 20 million. the ruling establishes the creation of props as a utilitarian adventure, however the usage of the image would still fall under 'art' as defined by british law. it's a little hairy but it's as if the court ruled the the man isn't breaking the law by creating and selling the helmets but anyone that buys them would have to be really careful how they used them to avoid breaking it.
     Reply
    tetracycloide was starred tetracycloide was unstarred
    Image of Communist Pope Communist Pope
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    While I think that the post-Millennium Act (or whatever it's called) went too far in protecting copyrights, I completely disagree with this court's ruling. What if, instead of live action movies, Lucas made animated films or a series of comic books using Ralph McQuarrie's original designs as the basis for his Stormtroopers? Would it be considered art then? McQ's design here: [www.originalprop.com]

    Anyhow, not the first court ruling I've disagreed with, and I'm sure it won't be the last.
     Reply
    Communist Pope was starred Communist Pope was unstarred
    Image of jayntampa jayntampa
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    I'm pretty sure this only applies to the look/design. So, you couldn't have a Meet the Stormtroopers show based in the Star Wars universe ... you could simply have a character that is dressed as a Stormtrooper, but the first time you begin to riff off of the still copyrighted movies/books/comics/etc, you're at risk.
     Reply
    jayntampa was starred jayntampa was unstarred
    Image of Davio Davio
    12/19/09

    In reply to British Court: Stormtroopers Don't Belong To Lucas
    awesome tag.
     Reply
    Davio was starred Davio was unstarred
    Image of joetato joetato
    12/18/09

    In reply to R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
    He's actually not Sgt. Pinback, but I'll leave that tidbit for the folks who haven't yet seen Dark Star. Some call it slow, I call it hysterically brilliant! Remember, it was made before Star Wars, so Trek, Silent Running, and 2001: A Space Odyssey were the main sources of sci-fi for that era.

    Benson, Arizona the same stars fill the sky. The nights seemed so much kinder when we watched them, you and I. R.I.P.
     Reply
    joetato was starred joetato was unstarred
    Image of SJ_Edwards SJ_Edwards
    12/19/09

    @joetato: Amen.
     Reply
    SJ_Edwards was starred SJ_Edwards was unstarred
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    12/18/09

    In reply to R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
    We have used the line "When I brought you onboard, I thought you were cute" in so many situations over the past decade.

    He will be missed indeed. SF movies wouldn't be what they are without him.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of Wookie1972 Wookie1972
    12/18/09

    In reply to R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
    I'd forgotten about his involvement in the Jodoworsky Dune. Now *that* was a batsh*t crazy production. (Sample tidbit: Salvador Dali was supposed to play the emperor. He demanded that he be paid more than any other actor to that point, even though he would only be working for a day. Seriously - google this. It would have been the most insane movie ever made)
     Reply
    Wookie1972 was starred Wookie1972 was unstarred
    Image of Wookie1972 Wookie1972
    12/18/09

    In reply to R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
    Thinking about it, O'Bannon is responsible for many of the things that scared the crap out of me the most as a young'un. Even as an adult, I saw his zombie airman segment in Heavy Metal and it freaked the hell out of me. He was definitely on the vanguard when it comes to zombies and body horror.
     Reply
    Wookie1972 was starred Wookie1972 was unstarred
    Image of Cash907Censored Cash907Censored
    12/18/09

    In reply to Exclusive Clip From Family Guy's Empire Strikes Back Has A New Lando
    Just watched it last night.

    Didn't laugh once, and I loved Blue Harvest.
     Reply
    Cash907Censored was starred Cash907Censored was unstarred
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