none said:
walking_carpet wrote: but he cannot order LoC prints to be destroyed?
The LoC is in no way ever going to destroy a work on purpose. But as what may have happened with the Star Wars given to the NFR, Lucasfilm could have asked for the print back, the LoC returns the print, and Lucasfilm never returns it.
From the link danny_boy just posted: (article written in 1993)
Archives, however, are restricted in certain other uses of the copyright-protected films they physically preserve. (They may make films available for on-site study but without permission of the copyright holder or the transfer of rights, archives generally cannot publicly exhibit copyrighted films or distribute them for sale. For further discussion of these access questions, involving copyright, fair use, and "public domain" films, see Section 8.)
interesting. i'll read further. one of these days ill visit the LoC cuz my dad swears by it and thinks its one of the greatest things our gov created.
if lucas is truly keen on wiping the OOT off the face of the earth, its interesting he hasn't demanded the prints from the LoC to be given back. Of course, I also don't believe that he doesn't have pristine remastered copies (he would have to be stupid not to). its just another trump card he's keeping in his pocket. one day he will make enough changes to piss everyone off and hurt the franchise and at this point he'll release the OOT.
as for the academy awards, I think the academy should vacate all the awards and nominations. like what the NCAA does. Or what the national registry for historic landmarks did when the bears modified soldier field.
if lucas truly believes that the 1977 edition was just a 'workprint', then vacate the awards and nominations. and all box office records. that means ANH only made $150 million.
lucas probably wouldn't mind - he'll lose a couple nominations but no awards. and he would probably love seeing John Dykstra lose an award.
true, the cast and crew (the real stars of the OT) would scream in protest and with good reason. And every union/guild would fight it.
True, it comes off as 'two wrongs to make a right'. but you can't have awards/nominations for films 'that do not exist'. Maybe that'll apply pressure to have the OOT films properly released.
one last note, i am a little worried about this idea that there is a huge backlog of films that the LoC need to restore and protect. why so many? i heard about London After Midnight and would hope what happened with that movie wouldn't be repeated. doing some digging on wikipedia, looks like there are far more films from 20s and 30s that deteriorated than i first realized