Defstartrooper wrote:
Too Much Garlic wrote:
Well, this isn't just LFL losing. It's the whole movie industry. Any movie older than 15 years is now open for legal prop reproduction without a license in the UK. Don't think that sits well with the rest of EU though.
They could always register their designs in the UK and protect them for 25 years which some would argue is plenty long enough time to have a monopoly on a design.
That is afterall why industrial design versus artistic design came about to prevent monopoly within an industrial arena.
Your post quite clearly illustrates the point well, you called it the movie
industry and that's exactly what it is an industry.
Don't for a second kid yourself Lucas took legal action over this for artistic reasons it's purely financial reasons.
I understand personal feelings and emotion on the subject, i don't like AA myself he's a liar and a person lacking in moral fortitude but that is a seperate subject to that of the legal issues.
I also don't feel this takes anything away from people like Brian and Liz in terms of them being artists, the term industrial design is just a term describing the use of the design not the process of how it was created.
We are surrounded in our daily lives with objects which serve no practical purpose and are purely decorative items which are not considered art even though clearly an artistic process was used in the design of them.
Well... of course it is financial for LFL. Who wouldn't want to profit from ones own creation. Musicians do that every day and that's also an industry. Will you argue that their music, lyrics, etc. are industrial, because they are part of an industry? Doesn't really make sense, now does it. I always felt it stupid that there was a time limitation to how long a songwriter could monopolize his own lyrics and songs before they got transferred to public domain - 75 years is an odd number. Until the artist dies would be more sufficient, but I guess the 75 year span is to also accommodate rights to the family in case the artist dies early.
What do I know. Just that UK seems at odds with every other country in the world in regards to copyright laws. Hell... Lucas has the image of the stormtrooper protected in every single country of the world... but suddenly... not the UK. Nor any of his other owned designs. Really weird, if you ask me.
And Turrican. I doubt SiMan and co would have had any problems with their offerings as long as they didn't advertize the infringement like AA did.
But... now all a company needs to do is set up production seat in the UK and they can produce any prop from any movie more than 15 years old without worrying about a license. That's a severe blow of interest to any company who goes and buys a license, because they have to in all the rest of the world. They'll not be able to compete and goes under. Like with recasting... who do you think will eventually suffer? I doubt the movie industry will take this one sitting down - they'll certainly avoid the UK from now on, as their property isn't protected there.
With one stroke... all sorts of prop reproduction just got legal in the UK. So, anyone wanna make a Robby the Robot in the UK can... and not worry about a C&D. As an example.