[HPFGU-OTChatter] Lucas & fan fiction policy (was Re: Lucas, was Re: Fanfic)

[Michela Ecks]

----- Original Message -----
From: Neil Ward <neilward at dircon.co.uk>
To: <HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 4:17 AM
Subject: Re: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Lucas, was Re: Fanfic



> Noel said
>
> << What, uh, "egotistical protests" do you speak of? SW is one of the
freest
> fandoms out there- IIRC, the only person who ever got in hot water over
> appropriating SW trademarks was Ronald Reagan! >>

George Lucas's Star Wars has a tad more ummmm... well, Those folks feel they
have a bigger investment and thus have more policy etc regarding fanac.
Star Wars has much more regulation then says its sister fandom, Star Trek.


> I recall that George Lucas, or his advisers, were said to be very
sensitive
> about their trademarks.  I band I know of, for example, were forced to
> change their name from Skywalker to Solar Race, as this was reckoned to be
a
> misuse of the character's name.  A few years later, there was a DJ (IIRC)
> called Skyywalker, who got away with it because of that extra 'Y'!  It
seems
> to be something of a myth that Lucas is any more possessive than any other
> 'creator' of work, but there were some examples that fuelled that
> reputation.

I haven't heard this but it fits with the rest of what I know about George
Lucas and Star Wars.  And if they wish to protect Star Wars (And considering
they have two more movies due out, a bunch of books, and a line of
merchandising... adequate reasoning to protect their trademarks.), they have
to enforce it.  Unlike copyright, if you don't enforce it, you can loose it.

> When it comes to fanfiction, I imagine it's not a problem unless people
plan
> to make money from it, and, as Jen implies, the Star Wars characters are
no
> longer just Lucas's any more than Harry Potter belongs exclusively to JK
> Rowling (in our heads, we all own a version of Harry Potter).  I'm sure
> there aren't enough hours in a lifetime to chase up and examine the legal
> aspects of use of 'owned' characters or universes in fanfiction.

Actually, Star Wars has a long and interesting history with fan fiction from
what I have been able to learn... Parts of the information I am about to
divest now are found at http://writersu.s5.com/law/morestarwars.html (And I
found a Michela typo that is now driving me nuts which I shall have to fix.)

Star Wars in the past, oh in the 1980s when Star Wars first came out and
Zines with Star Wars fan fiction first appeared, were active in trying to
moderat the content of said Zines.  They felt that Star Wars was a movie
targetted towards the WHOLE family and that any fan fiction derived from
Star Wars should be, well, appropiate for the whole family.  Thus, fan
fiction writers couldn't write adult stories IE Han graphically shags our
beloved Luke.  I have been led to believe though I have yet to find evidence
on-line to confirm this, that they have pursued matters that arose where
fans were publishing adult Star Wars stories.

Now in March of 2000, the policy of allowing material on-line became an
issue.  Star Wars began offering free web space with a TOS rivaling that of
the very offensive initial Geocities/Yahoo merger Geocities TOS.  The TOS
also requested that fan writers didn't write derivative works.  Fans, being
the natural paranoid consumers who are bent on our own interpretation sans
involvement of the people creating the product, protested on-line.  They
felt that Star Wars was trying to force them to conform to the ummm....
official, Star Wars bottom line, interpretation and all.  They also thought
that Star Wars wanted to use images created by fans and lay claim to them...
I'm babbling.

Policy shifts towards a no dervative works appeared to start in about 1998
because previously it had been no commercial gain and no sullying of the
Star Wars image...

Anyway, that's some fun and useless information about Star Wars and fan
fiction.  I'm sure that there is more info   If anyone has any more info,
please share :o)

Michela Ecks - Spastic Hale Girl - :o)
http://writersu.s5.com/ micecks on aim