Imperial Storm Troopers Skirmish in Latest IP Battle 261
fm6 writes "According to guardian.co.uk, George Lucas is suing the designer of the Imperial Stormtrooper armor. Andrew Ainsworth took the original molds he used to make the props for the movies, and has been using them to make outfits that sell for up to £1,800 (US$3,600) apiece. Ainsworth has countersued for a share of the $12 billion that Star Wars merchandise has generated since the first movie."
Re:He was hired to do a job (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Biter bitten (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Biter bitten (Score:2, Interesting)
Still, even if this is the case, I don't think he got screwed by not making millions for his designs. I mean, that's the nature of the job, and these productions would collapse under their own weight if everyone who has any input could claim a piece of ownership.
That said this kind of thing isn't all that unusual-- costume makers selling replicas of their designs to fans. I guess it's a little different to be selling molded stormtrooper armor instead of a copy of Galadriel's gown, but still, it's generally accepted as a perk that they can make a little side business out of it, assuming the products are custom orders and not mass produced for costume shops.
So Lucas is probably in the right, legally, but a complete dick morally. Big surprise.
Re:Ungrateful Lucas? (Score:2, Interesting)
Correct! (Score:4, Interesting)
You are correct in saying that you have to defend a trademark but do NOT have to defend a copyright, so I'll add on to that. IANAL, but unless there was a copyright assignment with a 'written memorandum of transfer' (I learned that one from SCO v. Novell; copyright law being federal, it applies to the whole USA), THE COSTUME MAKERS own whatever copyright there could be on the costume. Though I assume that Lucas owns the trademark. True, it could be a 'work for hire', but I think that only applies to individuals working for some company (and it would probably have to be spelled out), so I don't know.
I should also mention that while trademarks have to be defended, you are NOT required by law to be a dick when defending them (even if it seems that way). I think it was Second Life where they sent the "Get a First Life!" people a "Permit & Proceed" letter that let them know they were *okay* with using the trademark.
Lucas? Sounds like he believes he deserves all the money from anything related in any way to Star Wars, even if he did absolutely none of the work in creating it, simply because he came up with Star Wars to begin with.
So yeah, I'm not really going to take either side here, but I just want to say that if they had any sense, they'd come up with some kind of arrangement that doesn't involve suing each other, or there won't be any money left to fight over.
Re:Ungrateful Lucas? (Score:3, Interesting)
What if there was already concept art [df.lth.se]?
Re:Ungrateful Lucas? (Score:1, Interesting)
It's like everytime someone comes up with a great idea and gets rich off it, they turn into a douchebag almost instantly. This is a sad turn of events. I think Lucas was a different person in 1980.
Honestly, I wish there could be some middle ground. Ainsworth came up with the idea, but it wouldn't have been worth anything if it wasn't for the movie, so they should *both* be able to profit off it. The End. Too bad real life isn't that simple.
Re:Biter bitten (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E [youtube.com]
ewok weapons anybody? (Score:1, Interesting)
or rocks, or ewok spears ffs.
but you got to admit, that armor looks l337
Re:Ungrateful Lucas? (Score:3, Interesting)
After that, I'd say the question is who did the actual design? Costumes may be fashion statements, but they can also be props; as props I think they probably deserve the kind of copyright protection that other elements of the movie get. If Lucas sketched out the designs, handed them to the fabricator and said "make a bunch of these", the design would belong to him. If he said, "make me a bunch of futuristic space storm trooper armor," and the guy came up with a bunch of designs from which Lucas picked, then we're back to the contract issue again.
Yeah, I know about work-for-hire, but work only defaults to that status if it is done by an employee. People who use contract employees should be aware that just because you are paying the work doesn't mean you get copyright; you have to explicitly agree with the other party that they are creating work for hire.
If Lucas didn't attend to this little detail, this guy's suit over merchandising, even the use of the designs in the subsequent movies, has a great deal of merit.
Suppose you are a movie producer and you hire a couture house to create designs for a fashion show scene. You don't own those designs unless your contract says so. The fact that some artificer is not a famous and powerful fashion house doesn't alter his default rights to his creative work. It's one of those things you're supposed to pay him for. That's the whole point of copyright: to create rights that can be sold by creators. Authors aren't expected to finance the printing and promoting of their books, they just do the writing and sell off the rights. They can package any subset of rights they care to and sell the at any price they choose to name. You could write a novel and "sell" it to a publisher, stipulating you're only offering the rights to sell copies in even numbered years.
I'm sure there are standard contracts that cover these points these days; this might not have been the case when Star Wars debuted. Star Wars was a watershed event in the movie industry; there were some movie series that were, in a sense, franchises, like the James Bond movies, but they weren't the kind of multimedia merchandising conglomerates we expect a popular movie series to be today. Captain Blood was a great pirate movie, but nobody expected that restaurants would entice families with Errol Flynn action figures. It would have been unthinkable to make Pirates of the Carribean without a plan to market everything from pirate themed bed sheets to cheesy replica props, and to wring out every last possible merchandising dollar with at least two sequels.
Ainsworth was the caster, not the sculptor (Score:5, Interesting)
Brian Muir is known as the sculptor of the original Stormtrooper armor, and Nick Pemberton is believed to have sculpt most of the helmet. Andrew Ainsworth's company manufactured the outfit. Of course, there must have been some interaction between these people during the process. Some prototypes were made, and refined. It is possible that Liz Moore (who sculpt C-3PO) was involved, but she died in 1976, so it is difficult to tell.
Andrew Ainsworth's company refined the molds after the production of the first movie to simplify production. It is believed by fans that Ainsworth kept some of the latter molds, which he when setting up his new business in recent years, modified back to produce casts more like the screen-used pieces. Some pieces of his Stormtrooper outfit are recast from pieces made by fans in recent years, who never gave Ainsworth permission to recast their sculpts.
If you want a Stormtrooper helmet and/or armor, then there are other "fan-made" armor that is actually more accurate to the original (recast from original screen-used armor), and also of better build and much cheaper.
Lucasfilm is not going after fans making and selling Stormtrooper armor. They are only going after those who are making a high-profile business out of it, like Andrew Ainsworth.
On the contrary, Lucasfilm is often cooperating with a fan organization called the 501st Stormtrooper Legion [501st.com], which, being the largest costuming club in the world, has a few thousand members owning Stormtrooper costumes. George Lucas himself has appeared at events to meet and greet members and thank them for their appearance. The name "501st Legion" has even entered official canon, given to a group seen in the last movie. Almost all of the Stormtrooper cosplayers in the 501st Legion bought their armor from one of the dozen makers that exist - none of which has any licensing agreement with Lucasfilm. Licensed armor does not exist.