I went into a video productions service place near where I live. They will do a 16mm tele-cine of the film if I bring it in. They can capture it on an HDV tape, and provide a 1080i transfer of the film stock on the tape. In addition, they will supply an mpeg2 of the capture if I bring in some portable media to put it on (ie several DL DVDs, external hard drive, etc). They will leave it untouched, and just do a clean, straight transfer of the film. They can also capture the audio and provide it in 32 bit float wav format. The cost would be 15 cents a foot of film. Star Wars should be--like--2300 feet or so I believe.

I was very blatant about what film specifically I was talking about getting transferred, and we spoke extensively about the copyright infringement aspects of what we were doing. The only concern was that they saw how they could be "profiting" off of the transfer, but assured me that the international copyright agreement pretty much had nothing to say about what we were doing, especially because it's for educational purposes. Basically, they agree with our "own the official stuff" code of ethics, and are more than willing to participate in helping us preserve the film.

I can get it transferred, and provide copies to anyone who wishes to do some digital clean-up work, stabilization, IVTC work, color correction, or what have you. The only question is whether we would like to transfer the one on eBay (granted we even win it), or if maybe Puggo's lead would feel comfortable with their copy getting transferred by somebody else besides Puggo.