My favorite quote from BadAssKeith:
"I'm doing this because of GL complete disrespect for history, his fans, and art. Not for money and the originals. Those are just the tools for revenge. Since it seems money is the only thing that will get Lucasfilm's attention anymore no matter how stupid or poor and stupid the art they produce is."
ChainsawAsh said:
That's another thing that's a big gray area when it comes to film, though - with so many people that work on it, who owns the copyright? The director? The screenwriter? The producer? The film studio?
I'd like to say whoever conceived and developed the meat of the characters, plot, etc. The collaborative nature of filmmaking does make it a difficult question to answer, though.
So Frank Herbert, Alex Raymond, Sir Thomas Malory, Akira Kurosawa, William Shakespeare and God then?
Is that Leeeegal?
twooffour said:
TheBoost said:
I disagree with any law that tells someone what they must do with their intellectual property. As much as I enjoyed the 1985 pro wrestling comedy "Body Slam" I don't presume that the owners of that piece of entertainment are obligated to preserve it or present it to me in any high quality format, if at all.
I think what this all comes down to, at the end of the day, is that those films AREN'T purely "Lucas' intellectual property" - he wasn't like some sort of composer responsible for each last note, and the last two movies... well, do I need to go on? Empire was basically Kershner's work. He did meddle with that one the least, though...
So, if anything should become a discussion at congress or whatever - if it ain't already - is the concept of "intellectual property" and its possible abuse.
But he DOES own them. Kershner, Ford, Williams, Oz, Marquand, Burt, the guy who played Lobot; all of them knew going into the process (and this is not in anyway unique to Lucas) that other than very specific clauses in their contracts, they did their work, got paid what they agreed on, and owned none of it.
No one has been tricked. No one has been robbed or abused. That's how movies get made. The person who gets them made (pays for them) owns them (except in rare cases, such as Lucas having the foresight to negotiate the sequal rights to Star Wars).