Originally posted by: Karyudo
'Star Wars' is not the frickin' Mona Lisa; there isn't just one copy, owned by Lucas, sitting in a vault someplace. It is a commercial work, from which George Lucas has made more money than God. I would agree that he has the exclusive right (under the monopoly that is copyright) to never sell copies of the 1977 film anymore, but I don't believe copyright alone should be enough to prevent public exhibition of something you own, as long as all the statutory licensing fees are paid.
They don't OWN the movie - they own a copy for private use only. Do you think TV just shows movies they "own"? no, they pay royalties. And what if someone doesn't want their movie shown on TV? Then that's their right to do so. Personally, if I was faced with the prospect of having a movie I made from scratch on TV I probably wouldn't want it shown with commercials and a watermarked channel-logo (although I might be persuaded by nice royalties). I would suppose Lucas feels simerly about Star Wars - he doesn't want it shown in it's old version publicly - while I disagree with him doing it in that instance, it's still his right to do so. He owns the films, no one else does, no one can force him to let them show it in public.'Star Wars' is not the frickin' Mona Lisa; there isn't just one copy, owned by Lucas, sitting in a vault someplace. It is a commercial work, from which George Lucas has made more money than God. I would agree that he has the exclusive right (under the monopoly that is copyright) to never sell copies of the 1977 film anymore, but I don't believe copyright alone should be enough to prevent public exhibition of something you own, as long as all the statutory licensing fees are paid.
If it means that much to you - go and buy 16MM or 35MM prints of the film, if you can, and buy yourself a projector and a screen, invite all your friends over and watch them through it in the 'authentic' way. Honestly, in either case, I really doubt it would look even slightly better then the upcoming DVD's - and that's if you're able to ignore things like scratches, faded frames, misalignment, etc. Every DVD-R of the OOT has gone through this process:
Master Reels
--> Digital Master
--> Laserdisc Master
--> Laserdisc
--> DVD Authoring
--> DVD-R
The Sep DVD's will have gone through this process:
Master Reels
--> Digital Master
--> DVD Authoring
--> DVD
Do you remember, when DVD first came out many people argued that Laserdisc was actually still better quality and people wouldn't upgrade because they were happier with the quality of their LD's?
Music is another issue entirely. I know of many raids that happened over in Australia a couple of years ago, cracking down on the use and sale by DJ's of unauthorised remixes.