Sunday, December 20, 2009
George Lucas loses court appeal over Star Wars costume copyright
Times Online: "Andrew Ainsworth recently began selling replicas of helmets and armour made from his original mould, prompting a $20million (£12million) lawsuit from Lucasfilm. But the Court of Appeal agreed that even though Mr Ainsworth did not own the design, he had not broken any British law because his creations were not art."
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2 comments:
Where the line is between art and industrial design could be an interesting one. Now granted this pertains to British copyright law, not US copyright law, but still to consider a stormtrooper helmet an industrial design seems a bit odd. It's not a helmet that was designed to every protect the wearer, instead it's really a mask. Should the design of something as iconic as that helmet receive the copyright protection due the movie itself since it's a part of it? What about the model kits that were kitbashed for parts to construct the originals - since those parts are copied in the final helmets should the model kit sellers also have a copyright claim?
What's interesting is that it seems if the items were actually sculpture based (like say a prop) they would be protected under the movie. This is pretty much targeted specifically to costumes, and saying that because it's "industrial/useful" that it's not art. There doesn't seem to be any consideration to the thought and process that went into these pieces. Only the categorization of the product.
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