The Star Wars universe and all of the rights thereof was owned by George Lucas and his company, Lucasfilm, until the rights were purchased by Disney for $4.05 billion in 2012. Disney is an extremely powerful industry mogul and now holds all the rights for anything and everything Star Wars. It was a good move for both parties, despite my initial reservations that the deal could ruin Star Wars for me. As a consequence of the purchase, everything written and produced under the copyrights of Star Wars and all materials related to Star Wars must go through Disney. With this development comes some concern about the intellectual freedom within the Star Wars community. It is such a wide-ranging community. How will Disney incorporate the existing material? Are the rights of the community as a whole threatened to go through dramatic changes, or will things remain status quo? The broader nature of these questions I will discuss in my forthcoming paper, but for a moment I want to explore the potential ethical issue created by this merger mentioned above.
Intellectual freedom “means freedom to think or believe what one will, freedom to express one’s thoughts and beliefs in unrestricted manners and means, and freedom to access information and ideas regardless of the content or viewpoints of the author(s) or the age, background, or beliefs of the receiver”(Dresang, 2006, 169). Existing websites like starwarsunderworld.com have to be very careful in how they report and disseminate information. It is a hub for rumors and other leaks. It does not sell the material it reports on, as it is simply distributing the news. It has to be careful with the sources of the news it reports, as it does not want to open itself up to lawsuits for crossing the “line.” Anyone in the Star Wars community wanting to make sure they are able to discuss and share information about Star Wars has to be careful how their information is presented. For example, if any individual or group within the Star Wars community wants to sell anything related to Star Wars, the process must go through the appropriate steps to obtain permission from the copyright holder. Otherwise, Disney and Lucasfilm will come knocking at the door very quickly (Hawkes, 2015). A recent court ruling in the UK allowed for the creator of the Stormtrooper helmets to retain the right to market replicas of the original helmets outside of Lucasfilm domain. In response to the ruling, Lucasfilm responded with the following: “Lucasfilm remains committed to aggressively protecting its intellectual property rights relating to Star Wars in the UK and around the globe” (Hawkes, 2015). I believe this is the most dangerous threat to any Star Wars community member. They will come after anyone who they deem a threat to their empire (pun fully intended).
One area in which Star Wars community members specifically have to be very careful with is leaked material from the new movie. Disney and Lucasfilm are being aggressive in pursuing those who have unauthorized material regarding the new movie and suing them for infringement and other distribution violations. There have been a few attempts to publish or sell photos of the new movie which are unofficial replications of material therein. These attempts to distribute without authorization have been attacked heavily by Lucasfilm. The lawsuits come out quickly and are aggressively pursued. With the financial backing of Disney the lawsuits clamp down hard on those who disregard or attempt to black market Star Wars material (Baxter, 2015).
An example of the dangers presented to the Star Wars community by leaks involving the new movie happened on Monday night of this week with the release of the final theatrical trailer for the new Star Wars movie. I was anxiously awaiting a chance to see from the official website (I did not have access to Monday night football, much to my chagrin), but as the night went on I found a few hacked trailers floating around which were trying to garner views. I did not watch any of them knowing that they were either fake or pirated. Now, I did not necessarily live in fear of watching them, but my ethical side did not want to support propaganda ahead of the official release. Whether or not those who posted the fake or pirated videos will be pursued will probably not be reported on immediately, but I am sure Disney and Lucasfilm were watching the social media channels and other notable websites for signs of people who were infringing on copyright laws to sue. I for sure do not want to be on the other end of that lightsabor.
While the aforementioned dangers do exist, I am not overly concerned with the intellectual freedom of the Star Wars community. The merger of Disney and Lucasfilm was probably the best thing for the franchise as it continues to grow, and there will be people making a lot of money because of its rapid growth and giant fan base. Now, let us hope the movie is not a bust. If you are one of the few who has not seen the trailer yet, or need to see it again, follow the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE
References:
Baxter, J. (2015). Disney is going to war over the Star Wars leaks. Cinemablend. Retrieved at: h*/ttp://www.cinemablend.com/new/Disney-Going-War-Over-Star-Wars-Leaks-69542.html
Dresang, E. (2006). Intellectual freedom and libraries: complexity and change in the twenty-first-century digital environment. In Library quarterly. 76(2) 169-197.
Hawkes, R. (2015). Star Wars lawsuits: Who has Lucasfilms sued and why? The Telegraph. Retrieved at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/star-wars-the-force-awakens/lucasfilm-trademarks-patents-copyright-lawsuits/
Jones, B. (2015). Intellectual Freedom. In S. Hirsh Information systems today. (357-364). London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Mays, J. and Zuraw-Friedland, A. (2012). Star Wars, George Lucas and copyright mythology. The collage voice. Retrieved at: http://thecollegevoice.org/2012/12/04/star-wars-george-lucas-and-copyright-mythology/
Webber, K. (2015). Star Wars fans debate intellectual property. HI’s eye. Retrieved at: http://whshiseye.com/index.php/iris/commentary/2019-star-wars-fans-debate-intellectual-property
I have to say, this is not a topic that I have really thought about much. I know that there has always been a lot of fan fiction about Star Wars, but I really haven’t seen much since Disney bought the franchise. Have you as a fan noticed much difference since the switch over? I think that they are definitely trying to get as much merchandising out of the new movie as possible. (Make-up lines and Collectible soup cans….really?)
I have noticed nothing to dramatic until the last few months. I think the marketing power of Disney is insane, and how much they are driving the Star Wars universe through every seemingly practical means is remarkable. Most of the “fan fiction” has been halted or pushed aside because of how much Disney is trying to firm up the new history, if you will. I reckon we will see more once the universe is established firmly in Disney’s hands. An interesting experience to be a part of.
Hi Trevor,
I’ll nerd out with you. I haven’t gotten a chance to comment on your other articles, but I wanted to say that I find your choice for an information community very interesting. I’m a Star Wars fan myself!
I do agree that a lot of Star Wars fans were definitely weary of the merger between Lucasfilms and Disney in the beginning, but I think with the film being released and the hype that its generating people are slowly forgetting the dread they used to have. I think that it’s a good idea for the franchise as well, and it’s exciting because now the younger generation is easily exposed to the awesomeness that is Star Wars because it is owned by Disney now. Like you, I just hope that Episode VII lives up to the hype.
Although copyright issues can certainly happen for anything, I think a lot of Star Wars fans can still get away with their own creativity – just not with those leaked footages, of course!
Also, golden: “They will come after anyone who they deem a threat to their empire”.
Glad to have a fellow nerd in the class! I agree copyright issues can happen to anything, I just feel like the the line in the sand for Star Wars copyrights in Disney is not established clearly yet. Curious to see how it develops. My optimistic skepticism has waned over the past few years as we approach the release of the new movie. The hype is out of this world after this week.
This is a great information community to look into this semester. I do wonder if Disney that seems to have a habit of glossing darker things over for consumption by the masses of children (and their parents) will play negatively with the actual content of Star
Wars in the future. It would be interesting to see how this plays out in your final paper which I would love to read.
I also completely relate to the temptation of the spoiler because it really does spoil things.
Great post!
Thanks! That will be interesting to see. This new movie is rated PG-13(whatever that means), so I expect Disney to toe the line a bit until the new part of the universe is established. How much it affects the content will be shown within the next two movies I think.
I had no idea Disney bought them out. I too am curious to see how it all plays out as far as merchandising. I have watched all of the previous Star Wars episodes and am getting excited about seeing the movie. The trailer helped so thank you for sharing that. It is a real problem with this community for things being leaked. It will be interesting to see what happens as we get closer to the opening of the movie. I have already had patrons coming in with their kids talking about it. All of them mentioned that they wished they had kept their figure collections! Merchandising will be insane on this one. Thank you for sharing this in your post.
When you first said you were doing the Star Wars community, I knew I was going to follow your blog. Don’t shoot (first), but I’m not a huge Star Wars fan…HOWEVER, the community choice was so different than everyone else’s it piqued my interest. The marketing thing has gotten a bit out of hand (soup?!), but it has been fun to watch a whole new generation of kiddos check the movies out from the library. Good luck on the paper!
Awesome! Yes, it is quite exciting and interesting to see the direction the franchise is heading. They will probably make more off marketing than the movie itself the way things are going.